I don't know what would have become of me. Upon his representation they set me free, and an Englishman loves his liberty too much to put it a second time in jeopardy, so we started next morning for Dieppe ; to-morrow I hope to be at Brighton, and if ever you catch me in France again, why my name's not Hodgskins, that's all I say!" SPECIMENS OF A TIMBUCTOO "Nor ought a Genius less than his that writ DENHAM. At the very moment when repeated and painful failures seemed to have extinguished the last hope of ever penetrating to Timbuctoo, when the staunchest friends of African civilization and the extension of British commerce feel themselves bound to discourage the temerity of the fresh victims who are willing to sacrifice themselves in an enterprise of so hopeless and desperate a nature, accident has made us acquainted with an individual who has passed several months in the capital of this hitherto unexplored country, upon whose authority we mean to gratify the curiosity of our readers with a very brief and hasty notice of its manners and literature. In order that they may duly appreciate the authenticity of our narrative, we think it right to state the name of our informant, Captain Jonathan Washington Muggs, a citizen of Georgia in the United States, whose vessel, the Black-eyed Lass, as some of our readers may perhaps recollect, was surrounded and nearly crushed a few years ago by the terrible sea-serpent, until several shots from a twelve-pounder judiciously directed into the monster's left eye, induced him to uncoil himself and dart through the waters in search of a Collyrium. Mr. Muggs, it seems, is the son of a Timbuctoo slave, by an American residing on the banks of the Turtle River in Georgia; and, as his father was almost constantly at sea, his mother instructed him in her native tongue, a fortunate circumstance to which himself and the British public are equally indebted, the former for the preservation of his life, the latter for the invaluable information we are now about to communicate. Capt. Muggs was bound from Charlston to Liverpool with a cargo of cotton, when, in a violent storm from the South-west, which continued for several days, his vessel was driven ashore and wrecked on the coast of Africa, not far from the Island of Goree, and the whole of the crew were instantly made prisoners by the savage Mandingoes. Such as were able-bodied and capable of working were sold as slaves; two sick sailors, and an old American author, who happened to be on board as a passenger, being deemed inapplicable to any useful purpose, were confined, and treated with the utmost politeness until the feast of the great idol Mumbo-Jumbo, when a hope was expressed, that, in return for such hospitality, they would comply with the immemorial usages of the country, and suffer themselves to be quietly killed and eaten. The author stoutly pleaded his privilege of being cut up by none but reviewers, but they knocked down him and his argument by one blow, and his remains afforded a higher treat to the public of Mandingo, and appeared better adapted to the taste of the people, than those of any literary individual upon record. As to Captain Muggs, who swore by the magician Obi, that he was born at Timbuctoo, had been made a prisoner in his youth, and degraded into his present mulatto colour by a long residence abroad,-averments which he substantiated by a woolly head and a song in the language of the country,-they gave him a sort of passport, and left him at liberty to explore his way to the asserted place of his birth in the best manner he could. His adventures in this perilous enterprise are preparing for the press in four volumes quarto, all written by himself on the leaf of the chickachoo tree, and we can only gratify public curiosity by anticipating a very few of the more remarkable facts. Every one who has read Herodotus is aware that an expedition was fitted out by Necho, King of Egypt; of whom mention is made in the Second Book of Kings. The Phenician mariners employed in this daring enterprise completely circumnavigated Africa, but were discredited upon their return, because they stated they had seen the setting sun on their right hand, an assertion which our present knowledge of astronomy enables us to confirm. In the Journal of Hanno, the Carthaginian, preserved for so long a time in the Temple of Saturn, mention is made of several marvellous circumstances observed by that enterprising voyager, which have been hitherto considered fabulous, although the researches of Captain Muggs, upon the same coast, establish in every respect the perfect fidelity of his relation. Thus we are told that Hanno caught two women entirely covered with hair, whose skins he carried to Carthage, which has generally been interpreted to mean two specimens of the ouran-outang; but Captain Muggs, while tracing up to the sources of the Senegal River, encountered a whole tribe of these people, whom he at first took for an immense flock of baboons, until they accosted him very courteously in a language which proved to be a dialect of the Timbuctoo. They are described as a very civilized and cleanly race, regularly using the curry-comb every morning; a fact which strongly tends to support Swift's relation of the Houyhnhnms. When it is recollected what ridicule was first thrown upon this story, as altogether improbable, and what taunts and doubts were launched at Bruce's Narrative of Abyssinia, although every one of his statements has been subsequently verified, we hold it our duty to hurl defiance beforehand at that ignorant scepticism which might feel disposed to cavil at the Journal of Captain Muggs, merely because it contains facts that may startle the narrow intellects of Europe. Hanno talks of having discovered a whole country in a state of ignition, with rivers of fire running into the sea; and Captain Muggs has no doubt whatever, that, at certain seasons of the year, the entire surface of the land may be in the fiery condition described by the Carthaginian, since he himself, in the neighbourhood of Baromaya, came to a deep valley surrounded by mountains of lead ore. Such was the intensity of the heat in this confined spot, that the rays of the sun, by perpetually melting the ore, had formed a metallic lake of considerable extent in the valley, which was kept in constant fusion by new supplies. When the surface was gently agitated by the wind, an almost blinding brilliancy was cast by the ripple of its waves; but by moonlight its softened radiance is described as inconceivably beautiful and enchanting. Of course it is much resorted to by the boys of the surrounding district, for the purpose of supplying themselves with dumps,-a game which, to use the school slang, is in all the year round; and as the natives are obliged to keep the heat out of their houses with glass, a number of glaziers are settled upon the spot, that they may obtain a material so indispensable in their trade. The lake is sadly infested with Salamanders, and considerable ingenuity is manifested in the mode of catching them. A pan of red-hot coals being provided, a small portion is thrown upon the bank as a bait, which the animal eagerly devours, when he is lured away from his molten element by fresh coals tossed to him every now and then, and not unfrequently caught in his mouth before they touch the ground. In this manner he is decoyed to a net at some distance, where he is secured; the great art consisting in so casting the |