de Acevedo is the present Governor of Porto Rico, and is represented to be an enlightened and popular officer.

Of the island of HAYTI, there are no very remarkable events to record. The Emperor Solouque is still determined to reduce the Dominicans to subjection, and continues to resist the solicitations of the American and English agents who have endeavored to impress upon him the advantages of peace. The Dominicans have a fleet of ten vessels of war, and have made active preparations to repel the invaders. Solouque has lately put to death several of his principal officers, who were charged with having conspired to subvert his government.

The United States imported from Hayti in 1850, to the amount of $1,350,000 and exported thither goods and products of the value of $1,554,771.*

CUBA..

The new Captain-General of Cuba, Don José de la Concha, arrived early in the autumn at Havana. Immediately after his arrival he reviewed a large body of troops, seven thousand in number.

An imposing naval force was ordered to occupy the Havana station for the protection of Cuba. It was to be composed of the Soberano, seventy-four; the frigates Esperanza and Perla, of forty-two guns; and the Cortez, of thirty-two guns; the sloop-ofwar Colon, of sixteen guns; the brigantines Habanero, Patriota, Pelayo, Nervion, and Villariconsis, counting together seventysix guns; the schooners Habanera, Isabel II, and Juanitta, numbering fourteen guns; five luggers, carrying one carronade each; and five steamers, two of six guns and 350 horse power, two of five guns and 160 horse power, and one of two guns and 100 horse power, thus making a total of twenty-three vessels and 326 guns.

The present Captain-General evinces much energy and talent in the administration of his government, and has applied himself diligently to the correction of abuses, and the improvement of the island. He has, however, been subjected to constant annoyance, and the people of Cuba have been kept in a state of feverish excitement, under the apprehension of another invasion by Lopez and his associates from the United States. The measures adopted by the Cuban authorities to repel any such attempt, and by our Government to prevent its being made, with the recent seizure of vessels and arms, and the arrest of suspected persons, are events which properly belong to the historical record of the next volume.

*See Statistics, in this volume.

CHAPTER VII.

Africa-Kaffir war—Explorations in Africa—Dr. Knoblecher-The French-EnglishAmerican missionaries--The interior of Africa-Mail steamers to Western AfricaThe coast blockade-Brazilian slave trade-Liberia-Its legislature and advancement— Egypt-Asia-China-Persia-India, &c.

AFRICA.

The Kaffirs, a fierce and martial tribe in Southern Africa, have waged for some time past a destructive war against the colonists of the Cape. Serious disputes having occurred between the white men and the Kaffirs, Sir Harry Smith, the governor of the colony, visited the latter for the purpose of compromising and allaying all difficulties. He deposed Sandilli, chief of the Gaikas, and substituted an Englishman in his place, and left for Cape Town, under the impression that he had arranged everything to the satisfaction of all concerned. But immediately afterward rumors prevailed that the Kaffirs were displeased, and that there would be a general rising among the Gaikas. Sandilli was in

dignant at his deposition, and resolved on vengeance. The Kaffir chiefs generally rebelled against the English authorities, and it was feared that the Hottentots were wavering in their loyalty.

A war of posts was continued between the insurgents and the English and their native allies, in which the former were always victorious where the action was in the open field.

The accounts of the murder of farmers in the interior, their families and servants, by the Kaffirs, came in from all quarters; and where they were not killed they were driven off penniless, and their farms and houses plundered and burnt.

We glean the following facts from a narrative of the disastrous events of the war, sent from Graham Town, at the close of the year 1850:

The farmers, most of whom had experienced great loss during the last war by staying on their farms, took alarm, collected their flocks and herds and all their movable property, and started off to different places-some to George, some across the Orange River, and indeed anywhere quite out of reach of the Kaffirs, leaving the frontier for miles and miles quite bare-not a white man was to be seen. The Kaffirs became insolent, and attacked some government wagons in the Debe Flats, near King William's Town, British Kaffraria, and also broke into several houses and stole fire-arms and did much mischief. Sir Harry promptly

came up again, bringing with him the 73d and the artillery from Cape Town-and proceeded to Fort Cox, in Kaffirland, and there met the chiefs, Sandilli not appearing. Many said they would stand by him; and Pato, chief of the T'Slambie tribe, an influential friend, promised to keep all roads open in case of war. Sir Harry offered a reward of 500 head of cattle for Sandilli, and 250 head for Anta, Sandilli's brother, a great warrior, and there the matter ended for a day or two.

On the 24th of December, Sir Harry, fearing that Sandilli might try to get into the Amatola mountains, the stronghold of the Kaffirs, sent off a force under Colonel Mackinnon to intercept him. This force, in passing through a narrow defile, was attacked by a large body of Kaffirs, armed with guns and assegais (a spear they throw with fearful precision.) The result was that the troops were obliged to retire, leaving one officer and ten men dead, and having two officers and twenty men wounded. The Kaffirs allowed the Cape Mounted Rifles, a force of Hottentots, and the Kaffir police-an armed police force, consisting of Kaffirs officered by Europeans-to pass, and fired only on the red jackets; but the next day the whole Kaffir police, 500 strong, armed and mounted, went over to the enemy, leaving no doubt that they had led Colonel Mackinnon into the pass the day before.

The same day, or rather on the 25th, two military villages were burnt, and all the people killed or fearfully tortured, and war was declared. The governor was at Fort Cox, and in attempting to communicate with him from Fort Hare, a distance of 15 miles, the 91st regiment, consisting of 150 men, and the Cape mounted rifles, 50 men, had an engagement, in which two officers and twenty men of the 91st were killed, and one officer and ten men wounded. The Kaffirs behaved with great boldness, and fought in the open country-a thing unknown before. They said they would kill all the white men, and regain their land. The English lost upwards of one hundred men and three officers in four days. Sir Harry was hemmed in at Fort Cox, without provisions, but cut his way through to King William's Town, and escaped.

So much for the war; now for its results. Martial law was proclaimed in all the eastern province, and western also. All business, surveying, and farming were stayed; crops were left uncut on the ground, and the whole country fled into the towns. Graham's Town was full, and everything was at war price. Levies were formed, and the Burgher forces called out, as Sir Harry asserted in his dispatch, to kill and exterminate the savage tribe of Gaika, and root them out of the Amatola moun8

VOL. IX.

tains. There were only the 73d, 91st, 6th, 45th, and Cape mounted rifles, with some artillery, in all about 2,000 men, in the colony, and about ten posts to be defended, and recourse was therefore had to the levies and farmer or Burgher forces.*

Though Africa is one of those quarters of the globe, concerning which the earliest authentic history treats; yet mystery still shrouds with an impenetrable veil our knowledge of the interior of that vast continent. Travelers and men of science have in vain attempted for two centuries to explore Central Africa. They have paid the forfeit of their lives for their adventurous temerity. The slave trade and the wars among the natives nurtured for its supply, have rendered the white man an object of inextinguishable hatred to the African. Yet, notwithstanding this obstacle, enterprising travelers still prosecute their researches, and from recent accounts, there is reason to believe that the unknown parts of that continent will soon be revealed. Then we shall know the hidden fountains of the Nile, and whether, as is said, a white civilized race reside in the heart of Africa, where vast lakes and lofty mountains temper the fierceness of tropical heat, and a fertile soil and delightful climate render it the fitting abode of a mild, industrious and happy people.

Nothing is more admirable than the courage and heroic perseverance with which modern travelers, in spite of all dangers and the lamentable fate of their predecessors, still continue their efforts to explore Central Africa. There is a chivalry and daring in their adventurous expeditions, which reminds us of the unflinching spirit of the great Genoese discoverer. Free from the taint of sordid motives or ambitious designs, disinterested and benevolent, animated by a desire to extend the empire of civilization or Christianity, they still continue their efforts to dispel the cloud which invests the condition of man in the recesses of this hitherto terra incognita. A very interesting account has recently appeared of the travels in Africa of Dr. Knoblecher, a German missionary who holds the rank of vicar in the Catholic church. He has been further into Soudan than any previous traveler, having penetrated on the White Nile, or Bahr-el-Abiad, as that river is called in Arabic, to within four degrees of the Equator.

The difficulties to be encountered by a traveler who penetrates into Africa by the course of the Nile are thus described by Dr. Knoblecher:

"All the pagan negroes who live beyond the frontiers of the Egyptian Pachalic, even the Shillouks, the Zhirs and the Bors,

* Subsequent accounts state the defeat of the Kaffirs by the combined force of regulars and colonists, but still the war was not brought to a close.

were once harmless and peaceful, and not unfriendly toward the whites until they had learned to hate them on account of the brutal plunderings and kidnappings of the Turks. The Turkish boatmen, who go every year to the negro country to trade glass pearls for ivory, gold dust and slaves, are also the sworn enemies of the educated and disinterested European explorer. They know that they cannot carry on their profession in his presence with the usual open villany; they fear his oversight, and that he will report their rascalities to the pachas. Accordingly they seek by every trick in their power to hinder all friendly intercourse between the blacks and Europeans."

The object of the Vicar was to establish a mission in the Bary country, and for this purpose he set out from Chartoum in Nubia, with the missionaries Don Angelo Vinco and Don Emanuel Pedemonte, on one of those Turkish sailboats of

which a number always go in company. Haled Pacha, the Turkish Governor, after long delay and many objections, had finally suffered himself to be persuaded to impress on the Turkish boatmen the necessity of observing a kindly behavior towards the missionaries, and of aiding them in their enterprise.

At the end of fourteen days sailing they reached the lands of the Shillouks, whose villages number 7000, with a population of two or three millions. They passed through the country of the Kyks and other tribes, and reached that of the Barys, who are the most remote of all the tribes of inner Africa, which are now reached by the Turkish Nile expeditions. They are a finely formed race, black as ebony, strongly built, of tense sinews, very brave in war, and exceedingly good-natured in social intercourse. In the country of the Barys, who speak a wholly different language from their northern neighbors, are found the fearful cataracts, which till the arrival of this expedition had not been seen by either European travelers or Turkish traders. The French traveler D'Arnaud, who penetrated further into these regions than any other traveler before the German missionary, was obliged to turn about here.

The travelers then passed to the village of Tokiman, which had never before been visited by a white man.†

* At Chartoum, the viceroy of Egypt has established schools, and appropriated $375,000 to improve the navigation of the Nile.

When the blacks saw them, they ran in crowds to the shore and manifested boundless astonishment at the sight of white men and of vessels so colossal. They had indeed heard of white men by the reports of their Northern compatriots, who come yearly among them to trade in elephants' teeth, but a white man they had never seen. All the peculiarities of this strange apparition excited their utmost surprise, but nothing surprised them more than the tones of a harmonica played by Dr.