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was, in addition, crossed with long prayer for our safe return, to which we with great sincerity answered, "Amen."

the consecrated oil over every joint and limb, or altogether, thirtysix times in different parts of his body. After this, he was wrapped in a clean white linen cloth, and placed for a moment in my arms, the priests telling me, that "I must henceforth consider him verily as my son." The high priest did not take any active part in this ceremony, but the whole was conducted with great decorum, and a due degree of solemnity. The boy afterwards, according to the custom of most of the Eastern churches, was admitted to partake of the Holy Communion. On our return from the church, the high priest accompanied us home, and continued with us nearly an hour. He paid me many compliments on what had passed, and declared, that "I had done an act which would for ever be recorded in their books; as the baptism of the boy most clearly proved, that the English were not "Franks" (alluding to the conduct of the Jesuits about baptism,) but that we adhered to the pure religion of the Apostles. After some conversation of this kind, in which he expressed the highest opinion of our doctrines, he ended by repeating nearly the same words which he had before used to the Ras: we go on in the dark, not knowing what is right or what is wrong, but I believe we shall do no good until we get a lesson from you;" "and now," he added, rising from his seat, "at the desire of the Ras, and from the friendship I bear you, I have to pray to God for your future prosperity:" he then recited a

ADOWA.

(From the same.)

The town of Adowa is situated partly on the side, and partly at the bottom of a hill, a circumstance very unusual in Abyssinia; and the houses, which are all of a conical form, are pretty regularly disposed into streets or alleys, interspersed with wanzy trees and small gardens, some of which are cultivated with considerable care; the town itself being plentifully supplied with water from three streams, which take their course through the valley below.

The number of residents in this place, may, on a general calculation, be estimated at full eight thousand, as I reckoned in it more than eight hundred habitations, each of which, on a moderate computation, being supposed to contain ten inmates, would altogether amount to a sum probably falling short of the actual population. Adowa may be regarded as the chief mart for commerce on the eastern side of the Tacazze, all the intercourse between the interior provinces and the coast being carried on through the merchants residing at that place, in consequence of which the Mahomedans there have retained a greater degree of importance than in any other part of the empire, the trade, as I have before remarked, resting almost entirely in their hands.

The

The chief production of Adowa consists in a manufactory of coarse and fine cloths, the former being considered unrivalled in any other part of the country, and the latter being thought little inferior to those manufactured at Gondar. The quantity of cloth made at Adowa occasions a great demand for cotton, a considerable portion of which is procured from the low countries bordering on the Tacazze, and this is considered of a finer quality, and consequently inore valuable, than that brought up from Massowa. The latter, notwithstanding, finds a ready sale, and though its importation be hampered by arbitrary exactions on the road, and a heavy duty on its being landed, fetches a considerable profit. The other imports, which pass through Adowa for the Gondar market, are lead, (in small quantities) block tin, copper, and gold foil; small Persian carpets of a shewy pattern and of low price, raw silks from China, a few velvets, French broad cloths, and different coloured skins from Egypt; glass ware and beads, which find their way from Venice, and a number of other petty articles, which are brought by different conveyances to Jidda.

The exports which are carried down to the coast in return, most of which pass through the hands of the traders at Adowa, consist of ivory, gold, and slaves; a very considerable quantity of the first article is procured in the province of Walkayt, and in the low country northward of Shiré, and the sale of it is so certain at Massowa, that the price at Adowa only differs in the expenses of carriage

being deducted. A great part of the gold collected in the interior finds also its way through Adowa; but this commerce is carried on by the traders with so much secrecy, that it is impossible to form any accurate estimate of the quantity. The number of slaves exported, may be computed annually at about a thousand, part of which are sent to Massowa, and the rest to the small ports northward of that place, whence they are privately shipped off by the natives, for the purpose of avoiding the duties levied by the Nayib. The provinces to the south of Adowa chiefly abound in cattle and corn, which, together with the salt procured on the borders, constitute their chief articles of barter. There is a manufactory of small carpets carried on in the province of Samen, some of which were shewn to me at Adowa, and they really were much superior to what might have been expected, as the production of Abyssinian workmanship. At Axum, and in its neighbourhood, the inhabitants are celebrated for the manner in which they prepare skins for making parchment, and they likewise particularly excel in finishing this article for use. The working of iron and brass is general throughout the country; but the more highly finished chains, wrought from the last material, are brought in the country from the south, and are said to be manufactured among the Galla.

All workers in iron are called Búda by the Abyssinians, and a very strange superstition is attached to this employment, every man engaged in the occupation

being supposed to possess a power
of transforming himself at night
into a hyæna, during which he
is thought to be capable of prey-
ing even upon human flesh; and
it is further believed, that if du-
ring the period of his transforma-
tion he should experience any
bodily injury, a corresponding
wound would be found on his
proper frame. The credit at-
tached to these fabulous ideas ap-
pears to be inconceivably strong
throughout the country.

ON THE GOLD OF THE COAST OF
GUINEA.

(By Denys De Montfort.-From
the Philosophical Magazine.)

The mountains in the interior of Africa contain in their sides great numbers of gold mines: they are very seldom wrought, however, the natives confining themselves almost entirely to collecting the gold dust which is found upon washing certain earths which may be termed auriferous. In many countries of this vast continent the earth is as it were impregnated with gold; and not only do we meet with it in powder, but in considerable masses. This gold has formed and still forms the object of a very extensive and fucrative commerce: the natives of the interior bring it down to the inhabitants of the coast, and the latter sell it in their turn to the Europeans, who have given it the name of the Gold Coast, where it most abounds. Sometimes the gold-merchants, who are also slave-dealers, treat directly with strangers, but the latter most frequently purchase gold which has already passed from nation to nation and through several hands.

In spite of all the attempts which have been made, and particularly in latter times by the English, to penetrate into the interior of Africa, this interior is still very little known to us, and the city of Tombuctoo,-that city which is said to contain an immense population, is still problematical, for we have nothing on the subject but the vague and lying assertions of some Moorish and African merchants. Some of the latter undertake long voyages, which frequently last upwards of a month. Being situated at two or three hundred leagues from the coast, they penetrate as much further into the interior in order to procure gold, slaves, and elephants' teeth, which they deliver to the European vessels or establishments. In short, these people are very mysterious in all their operations, and it is very difficult to obtain from them the slightest intelligence: not only their taciturnity, their reserve and jealousy, are obstacles, but their various languages furnish others, for it requires an interpreter always to make oneself understood. Africa is so divided among tribes without number, that we presume it would not be difficult to reckon more than a thousand different languages, without including the numerous dialects which are derived from them. It is thus that we see arrive from the source of the river of Volta, the mouth of which is situated in 5° 55′ north latitude, people who from tribe to tribe, and from interpreter to interpreter, at length fall in with the great island of Malfi, a kind of religious capital, which, placed in the midst of the river, is still upwards of 60 leagues

from the coast, and the inhabitants of which, almost all brokers, and of course linguists, end by accompanying them to the seashore.

Whether it is in small grains or in dust, the gold of Guinea is extremely pale in colour, although very pure; and it greatly resembles the filings of yellow copper, with which Negroes or other cheats mix it fraudulently. When a Negro plays this trick, if he is discovered (and this is easily done by aqua-fortis), he is instantly made a slave: a White man comes off a little better. But there is still another fraud which a buyer must be upon his guard against this is when the gold has not been thoroughly cleaned; and as the sand mixed with it is quartzous, the nitric acid has no effect on it in this case it requires a keen eye, a glass, or even the crucible if it be at hand. The gold-dust is the only part of this precious metal which the Blacks sell to the Europeans. The lumps, of which there are some so large that the king of Assianti possesses one requiring four men to lift it, fthe Negroes call these pieces "image gold,") are held sacred, and when they do not exceed an ounce in weight are bored to make necklaces and bracelets for the arms or legs. They know also how to work and melt them. The principal image or grand deity of Akra is a man's head of solid gold, or perhaps even a naturally formed mass which has assumed that form.

The black merchant is always extremely skilful in this commerce he knows the price of what he sells with the utmost

precision; and that there may be no fraud, he weighs it himself with scales which he always carries with him. Formerly this trade was much more considerable than it is now:-we shall see the reason presently.

The Negroes have in common with Europeans two ways of procuring gold, digging and washing. The Negroes of the coast are washers only, while those who live among the mountains are cssentially miners.

The mountains of Guinea, at least those which we are acquairted with, are in general granitic and schistous; thin masses of granite, as their summits prove. have formed by the lapse of time, and by their detritus, the gneiss which forms broad beds on their lower flanks. In the rainy seasons, torrents descend from these mountains, carrying with them stones and gravel, which being torn from the higher rocks present the same elements. These mountains are filled with mines of gold and iron. The first of these metals seems to have been sought for by Negroes from time immemorial: as to the latter, they do not know how to use it, and it is not the interest of Europeans to teach them: gold is found in them in a primitive state in narrow stripes, and it is found as usual between two layers of a granite, finer, more compact, and more highly coloured than the rest of the rock: the Negroes have not yet thought of working the latter, but it is probable that avarice will compel them to do so, now that the slavetrade is abolished, and that the excess of population is forced to provide for itself: for, notwithstanding

standing the enormous exportation of human beings being stopped, they have still their helots: these are Negroes who are slaves either from being taken in war, from being insolvent debtors, from having lost their personal liberty at play, or from being sold by their parents. As to malefactors and rebels, they are uniformly sold to Europeans.

:

The Negroes, therefore, work only the auriferous sands and the gneiss or schistous beds and banks of granite, which constisute the base of their mountains, and which being friable are easily dug into. If they attack the sides, they dig a fosse in the first place place from twenty to thirty feet in depth, on an indeterminate breadth, until they begin to be alarmed for the crumbling down of the earth; the gold, as being heavier than quartz, schorl, and feldspar, the constituent principles of primitive granite, has been deeper seated in their common fall they begin to find it, however, at the depth of three feet: they had no idea of using props of wood until they were taught by Europeans, and nothing in the world could induce them to make a regular pit, or bury themselves under ground. In proportion as they advance in the work, the lumps are put into pouches fixed round their waists, and some miners get very rich, as they only pay the king a fixed and daily allowance. In 1790, the king of Assianti had six hundred slaves at work for him, each of whom engaged to supply him with half an ounce per diem, and some of them had so much good sense as to form a sort of company, and throw

into a joint stock the fruits of their labours. The earth thrown up during the digging is laid in heaps on the edges of the fosse, where other miners, their wives and children, receive it in bags and carry it to the nearest river on their heads, for the Negro never carries any thing on his back. They wade into the river up to the middle, and then dexterously dipping in their bags, they wash and shake its contents, so as to make the gold fall to the bottom: they then pour off the sand and earth, and the gold-dust remains.

As to the gold-finders on the banks of rivers and the sea-shore, they are less fortunate in their researches, and it is generally women who are thus employed. They conduct themselves precisely like the mountaineers, who in their turn are more fortunate than those on the sea-shore: the latter collect in bags the sand thrown up by a tempest, and act precisely like the former by washing, &c. In general the price of gold is fixed in Africa, and never fluctuates: in Europe it is supposed to yield 25 per cent. profit.

But it is not so considerable now as it has been; for several African princes more powerful than others, and anxious to secure a monopoly, have compelled the weaker to renounce all searching for gold. Thus the sovereign of Akim, who has been conquered by the king of Assianti, dares not any longer work his rich mines: they used to furnish upwards of 80 ounces of gold per week to the coast, i. e. nearly 5000 ounces of gold per annum,

From what has been said, it is.

not

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