before you resign that man to obscurity. From his looks, I should think him neither too old, nor constitutionally unfitted for the views I have laid before you. You have been the means of discovering an individual calculated to render, I should think, invaluable assistance to the attempts that are now making to explore the regions around Timbuctoo."

* On my return to England, at the urgent request of Donlan, I applied to those persons interested in African discovery, for employment for him as a guide or servant to some traveller going out to visit Africa. I likewise applied to the Royal Geographical Society, and sent all the papers of the African, both original and translated. In reply to my application on his behalf, I was favoured with the following excellent paper from the Secretary, which, from the soundness of the opinions expressed, and the valuable information respecting the extent of our knowledge of Timbuctoo and its adjoining provinces, I consider well worthy of perusal.

"Royal Geographical Society, 66 April 6, 1835,

"I have carefully read the inclosed papers, and should have been very glad if I could have discovered any thing in them likely to interest the Society in the future employment of the person to whom they relate. But it would not be fair to his friends, not to say, frankly, that I do not think there is any chance of this.

"The district of Africa to which he belongs was very long the object of intense curiosity, among those interested in African discovery; but so much has there been learnt regarding it, especially of late years, that this curiosity is

VOL. II.

Shortly after Donlan procured his liberty, I received a letter from a Mr. Angell of Manchester

brought now within far narrower limits. The general aspect of the country, its productions, trade, the physical and moral aspect of its population, and even their distribution into tribes and nations, are all reasonably well known; and what are yet wanting are chiefly positions, accurate surveys, geological and other scientific examinations, but for which an uneducated native is quite unsuited.

"Neither does it appear to me that he could be very serviceable as a guide or protector to a more suitable person. He has been too long out of the country for such a purpose. We know that, within the present day, the greatest revolutions have taken place in his country, and the Fellatah province, in particular, which is now the dominant one, though it is quite modern. He would be thus a stranger himself among his countrymen, rather than any assistance to another stranger; and, possibly, only the more unsuited for this latter purpose, if his birth be really as good as he calls it.

"Were he on the spot, indeed, we should be very glad to question him about Timbuctoo, though he could only add one to several native accounts which we have of it already. Yet, if reasonably well off in Jamaica, I would hardly advise the bringing him here. The attempt to serve him, and to enable him to return to Africa, might fail; and if it succeeded, the advantage to him might be very doubtful. He has made friends where he is, they would be all to make in Africa; and in a country where the old and helpless are not unfrequently deserted, even by their own children, when they become only a burthen, the prospect to a superannuated stranger cannot be considered inviting.

"A. M. "Sec. R. G. S. L."

parish, a gentleman whom I have not the honour of knowing, but I understand is one of the most respectable inhabitants of his parish. His letter gives an interesting account of another case similar to that of Donlan, where the negro is a man of education, and was of some rank in his own country. He is now seventy-six years of age, fifty-six of which he has passed in slavery on one property in Manchester. The curious part of his case is this-he writes a letter in Arabic to Donlan, and states to Mr. Angell that the purport of the letter is to convert Donlan from Mahometanism to the Christian faith; and for this purpose the old African requests of me to be the medium of communication between them. But what is my surprise at finding the letter of the old man, who is so anxious to convert his countryman from the Mussulman creed, commencing in these terms, "In the name of God, merciful and omnipotent, the blessing of God, the peace of his prophet Mahomet!" So much for the old African's renunciation of Islamism: now for Edward Donlan, who, in a subsequent letter to two highly respectable clergymen of the names of Thomson and Whitehorn, thus writes

"Reverend Gentlemen,-I beg leave to inform you that I am rejoiced and well pleased in my heart for the great boon I have received in the Testament, both of the old and new law of our

Lord and Saviour, in the Arabic language. I am now very anxious to get a prayer-book, the psalms, and an Arabic grammar-also a copy of the Alcoran."

Now the latter part of the request I think looks like the yearning of one who was not quite weaned from the recollections of his old religion. I do not mean to say there was any hypocrisy in the new profession of either of these persons; I only mean to state my belief, that all the proselytes I have seen in Mahometan countries, have rather engrafted the doctrines of Christianity on the stem of Mahometanism, than plucked up the latter, root and branch, to make way for the former. I have elsewhere stated, that so vague are their notions of the character of the religion they last adopt, that they think it compatible with the doctrines both of it and of their former creed, to believe in each.

"From B. Angell, Esq. to Dr. Madden.

"Sir,

66

Manchester, Jamaica, October 7, 1834.

"You will be gratified to learn that Jamaica contains more than one proof of the civilised condition of part of Central Africa, and of the capacity of the negro for learning. The inclosed is written by Robert Peart (or Tuffit), late a slave belonging to Spice-Grove Plantation in this parish, to Abon

Becr Sadiki, (which he pronounces Bou Bakin Sedaik,') with whom he has for some time past carried on a correspondence, inviting him to abjure Mahometanism and embrace the true religion. The purport of the letter is to advise him to request you to be the medium of communication between them.

"The short and simple annals' of Robert Peart may not be uninteresting to you. He was born in a place called Bouka, in the Mandingo country, nine days' journey from the sea-side, and near the country of the Foulahs, the capital of which is Timbo. His father, Abon loo de Kadri, was a substantial yeoman, possessing 140 slaves, several cows and horses, and grounds producing quantities of cotton, rice, and provisions, which he exchanged for European and other commodities brought from the coast by Higglers. His family were Mohammedans, as most of the Mandingoes are. He was named Mohammed Kaba: the first son, he says, is always called Mohammed. was educated partly by his father, but principally by his uncle, Mahommed Batoul, who was a great lawyer, and had designed him for the same profession. He pursued his studies until he was twenty years of age, when he was seized one day as he was walking some distance from home by a party of robbers, carried to the seaside, and sold to the captain of a slave-ship.

He