dropped from his horse in a state of exhaustion, and but for the accidental assistance of a young Felatah, would have perished of fatigue and thirst. From Kano he travelled to Dunrora, with the intention of proceeding to Fundah, in the hope of ascertaining the termination of the Niger in that direction; when, at the former place, he was stopped by some troops of the King of Zeg zeg, and compelled to return to Cuttup, whence, after a few days' detention, he proceeded, through Ragada and Wow-wow, to Khiama, having narrowly escaped drowning in crossing a river near Gorkie. On his arrival at Katunga, the monarch of the place offered him the situations of prime minister, and commander of the forces, and also to make him his son-in-law, if he would remain | in the city. On reaching Badagry, he was much disgusted at the traffic of the Europeans in slaves, particularly the Portuguese, who treated him with great suspicion and incivility, on his expressing his abhorrence of the practice, and declining to sell them his own men at any price. "I breakfasted," he observes, after an interview with one of these merchants, "more contentedly on a little boiled Indian corn, mixed with palm oil and water, my usual fare, than if I had enjoyed all the luxuries in the world by wounding my conscience, and doing violence to the best feelings of my nature." Alluding to the manner of embarking slaves at Badagry, he says, "I saw four hundred of these poor creatures crammed into a small schooner of eighty tons; and the appearance of these unhappy beings was squalid and miserable in the extreme. They were fastened by the neck in pairs, only a quarter of a yard of chain being allowed for each, and driven to the beach by a party of hired scoundrels, whilst their associates in cruelty were in front of the party, pulling them along by a narrow band, their only apparel, which encircled their waist." Before leaving Badagry, the calumnies of the Portuguese had raised against him the suspicions of the King Adolee, who commanded him to undergo the ordeal of drinking a cup of poisonous water, which he was compelled to do, and was a solitary instance of escaping its fatal effects. At length, after many dangers and disasters, he heard of a vessel, com

manded by Captain Laing, arriving at Badagry, by which he departed, in great joy, from that city, and arrived at his native town in the summer of 1828.

In the December of the following year, he, in conjunction with his brother John, made an offer, which was accepted by government, of proceeding to Africa, to ascertain the course of the Niger. The only recompense he was to receive for this hazardous undertaking, was a gratuity of £100 on his return, and whatever profits might arise from the publication of the account of his journey. He left England on the 9th of January, 1830; and, on the 22nd of the following month, arrived at Cape Coast Castle; whence he sailed to Badagry, and reached that place on the 22nd of March. Here he was detained until the end of the month; when, after having been deprived of almost all his goods by the avarice of the chief, Adolee, he was permitted to embark on the river, down which he sailed to Wow; and, on the 3rd of April, entered the large and populous town of Bidjie, where he met with a most kind reception from the chief and inhabitants. From hence he proceeded to Latoo; in his way whither, he relates that, in the evening, "the glow-worms were so luminous, that one could almost see to read by their golden splendour." He speaks of the surrounding scenery in the most enthusiastic language, and compares it to "those eternal shades, where, in ancient time, the souls of good men were supposed to wander." He next visited, successively, the towns of Larro and Jenna; and, at the latter, he was witness to a custom of the widow's poisoning herself after the death of her husband, and was informed that the governor would be compelled to suffer death on the demise of his prince. He thus speaks of a tornado that happened during his residence at this place:-"Our thatched hut afforded but an insecure and uncertain asylum against its fury; part of the roof was swept away, and the rain admitted freely upon our beds, whence the most awful lightning flashes could be seen. The roof of our dwelling," he continues, "had long been infested with numbers of rats and mice; and these vermin being dislodged from their haunts by the violence of the

wind and rain, sought immediate shelter between our bed-clothes; and to this very serious inconvenience was added another still greater, viz., the company of lizards, ants, and mosquitoes, besides worms and centipedes, and other crawling, creeping, and noxious things, which the tempest seemed to renovate with fresh life and motion."

After passing through Egga, Jadoo, Engua, Coosoo, Bohoo, and other towns, he arrived at Katunga, the capital of Yariba, where he remained about a week, and then proceeded through Kesshee (of the women of which town he speaks very favourably) and Moussa to Kiama, which he reached the latter end of May. On the 5th of June he continued his journey, and, on the 17th, he came in sight of the city of Boussa; "but what was our astonishment," he says in his journal, " on a nearer approach, to find Boussa standing on the main land, and not an island in the Niger, as represented by Captain Clapperton." At the conclusion of the Georgian era, Mr. Lander and his brother had arrived at Yaodie, where

they were shown a book which had belonged to Mungo Park, but were unable to find any of his papers.

The person of this enterprising traveller, the only modern one who has hitherto escaped the fatal effects of the African climate, is extremely prepossessing. He is about five feet five inches in height, upright and bold in his gait, with a fair complexion, large blue eyes, and light brown hair, giving to his countenance a handsome though somewhat effeminate appearance. His mind is of an elevated cast, and completely absorbed in the object of his pursuit, to the attainments of which he is less urged by the hope of remuneration than the desire of present fame. He has received but an ordinary education, and is even said to make use of cockneisins in his expressions; but his intellectual capacities are of a high order, as may be gathered from various parts of his journal. These were, however, principally edited by his brother; and that portion of them relating to their joint expedition to Africa has undergone the revision of Lieutenant Beechey.

ISAAC NEWTON was born after the death of his father, at the manor-house of Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, on Christmas-day, O. S., 1642. He was so little, when he was born, that his mother used to say he might have been put into a quart mug, and she expected that he would scarcely survive the first hour of his birth. In consequence of the second marriage of Mrs. Newton, he was, at the age of three years, committed by his surviving parent, to the care of his maternal grandmother, by whom he was sent, in the year 1654, to the grammarschool at Grantham, having previously received the rudiments of education at a day-school at Skillington, and at Stoke. Although no particular instances are recorded of the energy of his mind prior to this period, he now began to distinguish himself from other boys, by applying himself to occupations in which few, of his own age, took an interest. He provided himself with a small set of carpenter's tools, and was constantly employed, when out of school, in mechanical contrivances, and in making models of various kinds, in which he appears to have evinced much intelligence and considerable dexterity. It is worthy of remark, that he took great interest in everything around him that related to the measure of time: he made a wooden clock; drove nails into the walls of the house in which he lodged, in order to ascertain the hours by the passing shadow; made hour-glasses, acting by the descent of water; and a sun-dial, of his own construction, is still to be seen at Woolsthorpe. About the same time, he also formed a perfect model of a windmill, of the construction

of which he obtained a complete idea, by paying a few visits to a mill in the neighbourhood. He likewise displayed considerable skill in drawing; although his knowledge of the art was acquired without the assistance of a master. He filled his room with drawings by his own hand; and the following verses under one of them, a picture of Charles the First, are said to have been his composition, which is the more remarkable, as he had been heard to express a contempt for poetry :

A secret art my soul requires to try,

If prayers can give me what the wars deny :
Three crowns distinguished here in order do
Present their objects to my knowing view.
Earth's crown, thus at my feet, I can disdain,
Which heavy is, and, at the best, but vain;
But now a crown of thorns I gladly greet,
Sharp is the crown, but not so sharp as sweet.
The crown of glory that I yonder see,
Is full of bliss, and of eternity.

In proof of his early bias towards calculation and philosophical subjects, it is related, that he used to measure the force of the wind blowing against him, by observing how much further he could leap in the direction of the wind, or with it blowing on his back, than he could leap the contrary way, or in opposition to the wind. By thus following the bent of his genius, he was generally to be found at the bottom of his class; and it was not until stimulated to exertion by a quarrel with one of his schoolfellows, that he put forth powers that afterwards gained him a high position in the school.

After a few years, passed at Grantham, Newton, in consequence of the death of his step-father, was recalled to Woolsthorpe, in order that he might take an active part in the management of the The pursuit of farming, how

estate.