to improve or progress; nor do they hold any intercourse with any other nation, owing to the injurious effect of a false system of religion and government in restraining the energies of the people, and preventing them from keeping pace with the other nations of the world.

THE AFRICAN KING.

WHATEVER authority this king may have over his people certainly does not appear to be derived from the splendour of his apparel. Crown he has none, save the one tuft of hair left upon his else bare scalp;-the spear on which he leans is his only sceptre, and one cannot imagine a sovereign with bare legs and naked feet bestowing upon any of his subjects the insignia of the order of the garter. Nevertheless he may be every inch a king, and as such he may be introduced to the reader. This is Moselekatse, King of the Amazooloo, and first made known to Englishmen by Captain Harris, in a most interesting book of Travels in Southern Africa.

Moselekatse possessed a fine, tall, well-proportioned figure, with rather a pleasing countenance, although marked with wily cunning and suspicion; with a small piercing eye surmounted by an ample forehead. He certainly looks like one whose courage and energy mark him out as a king among the men of a wild and savage race; prompt, stern, and unyielding, his orders are such as ensure swift obedience; cautious and slow in speech, but rapid and fiery in action; reserved in manner and dignified in aspect. Such are the men who, in the early and ruder stages of society, place themselves at the head of their people, and by their rugged virtues, and even by the peculiar character of their vices, help forward that onward movement of the human race, which, in spite of many checks and hindrances, of many temporary and partial backslidings, is yet real all the world over. To use Macaulay's noble image-the tide of civilization is advancing, though each single wave may retreat as it breaks upon the shore.' But to return to Moselekatse. His costume is a simple girdle made of