had devolved, and have interminably disputed upon it. Equity would have adjudged it to Don Miguel, had there been no forfeiture on his part; but he waived all other claims by acceding to the arrangement for intermarrying with his niece, (a customary connection in that family!) and accepting the throne in her right; and he swore to maintain the constitutional charter, which, at the time of that arrangement, Pedro, exerting an extraordinary power on an extraordinary occasion, sent over from Brazil; and which, with all possible solemnity and legal form, was accepted in Portugal. That oath he has violated, and is now reigning as absolute king. Undoubtedly the inclination of the people is for an absolute monarchy, because they lived peaceably and contentedly before they heard of revolutions and constitutions; and, in their ignorance, they suppose that, under an absolute monarchy, things, as far as they are concerned, would revert to their former state. The best-administered government could not realise that expectation: it remains to be seen what course their disappointment will take under the worst. Any government in Portugal would at this time find its revenues insufficient to support even the necessary civil and ordinary military establishments; and yet an extraordinary armed force is and must be needful while any revolutionary designs are to be apprehended, and till habits of peaceful order can be restored, among a people whom distress has rendered predatory. From the time of the removal to Brazil there has been a drain of the gold currency; and that beautiful coinage, formerly the best in Europe, and which was once as current in Great Britain as the money of our own sovereign, is now as rarely to be seen in Portugal as guineas were here in the days of the Bullion question. It has continually been flowing out of the country, and nothing has flowed in to replace it. Here are difficulties which might almost weigh down the spirit and break the heart of a good king, even though he could count upon the sympathy and friendship of other powers, and hope for their assistance. But the present ruler has broken his faith; he has stained his hands in blood, and shown himself capable, as far as the will and the heart go, of treading in the steps of those monarchs, to whose names the epithet of the cruel' is annexed in history. The steps of a Portugueze king, who, in some parts of his character, sufficiently resembled Don Miguel, though he had fewer crimes to answer for, may be seen at this day in the palace at Cintra, deeply worn in the tiled pavement of the room which served him for his prison. A faithful counsellor, or a faithful confessor, (who might, perhaps, more easily be found, and less unwillingly heard,) should advise Miguel to pace that foot-worn floor, in his own palace, to and fro, and consider upon that spot by what VOL. XLI. NO, LXXXI, means means a second Catastrophe de Portugal may be averted, which if it overtake him, is likely to be more tragic than that which befel the last Affonso. It is not by violence and tyranny that it can be averted, but by retracing some of his own steps, and doing that which is lawful and right. ART. VIII.—A Dissertation on the Course and probable Termination of the Niger. By Lieut.-Gen. Sir Rufane Donkin, G.C.H., K.C.B., and F.R.S. London. 1829. WE certainly thought there had been an end to all further spe culation concerning this endless river; but it seems we were mistaken. A new candidate for fame has started a fresh hare, and run her down in grand style over ground never coursed before scarcely a single point of the compass had escaped from having the honour of directing this mysterious stream to its termination, with the exception of one-and upon that one Sir Rufaue Donkin has pounced, and thus completed the circle. This work, then, has novelty on its side, which always goes a great way; being an article of high request in the literary workshop. The intellectual as well as the corporeal part of man seems to require that the appetite for change should be gratified by variety and novelty; and Sir Rufane has given us both. His little volume is not limited to A Dissertation on the Course and probable Termination of the Niger,' but comprises also many other learned disquisitions, from the Greek definite article to the Greek digamma. But we shall strictly confine ourselves to the main subject-on which, indeed, we feel ourselves particularly called upon to make a few brief observations; because, firstly, the conclusions arrived at are contrary to known facts-because, secondly, we feel that the author is deceiving himself in supposing that, by applying the words Neel or Nexos to all great rivers, we shall find our geographical difficulties dispersing, one after the other, like mists before the sun;' (p. 19);-and because, thirdly, we know Sir Rufane to be an excellent scholar, of a clear, intelligent, logical, and comprehensive mind, ingenious in argument, and forcible in language; and, consequently, whatever proceeds from his pen, will always be entitled to respect, and must command attention. Having said thus much, which we do from an honest conviction of its truth, we feel some little diffidence in venturing to point out, and endeavouring to rectify, what we conceive to be mistaken notions, hastily taken up and adopted, without due consideration of the present state of our knowledge of Africa; having no basis to rest upon, but the fanciful and erroneous statements of the Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, all of whom, having no personal knowledge of their subject, ran riot in speculative geography, and, for want of facts, indulged in the wildest fancies. In our criticism of Sir Rufane Donkin's book, we shall confine ourselves to the three principal points of his argument. 1. That geographers and travellers have been all wrong in searching for THE Niger, or THE Nile, instead of A Niger or A Nile. 2. That the first meridian of Ptolemy was not in the Canary or 'Fortunate' Islands; but on the Cape de Verde Islands; an error made either by himself, or his commentators and map-makers, by which he has been robbed of 7° of longitude. 3. That the termination of the Niger is to be found in the gulf of Sydra or Syrtis. 1. The object which the General seems to have in view, in setting the two articles by the ears, is that of securing to himself a disposable Nile or Niger, to pave the way for his new and ingenious speculation. For this purpose, he commences his plan of operations with a long discussion on the word Nile or Neel, which, he tells us, signifies indigo, or blue; and is applied in the East to designate any great or blue river, as instanced in the Sinde or Indus, which is sometimes called the Neel by the natives. Major Rennell had long ago made the same observations; and we believe that not only the Hindoos, but the Persians and Arabians have a word of the same sound and import, which they also sometimes apply, not, however, to any river, but, xar' eoxv, to some particular, great river: thus the Arabs call the great river of Soudan, the Neel el Abeed, the great river of slaves.' But the question on which we are at issue with our author is, whether the Greeks ever employed the word Neλos in this sense? Let us hear what the General says in the affirmative :- Herodotus tells us that there was "a Nile," or, at least, a black or deep river in Thessaly. His words are, in speaking of this river, os καλλεται Μελας ; for Μελας is the translation into Greek of the oriental word Kala, and, with some modification, of Neil or Neel; and it was only by long use that Neos became a legitimate Greek word.' (p. 17.) Sir Rufane, we suspect, in writing this curious paragraph, had some design to turn the flank of his readers. The spurious progeny of a blue begotten by a black, we can well suppose, would require long use' to establish its claim to legitimacy. The association of the two colours is not very common, except about the eyes of one of the fancy after a set-to. The conclusion of the paragraph is rather a whimsical non sequitur:-'Indeed,' says our author, the Greek and Latin historians mention seven or eight rivers by the name of " Melas,"'—and what are we to understand by this? except that the Greek and Latin historians Q 2 called called these seven or eight black rivers so many Niles, or blue rivers- And if his name be George,' says Falconbridge, I'll call him Peter.' Now we maintain, without hesitation, that there is no instance of the Greeks applying the word Neλos in any other sense, or to any other river, than to the Nile of Egypt, and that Herodotus applies it exclusively to that, and to no other. And here we shall make our stand in favour of the definite article the, against the General's indefinite a, in comparing his version of the story of the Nasamonians and ours. The General says, and says truly, that Herodotus has been misrepresented by his quoters and by his editors;' and he adds, that the information he (Herodotus) had from King Etearchus [he had none from Etearchus] related to these people having seen a Nile, and not the Nile.' This second assertion is supported on the authority of two MSS. mentioned in the edition of Schweighæuser, in which the definite article, in one particular passage, is omitted-Tov abest,'-the reading being thus:-x2 ETEαρχος συνεβάλλετο είναι Νειλον ;—which Sir Rufane interprets, and Etearchus added that this was a Nile.' Now, if we admit the two codices to be right, and all the rest to be wrong, which we are by no means disposed to do, we submit, with all humility, that the omission of the definite article does not necessarily imply an indefinite. But letting this pass, we cannot but observe that the little Greek sentence above mentioned furnishes an instance of the manner in which Herodotus is sometimes' misrepresented by his quoters;' and, we may also add, by his translators,' too; for, with all due submission to Sir Rufane, Etearchus did not add, but supposed,' or 'conjectured,' (ovvBaλTO) that this was the Nile." It is material also to the point in question, further to observe, that Herodotus does not pretend to have received his information respecting the great river from Etearchus, and the General, therefore, is not correct in saying, (p. 11,) that Herodotus quotes King Etearchus as telling him that "the river these young men saw was the Nile."' Herodotus had no communication with Etearchus; he had the story of these youths, not from Etearchus, but from some Cyrenæans, who had it from Etearchus, who had it from some Nasamonians, who, it may be presumed, had it from their countrymen, perhaps from the youths themselves: so that, in fact, Herodotus received the story at fourth hand. The Cyrenæans too, be it observed, were discoursing with Etearchus concerning the head of the Nile, as a thing,' says Herodotus, altogether unknown,' and this led to the story. In adopting Sir Rufane's version, the story would read thus: The Nasamonians arrived at a city, and past that city flowed a great river, a blue river, or a Nile; and Etearchus added that this was was a great river, a blue river, or a Nile.' Herodotus will hardly be accused of having written in this fashion. He, as well as Etearchus, who was king or chief of the Oasis of Ammon, was fully acquainted with all that was known of the Nile of Egypt, whose undiscovered fountains were the grand and leading objects of conjecture and research; and on whose increase or decrease depended all the hopes and fears of plenty or of famine. On hearing, therefore, that a great river had been discovered in Africa, flowing towards the rising sun, nothing could be more natural than the concluding sentence of Herodotus :-' and Etearchus supposed it to be the Nile'-that Nile, about which, and which alone, he had been discoursing through some score of his pages. Did Sir Rufane Donkin observe the words in which Herodotus winds up the discussion, viz. : Νείλου μεν νυν περι τοσαῦτα ειρήσθω ;— and thus I have finished my account of the Nile'? But if the shadow of a doubt could for a moment be entertained, that the Nile of Egypt and that alone was the one meant, the following sentence must at once disperse it :-' and his (Etearchus') opinion is not unreasonable,' says Herodotus, because the Nile descends from Libya,ρεει γαρ Λιβυης ὁ Νείλος : and he concludes this part of his subject by observing, that he will say no more about the Nile, περι του Νείλου, ' only that it flows into the sea by way of Egypt.' This Egyptian Nile, most certainly, was the only Nile acknowledged by the Greeks and Romans-the latter of whom had also but one Niger; and, if we read Herodotus and Pliny right, that Niger is a very different river from the one known by that name in modern times, as we hope to be able to show. 2. That the General should have been much disappointed in Ptolemy, as a geographer and guide, as far as relates to central Africa,' we are not in the least surprised; believing, as we do, with M. Gosselin, that Soudan or Nigritia was wholly unknown to him and to all the Greek colonists of his time. But he had acquired a knowledge of a considerable portion of the western coast from the pilots and navigators of that age. Here, however, a perplexing difficulty occurred to Sir Rufane, which it was absolutely necessary to get rid of before he could stir a step. Ptolemy, it appears, has laid down the mouth of the river Salathus, on this coast, in 9° E. longitude, and 200 N. latitude (where, by the way, there is no river at all); whereas that part of the coast is barely two degrees of longitude from Ptolemy's first meridian on the island of Ferro, one of the Canaries, as modern geographers have hitherto drawn it; thus exhibiting an error of seven degrees of longitude, according to Ptolemy, if we adopt the island of Ferro as his first meridian. The consequences of this loss the General must state in his own words :— However, I was unwilling to disturb a received opinion, and I went |