ROSE'S AFRICAN TRAVELS:*

SOUTH AFRICA has been especially favoured in its travellers ; for although the writers upon it have not been numerous, they have been able and interesting. There is not a more delightful book in any lan- guage than La VAILLANT's work ; and there are DO books of travels we have read with more pleasure than the writings of BARROW, Bunt:HARDT, and TnomasoN, on this remarkable country. Four Years in South Africa is a very agreeable addition to our store: it is not so elaborate as those we have mentioned, but it is written in a charm- ing style, with a strong feeling for the picturesque, and no small share of natural eloquence. Had lire author, Mr. COWPER ROSE, possessed LE VAILLANT'S love of science, as well as taste for strange nature, he would not have been unwor:111.- to continue his animated descriptions. There are few things more curious in the history of literature than the tartly credence with which the " Voyages" of LE VAILLANT have been received by the world. He was \ Veil known to have spent several years in the interior of Africa ; and he returned laden with its hitherto unknown productions, which still remain the treasure of the naturalist, and a testimony to the enterprise and veracity of their collector. Nevertheless, we believe Halt. up to this day, the majority of the world consider his books as romances. The reason is curious : they are too agreeable to be true—the author is far.too lively to be also veracious ; if he had only been dull, all the republic of letters would have rung with his fame as a 6.avant and discoverer. The man who wrote the earliest and the worst book concerning the Cape and its neighbour- hood, KOLBEN, was never doubted,—and yet it is with good reason supposed that he scarcely wrote a word of truth ; whereas in the pages of the ronrintic and sentimental LE VAILLANT, it would be difficult to find a fitlsehood,—unless it he, as is likely, that he has looked with too indulgent an eye upon the charms of African beauty. It is not im- possible, however, that the naturalist had pitched his tents so long in the woods, that he had become familiarized with those traits of the female tare, and those habits of the person, which might strike a tra- veller fresh from other scenes with disgust. We have heard of indi- viduals who had resided long among the black population, talk of the purpureum lumen of the African beauty's cheek ; and who, on landing at Liverpool on their return home, could not avoid thinking the noses of their pale countrywomen obtrusively prominent. It is the fate, how- ever, of the traveller who brings home the most novel intelligence, to be considered as the most egregious inventor. When a Caffre who had been at Cape Town returned to his tribe, and told them of the wonders he had seen, and particularly of a huge sea-waggon that moved from port to port and never had occasion to inispan (unyoke), instead of grateful astonishment, he was saluted at the end of every sentence with " Thai's a lie ?" expressed in the plainest CafEre. It is no small praise, according to our notion of books, to say that Mr. COWPER ROSE reminds us of the enthusiasm of LE VAILLANT, of his sensibility to the charms of natural objects, and his power of description. LE VAILLANT, however, extended the limits of scienti- fic knowledge: indeed we have good authority for saying, that his re- searches and his writings are the foundation of modern zoology. He moreover traversed over countries at the time unknown to Europeans ; and after encountering. great varieties of privation, after exhibiting astonishing instances of perseverance, and presenting himself boldly in the front of numerous dangers, finished by composing one of the most charming of books, in the shape of his personal narrative, as it would now be called, and embodying his scientific discoveries in a series of magnificent publications, which bear the character of a national undertaking.

* Four Years in south Africa, By coypu Rose, Royal Engineers, London,182:14 Colliurimad Bentley.

Mr. CowpEa Roses work is so far from possessing a character of

pretension, that we should call it the South African Sketch-book ; and all those subjects that ordinarily attract the attention and talent of the sketcher are here,—bold scenery, strange adventure, wild character, humorous contrasts, savage elegance, civilized squalor, the hunter's bivouac, the savage's kraal, the settler's cabin : the lordly elephant, the plunging hippopotamus, the rushing troops of spring bucks, the play- ful herds of antelopes, the Caffre in his headed carosse, the Hottentots, the Bushmen, and the Boor, in all theWdifferent shades of barbarism, and numberless other objects well adapted to the crayon of the rapid designer, are marked down to the life, by the lively pencil of our author.

Of the many agreeable or striking pictures presented in this pleasant volume, we scarcely can decide to which .we ought to direct our readers' attention by way of specimen. The part relating to Elephant Hunting is undoubtedly the most striking ; but we are not sure we can find any portion of it which will fall within the limits of our columns. After-the anecdotes of the Elephants, we prefer those of the Caffres ; of whose character Mr. ROSE presents:a more favourable report than any we have hitherto read. His account of them is very curious and interesting. For instance, we do not remember a more tasteful picture of primitive life, " When wild in woods the noble savage ran," than the following- sketch of a visit among the Caffres.

" The Chief is generally distinguished from his followers by a carouse of tiger's skin, and by a narrow tasteful beaded band, worn round the head ; and when he stands surrounded by his armed attendants, wrapped in their dark cloaks, it forms a most imposing sight, and one which, though my ex. pectation had been raised, surprised me. Their figures are the noblest that my eye ever gazed upon, their movements the most graceful, and their attitudes the proudest, standing like forms of monumental :Jona°. I was much struck with the strong resemblance that a group of Kaffers bears to the Greek and Etruscan antique remains, except that the savage drapery is more scanty, and falls in simpler folds : their mantles, like those seen on the figures of the ancient vases, are generally fastened over the shoulder of the naked arm, while the other side is wholly concealed ; but they have many ways of wearing the carosse, and of giving variety to their only garment. " Through our interpreter, we prevailed on Enno to order a dance of the men. Their movement was different from that of the women, but still kept time to their voices; they threw their carosses off, and, forming a semicircle, bowed their heads low, and bounded upwards with a spring, which almost left it in doubt whether their dark forms belonged to the earth.

" We remained till late among the dancers, and then invited the Chief and some of his principal men to supper at our bivouac ; where, while my com- panion and myself discussed a boiled chicken, we feasted our guests on broiled mutton, bread, (a great luxury with them,) and Cape brandy (a still greater). I sat with them, wrapped in my horseman's cloak ; which, as ap- proaching their own dress in form, was much admired : the Chief indeed offered me two horses or three oxen for it ; and finding that his offers made no impression, requested it as a barseela.' Our interpreter sung a Kaifu song, which was soft and pleasing, for their language is in an uncommon degree musical ; it related to some superstition connected with the stars, to which he raised his dark arm as he sung. The night was wearing away, and the men were leaving us one by one, in obedience to the voices of the women, whom we heard calling them from the hill, where the dancing still continued in the calm moonlight, and ceased not till morning, while my companion and myself slept soundly in our bivouac.

Unfortunately the Caffres are a dirty people : it seems that, like Mr. Noarricurn's doo., they may get fat upon their own fleas.

" There was one young and finely formed girl in the group, with her wild expressive eyes and beautiful teeth, on whom I flatter myself with having made an impression : her mode of showing it was singular : she picked sonic vermin from the hairy side of her carosse, and offered them to me; and on my exhibiting some symptoms of disgust, laughed most heartily at my fasti• diousness, and put one in her mouth to show that it was good. It was the first mark of attachment which I had received since I left Cape Town, and I was affected accordingly ; and had but the refinement of sentiment been added to so touching a proof of love,—had she but sung,

• I give thee all, I can no more, Though poor the °Wring be,' I know not what the consequences might have been.

The Caffres are far from being a stupid people : this is the unani- mous testimony of all writers, and there are numerous examples in Mr. COWPER ROSE'S volume to confirm it. As., for example, the anecdotes and remarks of the chief ENNO ; and in another quarter on another occasion, of the chief CONGUAR. " In an excursion that I made with the Landdrost of Albany into Kafferland, our first night's halt was near this tribe ; and we were in consequence ho- noured with the Chief's coMpany, and with that of his principal followers, some crouching down in the tent, while others choked up the entrance with their tall forms. We were dining, and food was given to Enno, who, I ob- served, always distributed a portion of it to his followers. On receiving a potato, and his being told that he might have them in his own country with very little trouble, he slowly and calmly answered, ` I am very old, too old to learn new things; but I will take everything that you will give inc.' Welaughed, laughed, and told him that it was a very clever answer. Yes, I have lived a

long time in the world, and have learned cunning,' was his reply.

" The manner in which he tried to procure a present was amusing. `It was not for the sake of the present, but that it would he asked of him by others whether the Landdrost had passed through his country ; and on his answering Yes, they would inquire what present he had received ; and when he would say none, they would naturally reply, then you must have behaved ill to him, for he is very generous." He was a strange being, and possessed more talent than any Kaffer I ever saw : his words came from him very slowly and innocently, while there was a slight twinkle in his small sunken eye, that belied his lips. I saw a white Kaffer among Enno's tribe, a hideous being daubed with red clay ; and, on inquiry, found that it was the son of the Chief ; and heard that on Enno's being teased about his colour, and hints thrown out of unfair play on the part of his wife, he laughed it oft, and asked if they had never known a black cow have a white calf. One more anecdote, and I have done with him. He was at the Lauddrost's house, and in order to see its effect upon him, a lady was seated at the piano playing a simple air, (and seldom has it been my chance to hear any one who played so sweetly,) when the old man, who was listening intently, suddenly stopped her, saying, ' That is enough ; it reminds me of the loss of my child, and it tells me I should go home and cry.' The child to whom he alluded, and to whose death Enno often recurs, Was shot on some occasion by the Cape Corps."

Some of the anecdotes of CONGUAR are as follows.

" Conguar, our attehdant chief, was a great favourite, and I must give some of his dry characteristic speeches. One night that our bivouac was surrounded by a distant horde of Kaffers, over whom he had no control, he was asked whether our things were safe, and replied—' Ihey have told me they will take nothing; but I cannot see their hearts' " On my inquiring from him which were the most powerful chiefs in Kaf- fcrland, he replied, Hinza,'—a long pause,—"Then Gaika—then Stnamby ;' he stopped.—' And your own family comes next, I suppose.'—' We are but as dogs to Hinza,—as the dust is to my foot.'

" One of our party was attempting to explain to him, that the moon shin- ing above us was a world like the one on which we stood; and he listened at- tentively, and calmly observed when the speaker had ceased—' I will not say that what you have told me is not so, but has any one been up to see it ?'

" In reply to some observation of his, I said, ' Conguar, I wonder at this from you, who live so near Mr. S— the missionary; I am sure lie never does so.'—' Oh, Mr. S— knows God, and I don't know him yet."

The language of the Caffres seems soft and musical ; though in pronunciation it has certain clicks, which European organs cannot master. The Missionaries are printing some devotional pieces in parallel columns of English and Caffre, and Mr. ROSE gives us a hymn composed by a native co evert. It seems the translators into the Caffre language have, as might be expected, great difficulty in finding adequate expressions for words whose significa- tion takes its rise in the usages of civilized life. Hypocrisy, for example, was found a hard word to make them understand the mean- ie°. of. At last a chief was made to understand it'and gave his notion of it by saving, " it was when a man went to work in the garden, and threw his wife's carosse over him." To comprehend the appositeness of this application, it must be remarked, that to labour in the earth is held in the utmost contempt, and is consequently an occupation utterly relegated to women. , The men hunt, the women he.' and dig. When by any circumstances a man is driven to toil in his garden, he throws his wife's carosse over him, that observers may take him for his hard-working moiety. BARROW tells us that the price of a woman in 'his time was an ox: Mr. COWPER ROSE was asked fifty oxen for a princess, and the ge- neral price was about forty for a partie convenable ; CONGUOR'S wives stood him in about forty each. So that it would appear, ae- cording to Mr. PosE's remark, that woman is assuming her due rank in Caffre society, and that Caffremen are becoming more sensible of her real value.

Mr. ROSE'S account of our settlers is not favourable; but he seems to entertain great hopes of their first generation, who are now gmaing up, the best marksmen and boldest hunters of the colony. The mixture of pretension and poverty in theiv parents, as exhibited in some of Mr. ROSE'S anecdotes of the settlers, would be amusing if it were not painful.