Oh be Thou a leader and a guide to us, Creator of the light which is formed in the heavens ! Who framed and fashioned the heavens themselves !" 16 The Lion's Bay (Sierra Leone), of which the pestilential climate has proved so fatal to the European constitution. 17 The Ghona or Ghonaqua tribe formerly inhabited the country between the Keisi and Camtoos rivers. Of those who have survived the ravages of war the greater part have become incorporated with the Gunuguebi tribe of Kaffres. Another remnant formerly resided on the Kat river under the ministry of the missionary Williams. Camalû is a glen at the source of the Kat river. Sicana's hymn sung by the Ghonas of the Kat river is set to a plaintive native air. And the language abounding in vowels is singularly adapted to such a strain. 18 Dan. x. 12, 13, 20, 21, contains a curious intimation on the subject of guardian angels presiding over the destinies of various nations. -The "Princes" of Persia, Grecia, and Judæa were evidently presiding spirits. 19 Εἰς ἃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι. 1 Pet. i. 12. 20 Mauri-ga-Sima, an island near Formosa, supposed to have been sunk in the sea for the crimes of its inhabitants. The vases, &c. which the fishermen and divers bring up from it are sold at an immense price in China and Japan. KEMPFER. 21" Crowned Atlas," scil. with snow. Leo Africanus derives the general name of this chain from the Arabic "Atlis, snow."-The Arabians, he says, call the Atlas, Djebel Attlis-that is, the Snowy mountain, "So called by Bartholomew Diaz, the first European navigator who doubled it. The name Il Cabo Tormentoso was changed by John II. of Portugal for the present name " The Cape of Good Hope." 23 Naples. 24" He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." -Isaiah li. 3. 25 The Desert of Kalleghanny or Challahengah, north of the Orange River, and lying between the countries of the Bechuanas and Damaras, is said to be for the most part entirely destitute of water, so that the Bechuanas and Corannas in crossing it are forced to subsist on a species of wild water melon, which grows abundantly on those arid plains. THOMPSON's Travels, Vol. II. 25 "The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it; the excellency of Carmel and Sharon."-Isaiah xxxv. 2. There only lacks the single gift of water to make "the desert rejoice, and blossom as the rose." In confirmation of this fact the following beautiful passage is selected from Lichtenstein's Voyage to the Cape; where speaking of the great Karroo, he says, "As soon as the rains begin to fall, and penetrate the hard coat of earth, these fibres (of roots) imbibe the moisture, and pushing aside the clay, the germ of the plant, under their protection, begins to shoot. As by successive rains the soil gets more and more loosened, the plants at length appear above it, and in a few days the void waste is covered with a delicate green clothing. Not long after, thousands and thousands of flowers enamel the whole surface: the mild mid-day sun expands the radiated crowns of the mesembryanthemums and gortinia, and the young green of the plants is almost hidden by the glowing colours of their full-blown flowers, while the whole air is filled with the most fragrant odour. At this time the whole dreary desert is transformed into one continued garden of flowers; the colonist, with his herds and flocks, leaves the snowy mountains, and, descending into the plain there finds a plentiful and wholesome supply of food for the animals, while troops of the tall ostrich, and the wandering antelope, driven also from the heights, share the repast, and enliven the scene. But how soon is the country again deprived of all its glory! It scarcely continues more than a month. As the days begin to lengthen, the revived power of the mid-day sun checks once more the lately awakened powers of vegetation. Soon the streams begin to dry, the springs scarcely flow, till at length the complete drought compels the colonists to seek again their more elevated homes. Every day the Karroo grows more and more solitary, and by the end of September it is wholly deserted. The hardened clay bursts into a thousand cracks, which evince to the traveller the vast power of the African sun. Every trace of verdure is vanished, and the hard red soil is covered over with a brown dust, formed from the ashes of the dried and withered plants." 28 The River Niger presents nearly a cruciform appearance where the Quorra that flows from the Kong mountains, as well as the Tchadda which flows from the opposite quarter, make their confluence with the main river. The discoveries and sanguine anticipations of Messrs. Laird and Oldfield recal to mind the words of prophecy, Isai. xliii. 19. "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth: even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." . I will 29 "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side."-Ps. lxv. 11, 12. 30"And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp. hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.”—Isai. xi. 7—9. They shall not 31 "He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. . . . . . to comfort all that mourn."-Isai. lxi. 1, 2. 32 "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”—Isai. xxxv. 1. |