minated. Such at least was the impression upon ourselves; and it was with no less surprise than pleasure that we met with another letter, addressed to the same gentleman, nine years afterwards, in which he styles him his dear friend, and acknowledges the receipt of a "kind letter" from him. Perhaps, it was nothing more than an official declaration from the Pennsylvanian delegate in Congress, to the member for Malmsbury, in the British Parliament. Franklin was assuredly not a cold-hearted man, but his politics sometimes caused him to forget his benevolence. His letters are the best answer to those who thought him callous to the feelings of humanity. His affection for his son has been already noticed, and his grief at seeing him embrace a contrary line of politics. Congress had some thoughts, at one time, of removing his grandson, who was his private secretary at the court of France, but Franklin remonstrated warmly,-"It is enough," said he, "that I have lost my son; would they add my grandson?" "Four daughters!" he writes to his friend, Bishop Shipley, "how rich! I have but one, and she [her] necessity detained from me at a thousand leagues' distance." He was warm in his attachments, though we cannot always admire his choice of friends. Among those with whom he appears to have been most intimately connected in England were Dr. Fothergill, Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Kippis, Dr. Shipley, whom he calls the good bishop, and adds, "Strange that so simple a character should distinguish one of that sacred body." We were grieved to find him recommending the notorious Tom Paine to one of his Parisian acquaintance as an ingenious and honest man. To such a degree could he suffer his judgment to be influenced by party: for we are persuaded, that had not Paine been the author of a pamphlet, called Common Sense, which had a great effect on the minds of the Americans in the commencement of the revolution, his principles would never have escaped the penetration of so keen an observer. Franklin's circle of friends was not less extensive in America than in England; but he lived long enough to find himself a stranger among strangers; thus paying the tax to which old age is subject. When he looked upon the second and third generations which were springing up around him, he was sometimes tempted to fancy that he had intruded himself into the company of posterity.

Dr. Franklin was perhaps the most consistent republican that ever existed. He was as much a republican when ambassador at Paris as when printer at Philadelphia. In the review of his life, he dwelt with more pleasure upon the poverty and obscurity from which he raised himself, than on the brilliant scenes in which his latter years were engaged. He must have presented a singular contrast to the gaiety of the court of Versailles, in a plain simple

suit, wearing his own thin, grey, straight hair, peeping out under a fur cap, which came down his forehead almost to his spectacles. If we may conjecture from a commission for "black pins, lace, and feathers," which his daughter sent him from America, this simplicity of dress does not appear to have been hereditary in his family. She promised to take a great pride in wearing any thing he sent, and showing it as her father's taste, and Franklin very prudently avoided giving her an opportunity of doing that with either lace or feathers. Cambric ruffles, he said, if care were taken not to mend the holes, would become lace in time,--and as for feathers, they might be had from every cock's tail in the United States.

On the whole, then, we are of opinion, that had Franklin's lot not been cast in a new country, he would probably have been less successful; had it not been connected with the history of a rising people, he would probably have been less celebrated. If he had few equals among his countrymen, he had also few competitors: it is not so difficult to reach the summit of fame where few are in pursuit of the same object, as among a people where all the avenues to distinction are crowded with unnumbered rivals. The example which his life affords is that of a man raised by talents and industry from poverty to eminence. But religion, and and virtue-true virtue-owe him nothing.

ART. VI.-DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA.

1. Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire, usually called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816, under the Direction of Captain J. K. Tuckey, R. N. In which is added the Journal of Professor Smith; some general Observations on the Country and its Inhabitants: and an Appendix, containing the Natural History of that Part of the Kingdom of Congo through which the Zaire flows. Published by Permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 4to. pp. 498. Murray. London, 1818.

2. Loss of the American Brig Commerce, wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Month of August, 1815; with an Account of Tombuctoo, and of the hitherto undiscovered great City of Wassanah. By James Riley, late Master and Supercargo. 4to. pp. 622. Murray. London, 1817.

3. The Narrative of Robert Adams, a Sailor, who was wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Year 1810, was detained Three Years in Slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, and

resided several Months in the City of Tombuctoo. With a Map, Notes, and an Appendix. 4to. pp. 270. Murray. London,

1816.

4. Narrative of a Journey in Egypt, and the Country beyond the Cataracts. By Thomas Legh, Esq. M. P. 8vo. pp. 300. Murray London, 1817.

5. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa; by the late John Leyden, M. D. Enlarged and completed to the present Time, with Illustrations of its Geography and Natural History, &c. by Hugh Murray, Esq. F. R. S. E. 2 vols. 8vo. Constable and Co. Edinburgh, 1817.

THERE is nothing more remarkable respecting Africa, than the failure of almost every attempt which has been made to explore its interior, and the great diversity of opinion that has subsisted, from the remotest times, relative to its geographical properties. Every other part of the Old World, and almost every region in the New, are sufficiently known to be laid down in maps, and to have their leading boundaries of land and water clearly ascertained and distinguished. Notwithstanding, however, all the inquiries of ancient philosophers, and all the efforts of modern travellers, Africa continues the reproach of geography; for the situation of the principal towns, and the courses of the principal rivers, in that vast continent, are not better known at the present day than they were in the age of Herodotus. Nay, in many particulars, the knowledge of the ancients was more accurate, and their descriptions more precise, than our own times have yet been able to produce; and the discoveries made by the most recent explorers, accordingly, have merely enabled us to retrace our steps, and to go back to the opinions of the oldest writers whose works have come down to us. In proof of this, it is impossible to state a more striking instance than the several notions which have been held respecting the course of the Joliba or Niger-a river which the ancients described as flowing from west to east, but which the geographers of modern Europe maintained flowed from east to west, and which Mungo Park saw with his own eyes rolling its waters as the former authors had told us. Facts now begin, however, to assume a more settled character, and to rest on a firmer basis; and geographers are at length convinced that there is no sure guide to knowledge but actual and well-defined discovery. They are no longer ashamed to have blanks in their maps, corresponding to the deficiency of their information. They no longer shrink from a terra incognita, as the Aristotelian philosophers did from a vacuum; but instead of lakes, mountains, and rivers, borrowed altogether from imagination, they now honestly abstain from filling up their parchments otherwise

than with capital letters expressive of their ignorance. De Lille, himself, in order to occupy all his latitude and longitude, stretched Abyssinia across the continent till it touched the kingdom of Congo; and in the best and most popular of the geographical works at present in the hands of the public, we may perceive a chain of mountains intersecting Africa a little north of the equator, and joining the ranges of the Kong to those of the Jibbel Kumri, or mountains of the moon. Now there is every reason to believe that no such chain of mountains exists; and, accordingly, in the maps attached to most of the volumes mentioned at the head of this article, the high land in question has given place to extensive plains and dreary swamps. Determined to admit no facts, as the basis of geographical science, but such as are clearly made out by actual survey, our stock of knowledge in relation to this part of the world has lately appeared to diminish rather than to increase; still, it is very obvious, this rejection and removal of erroneous matter is a principal and essential step towards the acquisition of correct views and sound information.

In bringing before our readers the outlines of what is thought and known about Africa, at present, among geographers, politicians, and moralists, we shall begin with Captain Tuckey's narrative, as containing the latest intelligence from the western shores of that unhappy continent. With this view, we may remind such as have not taken a particular interest in these matters, that the expedition, fitted out in 1816, and placed under the direction of this able and enterprising seaman, had for its object, generally speaking, the exploration of the river Zaire, and of the kingdom of Congo, through which that river flows. It seemed very little creditable to European curiosity that of that majestic stream which has uniformly been described as greatly superior to every other river in the Old World, nothing should be known with certainty above a hundred and thirty miles from its mouth; and that of the various tribes which inhabit its banks, no accounts should be accessible to the philosopher and the divine but such as come through the hands of the brutal slave-dealer, or of the bigotted capuchin monk. The general object, then, of the expedition to the Zaire was to collect knowledge under the several heads of geography, natural history, and statistics; and to these points the attention of the professional persons employed was directed, in a categorical manner, by a series of instructions issued to them from the Admiralty. There was, however, a secondary object in view, which, although not openly acknowledged nor formally introduced into the instructions just alluded to, engaged a greater share than any other of the public interest, and also we have no doubt weighed more

than any other with those who planned the undertaking-we mean the ascertainment of the long-disputed point relative to the termination of the Niger, and its identity with the Congo. In connexion, accordingly, with the expedition of Captain Tuckey, a party of discovery was sent out to Africa, much about the same time, commanded by Major Peddie; who, making his way into the country by the river Nunez, was directed to follow the track of Mungo Park in descending the Niger, and to proceed as far as circumstances would permit, with the view either of tracing it to its termination in the interior, or to its estuary on the shores of the Atlantic. Having mentioned the latter enterprise, we may add, in one word, that it also has failed of success. Major Peddie, who set out from Senegal, in October, 1816, died before he could reach the Niger; and Lieutenant Campbell, upon whom the command then devolved, after struggling some time with the baleful effects of the climate, and the unreasonable conduct of the natives, likewise fell a victim to sickness and fatigue. No farther intelligence, we believe, has yet reached this country; but there is every reason to conclude that the party has been broken up, and the project entirely relinquished.

In February, 1816, Captain Tuckey left the river on board a vessel built for the purpose, named the Congo, having with him a transport to carry out provisions for his company, and a large assortment of presents for the native chiefs. It will not be improper to mention, in passing, that, besides the officers now mentioned, the expedition was composed of the following gentlemen: Lieutenant Hawkey; Mr. Fitzmaurice, master; Mr. Hodder, master's-mate; Mr. Beecraft, master's-mate; Mr. Eyre, purser; Mr. M'Kerrow, assistant-surgeon; Dr. Smith, botanist; Mr. Cranch, collector of objects of natural history; Mr. Tudor, anatomist; Mr. Galway, a volunteer; and Mr. Lockhart, from his Majesty's gardens at Kew. Of these only Messrs. M'Kerrow, Fitzmaurice, Hodder, and Lockhart, survived the excessive fatigue to which the party were afterwards subjected on the high ground which skirts the river. Owing to baffling winds, and the necessity of repairing the ship at one of the Cape de Verde Islands, it was not till the end of June that the little squadron reached the Zaire. The sight of a European sail created no small joy in the minds of the petty rulers, on either bank of the river, who hoped that an opportunity had thereby occurred of getting rid of a number of their slaves; with which commodity they ingenuously acknowledged they had been completely over-run, ever since certain foolish restrictions had been imposed by the white sovereigns of the North. Captain Tuckey could perceive, however, that the said restrictions were not very religiously observed; and that although few ships have of late entered the Zaire, on