199 have little doubt that the local governors beating, and did not cease, until he roared out would still continue to carry on slave hunts most lustily for mercy. I observed the scuffle for their own private benefit. Pallme, how- from the distance; but, unacquainted with ever, shows satisfactorily that the policy of what had transpired, and merely seeing that my servant was getting the worst of the affray, these expeditions is as mistaken as it is took my double-barrelled gun, presented it criminal; and that if friendly relations were at the negro, and commanded him to desist. established with the Nubian tribes, their He instantly sprang on his feet, seized his vast gum forests alone would enable the spear, and threw it at me, before I was even viceroy to realize a much larger revenue aware of his intention; the missile, fortunately, than he has ever obtained by these maraud-only grazed my wide papooshes. He was now disarmed, and I again presented at him. ing and hazardous excursions. The negro remained perfectly cool, and merely Whatever may be the defects of the Af said, Shoot on! I die; and what of that! I rican character, the treatment the blacks now saw that nothing was to be effected by have received at the hands of more civil-intimidation, laid my gun aside, and, walking ized races has certainly not been calculated up to him, inquired into all the circumstances to raise them from the state of brute or of the case, which he faithfully related. Consavage; yet there is abundant evidence that vinced of the injustice of my servant, I endeavored to pacify the negro, and assured him that in many of the qualities which ennoble hu-I would punish the former. All my persuamanity, the native African is by no means sion was, however, in vain; he foamed with deficient, and their rude notions of justice rage, and replied, that we should both suffer are certainly entitled to respect; indeed, for this act.' Seeing he was too weak to offer in many cases, as in the following amusing battle to us both, he ran away in an instant, instance, it is by no means safe to counte-loudly uttering his war-cry of Lu, lu, lu!* nance, even in appearance, an infraction of This was an ill omen for us, and put us both fair and honorable dealing. Pallme was travelling on the borders of the Shilluk's country, along the White Nile, when an incident happened which would have cost him and his servant their lives, but for his knowledge of the true character of the people. in no slight degree of fear. Flight was out of the question, we had no chance of thus escaping. I, therefore, set my wits to work to devise a remedy, to avert at least the first outbreak of our enemies' rage. I bound my servant hand and foot with a cord, and taking up the branch of a tree which lay near me, pretended to beat him most unmercifully; he played his part remarkably well, and screamed as if he were being impaled, whenever I made the slightest movement with my hand; for we al tance, running towards us, their lances glittering in the evening sun, and the shouts of the women, who followed in the wake of the men, boded us no good; but the nearer they ap my servant continued his screams until he was fairly out of breath. Those of our enemies, who were nearest, called out to me to desist; and when I obeyed, my servant rolled himself about in the sand like a madman. The ne "I pitched my tent on the shore of the White Nile, and sent my servant out in search of the wood requisite for our consumption du-ready descried a crowd of natives at the disring the night; for it is necessary in these regions, when encamped in the open air on the banks of the river, to keep up a fire all night long, partly on account of the crocodiles, which swarm in these localities, and are very danger-proached the better we played our parts; and ous, partly on account of the hippopotami; for, although the latter never do any injury, yet they are by no means an agreeable acquaintance. Lions, moreover, and other beasts of prey, might pay a very disagreeable visit in the dark, and they are only to be kept at a respectful distance by maintaining a fire throughout the night. Just as my servant was about to sally forth in quest of fuel, a boat, laden with wood, and rowed by a negro, cross ed the river, and landed near my tent. My servant immediately walked up to the negro; and demanded a quantity of wood, as he could find none in the neighborhood. The good tempered black instantly gave him the half of his store; but, as soon as I had turned my back, my avaricious servant asked for more, which the negro flatly refused; the former, hereupon, became abusive, and his opponent by no means remained mute, until from words they fell to blows, and, finally, began to fight in real earnest. The negro, who was the better man of the two, gave my servant a sound gro who had been the cause of the whole scene now walked up to me, took my hand, and said, 'Have no fear, you shall not be hurt, because you have acknowledged the injury your servant has done me, and have punished him for it. An old man now untied the cord which bound the hands and feet of the culprit, and approached me, to be informed of the whole affair. They proved to be Bakkara.* * Lu, lu, lu! This cry has a triple signification. It expresses joy, grief, and danger, and serves also as an encouragement in battle. The intonation of these sounds determines the difference of their import. It may be readily recognized when it has been frequently heard, but cannot be described. Bakkara are a race of Arabs who occupy themselves with breeding cattle. queen made her mysterious exit; so, on the whole, the family declared themselves greatly pleased, and set off for Baden-Baden the next morning, with the pleasantest conviction that they had made the most of their time, and done and seen a great deal more than most people. I invited the old man and the negro, of whom I have before spoken, into my tent, where I entertained them with coffee, and gave them my pipe to smoke. Harmony was immediately restored, and every one conciliated. They asked me whence I came, and where I was travelling to, and then the conversation turned on other topics. When the night closed in, they all gradually retired, with the exception of five men, who remained with me all night as a guard, emptied several pots of merissa together, and kept up the fire, thus consuming the whole of the wood which had been the belli teterrima causa. When they took their leave of me in the morning they presented me with a young gazelle, as provision for my fur-ful, humble-minded state of existence, would ther journey." We regret that our space does not admit of further extracts; but it would be difficult to exhaust the interest of Travels in Kordofan.' We conclude by a cordial recom mendation of the work. E. THE ROBERTSES ON THEIR TRAVELS. BY MRS, TROLLOPE. From the New Monthly Magazine. Bertha Harrington indeed had a silent thought or two concerning the chances there might be against her ever finding herself within the venerable city again, and perhaps guessed that there might be something more there, which she, in her youthhave deemed worth looking at. But she did not think the looking at them worth the tremendous experiment of asking Mrs. Roberts to remain there for another day. Her meditations in the church had done her good, nor was she at all likely to abandon the resolution she had there taken of rousing herself from the state of almost torpid despair into which she was conscious she had fallen since the terrible death of her mother. But although this was likely to produce very considerable effect upon her general conduct, it did not inspire sufficient courage to induce her to enter into discussion with Mrs. Roberts. And so the Roberts family moved on, though it is certain that at this THE spending either time or money in stage of their travels, a single word from hunting for the treasures which nature or the heiress would have sufficed to have art might chance to have bestowed on the made them halt, retreat, turn eyes right, various places through which her travels led or eyes left, or march forward, at her pleas her, did not enter into the scheme of Mrs. ure. Perhaps it was a pity she did not Roberts's economy; unless, indeed, the know this, as it might have enabled her to said treasures had become so notoriously see many things which were now left unobjects of fashionable curiosity as to ren- seen; and as use lessens marvel," it was der the paying some attention to them both possible that, as time wore on, they might a matter of necessity, and a matter of lose their sense of her greatness, and feel course. The cathedral of Strasbourg was less disposed to prefer her will to their one of these, because Mrs. Roberts had so often heard about the spires being so very high, and so very much like lace-work; and because, moreover, Agatha had written a memorandum in her pocket-book, to assist her in remembering that it was in the cathedral of Strasbourg that the Earl of Oxford and Queen Margaret, according to the unimpeachable Northern chronicle, had their famous interview. In respect to the lace-work, Mrs. Roberts honestly confessed that she was a good deal disappointed. What it was she did expect in that line, she did not explain, but it certainly was not what she saw. However, she confessed also that the spire was uncommonly high; and Agatha protested that she was perfectly sure she had found the door at which the own. The purpose of the effective leader of the party, however, was in this case, as in most others, in very happy conformity with the inclinations of her family. IIer son and her daughters sighed for ball-rooms and public walks, and the estimable father of the race was still so freshly under the influence of the admiration inspired by his adorable wife's last display of good management, in carrying off with her from Paris an extra purse of such considerable value, while rather adding to, than derogating from, the family dignity by the achievement, that the mere circumstance of her making a proposal to do this, that, or the other, was a positive pleasure to him, and he listened with a broad, bland smile upon his countenance, and as broad and bland a should do any thing without having good conviction at his heart, that something good reasons for it, or without being perfectly and profitable must come of it. So on they aware of both the risk and the profit. If went, and found themselves and their well-you were a few years older, Edward, you packed veterino carriage driving along the would know that it was a thousand times picturesque defile, blessed by the tepid less dangerous to come into a new place as springs of Baden-Baden, just at the hour we are doing now, which is exactly in the when its cosmopolite population begin to right way to prevent any one from caring a display their many-colored wings, in order straw about us, than if we were to appear to see and be seen, for the next twelve in a dirty, dusty, shabby-looking carriage, hours, under all the various aspects that with four bony post-horses, with no outpleasure can devise. rider, no courier, no servants. Every body always does look up, and begin peering and peeping when they hear and see posthorses, but nobody ever thinks of giving a second glance, or a first either, at a veterino. And you may just ask yourselves if it is likely you should either of you be known again when you come forth, dressing as you did at Paris, for the same shabby set that looks so cross and so dusty now?" The spectacle was at once horrific and enchanting. "Gracious! what a beautiful group of women!" exclaimed Edward Roberts, twisting himself round in his seat in the open coupée of the vehicle, both for the purpose of addressing his sisters within the carriage, and lengthening his gaze at the party. "I wonder what country they are! But what a confounded bore it is to be seen for the first time boxed up in this To this point the voice of authority had beastly tub! Just look at my father's hat!" been listened to with apparent resignation; "Don't talk of his hat, Edward! Look but exactly as Mrs. Roberts pronounced the at Maria's. Look at us all, covered with word "now," a handsome open carriage, dust, and as tightly wedged in, with all our with two elegant-looking women in it, and boxes and trunks piled up behind us, as if an exquisitely caparisoned gentleman on we were a company of strolling players!" each side, was seen advancing towards said Agatha. them. The road was narrow, and the coachman of this gay equipage made an Maria groaned. "Was there ever any thing so provok- authoritative sign to the veterino, that he ing!" resumed her not less sensitive but more expansive sister. "What a set of men those ladies on horseback have got with them! It is really too provoking." "It is a shame to travel in such a way as this," said Edward, muffling his face in his pocket-handkerchief. "You are a fool for what you say, my dear, but you are wise in what you do," said Mrs. Roberts, following his example, and as nearly as possible covering her ample face also with her pocket-handkerchief. The vererino crept on, and for about two minutes the agitated family had the comfort of enjoying the road, with nothing but the dust to annoy them. Mrs. Roberts put the interval to profit, by pronouncing the following oration: "You are very great fools, all of you. And so you always will be, you may depend upon it, whenever you choose to fancy yourselves wiser than your mother. I know extremely well what I am about-few people better, I believe; and if you were not all of you too young to have your common sense ripened sufficiently to be fit for use, you would know, without my telling you, that it is not very likely such a person as I am was to draw up his vehicle into the hedge, in order to leave good room to pass. The quiet German obeyed, and having lodged two wheels and one horse in a commodious little ditch, patiently awaited the approach of the other carriage and its gay cortége. The agony of the trio of young Robertses was then at its climax. The son uttered a very unseemly word indeed. It was now Agatha's turn to groan, which she did, as she buried her face in her hands; while poor Maria muttered, " Diable !" with an accent perfectly French, but a pang at her heart which, under the circumstances, was perfectly English. She retained sufficient self-possession, however, to follow the example of her brother, and to envelope her face very completely in her handkerchief. But the superiority of the mother's genius displayed itself at this trying moment most strikingly. She rose from her seat in the back of the carriage, and, throwing her self forward, seized the head of her husband in both her hands, and twisting it suddenly round towards the hedge, exclaimed, "Look there!" Of course Mr. Roberts did look there most effectually, concealing his large comely face thereby, and Mrs. Roberts was re-ed by the bright specimens of "good comwarded for her presence of mind and ad- pany" which they had already seen, and flatmirable aplomb, by seeing the dreaded car-tering themselves that it was quite impossiriage roll by; and feeling certain that ble they should ever be recognized as the though the bright eyes it conveyed were dusty travellers whose faces had been so very deliberately directed towards her and carefully concealed, they scrambled out of her family, there was not so much as the the carriage, and dived into the shelter of tip of a nose left visible by which they might the hotel to which they were driven, with a any of them be known again under the lightness of step that spoke well for the widely different circumstances in which they state of their spirits. intended hereafter to appear. But alas! at the instant that she ventured to replace her person in its seat of honor, and permitted herself, from beneath her sheltering veil, to take a glance both at her own party and that which had passed by them, she perceived that the eyes of Bertha Harrington, caught by the picturesque ruins of the Alt Schloss, were not only wide open and unshaded by any contrivance whatever, but thrown up in eager admiration of the scene on which they had fixed themselves, and looking at that unfortunate moment so infinitely more bright and beautiful than she had ever seen them before, that she exclaimed, in a burst of uncontrollable passion, "Hang the girl! she does it on purpose!" Maria's conscience told her that this burst of indignation was produced by her own too spirited appeal to the Prince of Darkness, while Agatha bitterly reproached herself, in the belief that the attitude into which she had thrown herself was too likely to attract attention, and both felt very dutifully penitent. Their emotions would probably have been altogether of a different character had they been aware that their young companion, whose appearance they most sincerely believed to be too perfectly insignificant to attract or to fix the eye of any commonly rational human being, while they were themselves present, had, at that most unlucky moment, both attraced and fixed by far the most fashionable pair of eyes of which Baden-Baden could boast that season, and that too with an ecstacy of admiration which left not the hundredth part of a glance for any one else; a fact which would have been rendered more provoking still, could they have also been made aware that the earnestness of that glance, though it excluded all others, men, women, and children, from its speculation, had very satisfactorily ascertained the fact that the most captivating face in the world was making its entrée into Baden in a dusty, overloaded sort of caravan! But ignorance is indeed very often bliss, and most assuredly was so on the present occasion, for delight Mrs. Roberts herself enjoyed the release from her travelling equipage, fully as much as her daughters could do, but there was more of sobriety and thoughtfulness in her movement. She looked about her, and became immediately aware that the draperies of the window curtains were a great deal too elegant to permit any hope of reasonable charges at the hotel, and therefore that it would be absolute necessary for her to find private lodgings before night. All she had yet seen of the place convinced her that it was exceedingly gay and elegant, and thereupon she naturally determined that she and her family would be exceedingly gay and elegant too, a sort of resolution which never came to her mind unaccompanied with another, for the moment at least, equally strong, that she would be most strenuously economical. "We must not stay here a moment longer than we can help, my dear," said she, addressing her husband. "Not a bed to be had under three francs, I'll answer for it. Dinner we must have, if it is only to get house-room for an hour or two, and I shall order it directly, and then set off with you and Agatha, to look for lodgings." "With me, mamma!" exclaimed Agatha, with every appearance of disinclination to the proposal. "You don't suppose that I intend to show myself in such a place as this dressed as I am now? I neither can nor will do it, and that's flat." "You know, Agatha, that you speak better French than any of us," replied her mother coaxingly, "and, depend upon it, my dear, that it will be greatly for your comfort and advantage to go with me. Girls have always such a quick eye for closets and wardrobes, and all that; besides, the fact is, that I won't go without you. I never can speak French in my best manner when I am as hot and tired as I am now, and unless you mean to go back to Strasbourg or some of the little villages near it, to pass the summer, you must come with me; so don't make any more difficulties about it, there's a dear girl." All these conditions being complied with, the dinner was ordered, and while it was preparing the masquerading apparel of the two ladies was prepared also, and having performed their parts at the repast, they sat off immediately after it, looking, as Maria assured them, so very queer and unlike themselves, that she did not conceive there could be any danger of their ever being recognized afterwards. "If I do go, then, it shall be without was such as to produce from the young papa," returned the young lady, "for lady a very eager exclamation, such as, change of dress, you know very well, never" For dear life do not go in there, mamcan make such a difference in him as to ma!" or, "How can you suppose, ma'am, prevent his being known again. The best that we can all be packed into such a hole way, if I must go, will be for Bertha to lend as this?" the indefatigable Mrs. Roberts me her crape bonnet and mantle, and with replied, "It is impossible to judge, Agatha, this old black gown every body will fancy, till we have seen every thing." In many of course, that I am somebody in mourn- cases the little square boards led them to ing, and then I certainly shall have a tolera- the examination of little square rooms, too ble chance of not being known again, for I miserably small to afford any hope to the shall first come out visible in my préjugé heated and weary Mrs. Roberts that her vaincu bonnet and scarf. And as for you, party might be coaxed into enduring them. mamma, I will positively not stir a step unless The heart and soul of this excellent parent you will let me take every atom of ribbon and admirable manager were about equally out of your bonnet, and that flower out divided between vanity and economy, of your cap, and you shall have Maria's though sometimes the one, and sometimes thick green veil and your own horrid old the other seemed to have the prepondertravelling shawl, and then I think we may ance, which, of course, depended upon the venture. But, remember, never as long as particular circumstances in which she you stay here shall you ever put on that found herself placed; but when she set out striped gown again." upon this quest in search of lodgings, economy was decidedly in the ascendant. had not yet forgotten, good lady, all she had suffered at Paris from having permitted her love of practical elegance to overpower the influence of her theoretical economy, and although her admirable management in obtaining Miss Harrington as an inmate had saved her from the immediate consequences of this indiscretion, she was really and truly doing all she could to keep the scales which indicated the state of her mind as to prudence and splendor, as evenly balanced as possible: nay, she fancied at this particHad the landscape-loving Bertha Har-ular time she rather wished to give the prerington been of the party it is likely enough ponderance to prudence, either as a sort of that the lodging-seeking might have pro- private atonement for her Paris blunders, ceeded but slowly, for it is difficult to take or because she had some indistinct visions a single step at Baden-Baden without com- of Roman greatness in the distance. Acing in sight of tempting paths which so ev-cordingly, she repeatedly endeavored, or idently lead to what is beautiful, that it is appeared to endeavor, to prove that many difficult to turn away from them. Fortunately for the family convenience, Mrs. Roberts and her daughter Agatha were free from all such wandering weakness. Mountains and forests were to them no more attractive than Salisbury Plain would have "How can you say so, mamma?" exbeen under similar circumstances, and the claimed the vexed Agatha, upon one occamurmuring Oelbach on one side, and the sion, when the apartment under examinamassive walls that enclose and conceal the tion was not only exceedingly small, but chambers of the secret tribunal on the situated at the extremity of a long dark other, stole not a single glance from the passage, which gave any thing but a distinsquare little painted boards which here and guished air to the approach. "How can there volunteered the agreeable intelligence you talk of bringing Miss Harrington into that "appartements garnis "were still to be such a place as this? You know she can had. Not one of these welcome notices be obstinate when she takes it into her was neglected; even where the outward head. I would advise you to remember the appearance of the accommodation offered resolute stand she made against our either of the little lodgings they now went over would be good enough, quite good enough, if they could but contrive to have an additional bed or two added to the accommodation they offered. |