BOOKS.

THE CONTINEI1T OF THE FUTURE.*

Da. HoLue's seven years of travel, research, and hunting Adventures between the South-African diamond-fields and the Zambesi, began with 1872, and terminated in 1879, and since then the interest of all that he has to tell us about a part of the world which has so suddenly ceased to be remote has greatly increased in importance. His work, to which the pet epithet of the day —opportune—applies with happy precision, has, iu addition, the valuable qualities of lucidity, exactness, and simplicity. It is totally unlike certain examples of the literature of African travel, in which the persons and exploits of the writers dwarf the continent, and leave its people nowhere. It is the work of a man as unassuming as he is observant, a business-like

student, and also a true lover of nature, steadily, almost uncon- __

Scam Years in Srcilt Africa. By Dr. Emil Bolnb. Translatod by Ellen 11 Frowor. London : Sampson Low and Co. sciously courageous, and without any of the tendency to bully- ing and brag that too often makes the record of European travel among the inferior races painful and humiliating to read. We are sorry to find that Dr. Holub thinks England did. right in going to war with the Zulus, and wrong in recalling

Sir Bartle Frere ; and also that he considers the rising of the Basutos against the Cape Government as an indication that the leniency of the policy pursued by the Zulu chiefs was re- garded by the other native tribes, not as generous forbearance, but as an indication of weakness. That a writer whom we ad- mire from every other point of view should be against us in his view of such important acts of English policy (although he regards our annexation of the Transvaal as a disturbing ele- ment) is disappointing, but we are bound to adrhit that, although he does not convince us, Dr. Holub states his claim to be heard in the argument with modesty and force. The grounds on which his work most urgently demands attention are the vast amount of information it conveys respecting the immense tracts of country lying between the district that we know, vaguely enough, as the Diamond Fields, and the Zambesi (where, for the student of African travel, the wondrous tale is taken up by Dr. Livingstone), and the extraordinary picture of human and animal life in those regions. Probably every reader of African travel has divided the impressions made upon him into those of nature and the animal world on the Black Continent, whieh he remembers as fair and grand pictures, and those of the human dwellers there, which he recalls as bad

dreams, nightmare visions of foolishness and cruelty. Who has not pictured the spectacle of the forests where the elephants live ; the great palm-planted plains, with their roving herd sot the noble deer and buffalo tribes ; the jungle, the sand, and the rocks, which form pleasaunce and palace for the lion, "king by uncon- tested right ;" the rivers, with their -huge, red-throated horses and. mailed sanrians ; above all, the vast, reed-bound lakes, whither the mighty creatures come to drink in the night, under the beautiful, steel-blue sky, and where legions of tall birds, scarlet, and white, and black, itand in the still water, like a gorgeous regiment on outpost duty P Who has not shrunk, with more than the universal and always-besetting sense of the mystery of human life and its uses, from realising such human beings and such existences as African explorers describe? The contrast

has never been put so strongly as by Dr. Holub, for, although Dr, Schweinfiirth's memorable book deals with tribes which are actually more degraded and more repulsive titan the people of the Marutse kingdom, he gives us a less attractive and detailed account of the physical aspects and animal life of the country that he explored. The ethnologist is more -apparent in his work, the naturalist in that of Dr. Holub.

Our limited space renders it impossible to do more than indicate to our readers the principal features of a book in which those who take pleasure in narratives of adven- ture will find more to gratify their taste than has been given to the world since Paul Du Clutillu introduced the gorilla and the Fans to an incredulous world. On the first volume we cannot dwell at any length, though we commend every page of it (a description, p. 223, of a fire on the plains is terribly fine, and "Mobbed for Spirits," p. 236, is very striking); but mast pass on to the second, which deals chiefly with the Marutse, and the long unknown districts that are of growing importance in presence of the whole South-African question. We can give only one extract from the first volume; it is a description of a scene on a table-land in the Mamusa country, to which the author has given the name of the Quagga

Plains :—

" On reaching the top of the plateau, we looked across a vast plain, extending for at least twenty miles to the north and`south, bounded on the east by mimosa groves. Except around the pools, where the grass grew high, the plain was covered with a rich carpet of new greensward, thickly studded with brown ant.hills, and forming the habitat of numerous sorts of game. Dark-brown, light-brown, tawny, yellow, motley, and black were the robes in which Nature had bedecked her children. There were striped gnus and black gnus; blessbocks and hartebeests, springbocks and zebras; Etortle were grazing, others gambolling, whilst here and there a herd would stalk solemnly along in single file, as though wrapt in meditation. Several herds of blesabocks stood in long rows cropping the pasturage, and quite near us was a group of 150 zebras, wending their way in a wide curve slowly to the south. in smaller bands were hartebeests and gazelles innumerable. Nor were birds wanting to add to the animation of the scene. There were great bustards, chenalopes, ducks, plovers, ibises, cranes, and many others; their rich plumage and graceful forme as they rose in the air, or hovered just above the ground, contributing largely to the general charm."

In the intervals between Dr. Ffolub's expeditions, he prac- tised medicine in the Diamond Fields, and acknowledg- ment is due to his interesting and amusing account of what may be called the comparatively civilised parts of the country and their inhabitants. We follow him with keener curiosity, as he " stands on the threshold of his real design "—the explora- tion of southern Central Africa, with the (unrealised) vision of the Atlantic at Loanda luring hith on—as he passes out of the Transvaal region, journeying from Shoshong to the Great Salt Lakes, across the southern " Thirstland," and the Maxine plain, for which he foresees a corn-and-cotton-growing future, but where be met with ice-pools and fan-palms, elands, ostriches, assegai- traps, and big serpents. From the Salt Lakes to the Chobe, with delightful lion stories and innumerable instances of his close observation of nature, the author brings us to the Marutse kingdom, and introduces us to the most remarkable savage whose acquaintance we have made since,Moselikatsze. This is Sepopo, the Marutse King, more readily understood by us as the ruler of the central Zambesi. He had seen some white Men since Livingstone, but he was very anxious for the coming of the German doctor, and proposed to give him a grander reception than had been vouchsafed to any of them. Here is the author's account of the august ceremonial; (it is headed by a lovely landscape, "in the papyrus thickets ") :—

"A crowd of natives in leather and cotton aprons announced that the king was waiting to receive me, and after proceeding 200 yards, I stood face to face with his Majesty. He was a man of about five- and-thirty, dressed in European style, with an English hat upon his head, decorated with a fine white ostrich feather. He had a broad, open countonanee, large eyes, and a good-humoured expression that betrayed nothing of the tyrant that he really was. lie advanced to meet me with a light and easy tread, and smiled pleasantly as he held out his hand. Ho was accompanied by some of the Court officials, only one of whom wore trousers; two others had woollen garments fastened across their backs, while the rest were only to be distinguished from the mob by the number of bracelets on their arms."

Dr. Holtib 90011 perceived that the sovereign of the Marutse country was no better oft in point of confidence than a Czar of Russia, for a great wooden dish of broiled fish being brought in,two of the chiefs had to officiate as tasters, for fear of poison.

The manners of the Court were very curious, and Sepopo (we gather from the concluding chapters that his subjects have had a happy release by his death, but it is not made quite clear) was an adept in all the savage vices, from petty pilfering to cruelty of the most appalling kind, treachery, oppression, avarice, cheating, and witchcraft included ; he was a clever rogue, too, and not devoid of humour. The chapters relating to him and his country are extremely interesting, and the author's adventures with both men and beasts during his two visits to the Marutse are the most stirring in the book. Of • the country, he says :— "The Marutse occupy the fertile valleys of the Barotse country on both sides the Zambesi, from Sesheke, to about 150 miles south of the confluence of the Kalompo and the Tiba. I believe the Barotse valley to be the most productive portion of the kingdom, and as well adapted for agriculture as for cattle- breeding ; it abounds in game, but is likewise prolific in wild. - vegetable products, of which indiarubber is not the least im- portant." Dr. Holub regards the whole country with a view to what it might be under European proprietorship ; but it would evidently be difficult to dispossess these rich, well-organised, and intelligent people, among whom the system of mastership and vassalage prevails, and seems to work well. The author commends the cleanliness of the towns and villages ; that virtue, which reigns " both in the settlements and amongst the popula- tion, is probably to be attributed. to the abundance of water always at their command." Animal life in its grandest forms abound. A highly interesting account of the industries and. handicrafts of the people, who are passionately fond, of ornament, follows immediately on a horrid description of indecency and, cruelty, and the lofty beauty of the country contrasts with the gloomy superstition of the dwellers in it. It would seem that although degrees of. wealth vary, there is no such thing as want among these people, and that their mode of living is certainly less rude than that of the tribes south of the Zambesi. Agriculture is so remunerative and cattle-breeding in two-thirds of the country is so successful,

the other third, in spite of its being infested by the tsetse-fly, is so -elm-indent in game, the rivers and, lagoons produce such quantities of fish, and the forests yield so many varieties of fruits, and edible roots, and seeds, that the natives never suffer from want during the summer rains. All this, with a delicious climate, makes the Marutse country a delectable laud indeed,

one which enterprising Dutch colonists are too likely to hanker after, and Dr. Holub is of opinion that all our cereals would thrive perfectly well there, also rice, coffee, and the vine. The chapters that intervene between the author's first and second visits to Sesheke (the Marutse capital) are full of interest, especially an account of his close observations in natural history. On his way to the Victoria Falls, he encamped beside the limpid pools, in the hilly district around, which he has called the Albert Country, and many an hour did he pass by their side,, stretched upon the grass and investigating the animal and vegetable life beneath the glittering surface, whose clearness convinced him that no crocodiles were lurking below. He gives a description of one of those ponds, in a passage very striking in itself, and which affords a perfect illustration of his minute, observation. After telling of the curious and beautiful forms of the alga) lying like a network over the pool, and others at the' bottom, with lobulated and deutated leaves, rivalling ferns in. gracefulness, and of the plants with bright yellow blossoms stretching up from the bottom of the water to mingle with the pride of them all, the queen water-lily, he continues:—

" Equally fascinating was the exhibition of animal life. In the more open spaces, where the range of vision was widest, lay some dark-striped fish, not unlike perch, perfectly motionless, except for the slight vibration of the binder fins. From the dim recesses of the alga), bearded shoat-fish would emerge, generally in pairs, and roll themselves in sport from side to side ; and far away, right across the reeds by the opposite bank, stretched itself as though lifeless, a yellow, mottled object, that might at first have been mistaken for a snake, but turned out to be a water lizard waiting for its prey. Water beetles and spiders abounded, the spiders all activity, some towing themselves up, some, with glistening air-bubbles, letting them- selves descend, and hastening to conceal themselves amidst the- intricacies and entanglements of the algae. The larva, of the beetles, as woll as of the dragon-flies, were clambering over the filaments of the plants and the stems of the lilies like rope-dancers, whilst tho par= of the shore flies were slowly emerging from their mummy-like cases. The variety of the scene was infinite, and made one loth to turn away."

After this comes n very fine and careful description of the Victoria Falls, to which we particularly direct the reader's attention, because we remember how prosy and disappointing

Dr. Livingstone's description was. The author takes us back, with charming lion and baboon stories by the way, to Sesheke;. and, during his second residence there, on many a delightful ramble in the forests, where he finds a number of plants and

trees quite new to him, and a rich fauna; he tells us of the humours of the king, and. the curiosity of his wives ; of the cunning snaring of crocodiles, and of elephant, buffalo, and lion hunts. The succeeding chapter recounts a voyage up the Zambesi, and is a painful one, for it tells, very quietly and in a matter-of-course way, of the author's severe suffering from ill- ness, of a conspiracy against him, and of a night visit from lions that makes one shudder. The author again returned to Sesheke, and was detained so long by illness and convales- cence that he gained minutely accurate knowledge of the people. A chapter devoted to the Tashumo Valley contains a curious account of a kind of beetle settlement, the beetles being of an obnoxious and aggressive kind ; and a description of a glorious celestial phenomenon, never to be forgotten by the spectator in the great solitude. The author's journey through the Maim- laka and West Matabele countries is less picturesque, except when he describes the beauties of the Rhamakohan river, but it abounds in information about animals and plants, The concluding chapters narrate Dr. Holub's journeys from Shoshong to the Diamond. Fields, and through the colony to. the coast. They are' full of interest and very amusing, espe- cially when he tells of his experience as showman to his own menagerie at Kimberley, and of his pecuniary troubles, in his

quiet, quaint way, than which we cannot recall anything, funnier since the Auglo-Bengalee office in Marlin Chuzzlettif, "came down to a grand. piano,"

Dr. Holub is-sanguine about the future of South Africa, not only in the European sense. He does not believe that the- South-African will have to "go," like the Red Indian, although- he considers that certain of the tribes are only equal in their intellectual development and adult powers of comprehension to children of our own at six years of age. For his opinions and advice on time method of dealing with the South-African in all

his varieties, we most refer our readers to the book. We can- not conclude this insufficient sketch of a valuable and enter- taining work, without a word. of hearty praise of the translation.

It is simply so excellent that, only for the betrayal of the page, it would never be suspected.

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