But the warning voice of Noah is disregarded, and treated with proud contempt; on which he retires to his own home," watching, with care, the slow-declining sun," and conversing with his family of heavenly things. At length Noah enters into the ark, with his family and the various tribes of living creatures, on which the awful catastrophe ensues, and is described by our author in the following glowing terms, "The hundred kings have perished on the pile, Whilst feasts succeed, with dance and orgies vile: The revellers, at death and danger, smile! Lo! in the midst is seen an unknown light! Red clouds arise! A silence deep as night, Reigns thro' heaven's canopy! while, far and near, The birds, on wildest wing, betray their fear! Now, the portentous pause has ceas'd to reign! The northern clouds burst on, in threat'ning train! Heaven's flood-gates cast their torrents from the sky! And loud is heard the wind's shrill harmony! The wine of ASHTAROTи no longer cheers, Each leaves the banquet, thoughtful, each appears, And, on the gathering storm, more dark, more dread, Gazes, perplex'd, and, silent, shakes his head! The eve comes on in tenfold gloom array'd! And, now, amid the heart-appalling shade, Lightnings, in eminence of forked fire, Burst furious on, and back to night retire! Ah! what stupendous thunders shake the air! And what fresh bursts of long-enduring glare! Where is the firm, the proud disdainful brow! Where is the lofty look, the boaster, now! While the dread scenes the stoutest hearts appal, In vain on ASHTAROTH aloud they call! MOLOCH their prayer regards not! Louder still,, Tempests, the air, with unseen terrors, fill! The forests, crashing, yield at last their reign! The storm-rent mountains, rolling to the plain, Swell the vast uproar, whilst the earth way Thro' warring mists that bar distracted day! The monarch from his slave no pity shares, 'Tis man that suffers, man his burden bears! All sympathy, disdainful, far is thrown, Where each deliverance seeks for one alone! The storm still waxes higher, 'Mid the sky, Thunders still roll and lightnings fiercer fly! Torrents, augmenting, thro' the valleys pour! The clouds, on deluged earth, exhaust their store ! The new-born rivers rise, and bear away Spoils, heap'd on spoils, with a resistless sway! The waters fast increase! Another night Now spreads, opprest with terrors infinite! Another morn arrives! The distant sea, Bursts its weak bounds, and, from dominion free, With lawless rage rolls on th' impetuous wave, Sweeping whole nations to their watery grave! Ah! now, too late, the lofty sons of earth, Confounded, mourn the moment of their birth! Hosts, to the hills, for safety vain, have fled, Soul-agoniz'd, opprest with speechless dread! Striving to gain the pinnacle on high, With furious fear, or with the ghastly eye, Their spirits quench'd! despairing! refuge o'er ! Gazing on billows huge that round them Too late the warning voice conviction (ready good gardens, though the town had not then existed a year. brings, Your outraged conscience, like the scor Fiercer the waves advance! Ah! now they sweep The last of mortals to the raging deep! With this extract we take our leave, for the present month, purposing, if all be well, to return to the consideration of the poem, the review of which we hope to finish in a future number. At present we shall only add, that we persuade ourselves the short account we have already given of it, and the selections we have made from it, cannot fail to excite the attention of every cultivated mind, for if this be not genuine poetry, we confess that we know not where else to find it. On the 24th, Mr. C. and his friends left Graham's Town, and proceeded for Graaf Reynet, the missionary station at which Mr. Kicherer is placed, where they arrived on the 31st, and met with an hospitable reception, which induced them to prolong their stay till the 11th May. Intending to proceed to Klaar-Water, or Griqua Town, their journey now lay through the Bushmen's country, in which they had to cross the great river. Mr. Kicherer and other friends from Graaf Reynet, kindly accompanied them during the first ten days, but on the 20th May, after uniting in prayer, they took leave of each other in silence. The rout of our travellers lay through a country full of perils both from man and beast. Happily, just as they were about to set out, a young Bushman offered to accompany them to the great river, and act as their guide, an occurrence which Mr. Campbell records with feelings of gratitude to the God of his mercies. "Our being accompanied by the young Bushman appeared to be a singular favour from Providence, for had he not been with us, it is probable we should neither have found grass, nor water, nor wood for fire at night. We had not seen a blade of Travels in South Africa. By John grass during the first day's journey; but a Campbell. [Concluded from p. 87.] AFTER spending three weeks at Bethelsdorp, Mr. Campbell, accompanied by his missionary brethren, Messrs. Read and Ulbricht, on the 9th April, 1813, took his departure for Albany. On the 11th they reached a military station, and it being the Lord's day, they halted for the purposes of public worship. The country through which they had travelled, though completely in a state of nature, is described as beautiful in the extreme, much resembling a nobleman's park in England. The ground, says our author, was covered with the finest grass, interspersed with single trees and clumps of trees in all directions, and presented a charming spot for a missionary station. On the 21st he reached Graham's Town, the residence of the deputy Landdrost, and the head quarters of the military station in Albany; its situation is said to be pleasant and healthy, with a plentiful supply of water all the year. Some of the officers have al little after sun-set he led us out of our track, up a narrow pass between two hills on our right, to a small sequestered valley, where there was a fountain, grass, and abundance of fire-wood. I looked to him as Elijah may be supposed to have looked to the ravens that fed him in the wilder ness, as 'God's instrument for fulfilling his of distant friends. He was cheerful and gracious will to us, in answer to the prayers happy, appearing to consider himself perfectly safe with us, which is wonderful, considering how cruelly his nation has in former times been treated by the colonists. We soon made a large fire of the turpentine plant, which afforded both light and heat. The night was so cold, that to have a hot stone under my feet. About while writing in the tent, I was obliged ten P.M. a wolf came to see what he could make of us, but our fires and the barking of our dogs obliged him to keep his distance." p. 190. The reader may, from the following extract, form some notion of the race of Bushmen, among whom our travellers now were. Bushman to come into the tent, with his "In the evening I asked our young interpréter, to have some conversation with him. I inquired what he thought to be the worst thing a man could do? It was sometime before we could make him understand the meaning of a bad thing, for he had never heard that one thing was worse than another. When he appeared to form some idea of the meaning of bad, 1 asked what he thought was the worst thing he had ever seen done in his kraal. He said they often quarrelled, and when any of these quarrels ended in killing one another, it was fine, good sport; it shewed courage. He said all these quarrels were about their wives: one was for having the other's wife, which he did not think was bad. Being asked if he would consider it bad if any in the kraal were to take his wife while he was with us, he answered, Bad, bad. He said it was fine to take others' wives, but not fine to take his. He said he never stole. He acknowledged it was bad to quarrel, steal, murder, and to commit adultery. On being asked which was the worst of these, he said he could not tell. 66 the ways of God are inscrutable, and the permission of this seems to be one of them." p. 208. On the 8th June, the whole of the procession succeeded in crossing the river at a fordable place, and on the following day they reached Klaar Water, or Griqua Town, another missionary settlement, where they continued only a week, having re solved to visit the city of Lattakoo, which is situated considerably higher up Africa. They therefore proceeded on the 15th, and reached the place of their destination in about ten days. This is a royal city; but on their arrival our travellers had the misfortune to find that Mateebe, the king, was absent on a hunting party, in consequence of its being the time of the annual circumcision. The fol lowing interesting account is given "I then asked him what he thought by our author of his arrival at this was the best thing a man could do? His celebrated city, which consists of reply to this question was extremely affecting." All my life (said he) I have about 1500 houses, and whose popuonly seen evil, and never any good, where-lation Mr. Campbell estimates at fore I cannot tell what is best." The about seven thousand five hundred questions appeared to him, however, as inhabitants. mere sport, for in the very midst of the conversation he complained that he had a bad cap. He informed us that a boor once came and attacked their kraal, and they knew not why, but he and those with him killed ten men, women and children, of the kraal. We asked if his father had given him any good advice before he left him to come with us. He replied, "My father said I was going with strange people, and must be obedient, and perhaps I should get something; and while with them he should take care of my wife and child, and when I got education and returned I should be able to teach them'." p. 195. On the last day of May they arrived at the great river, which is said to be as broad as the Thames at London bridge, and both deep and rapid; but we must not pass over the following short paragraph. "It is rather singular that we should have crossed the Bushman's country without meeting one human being, except one family on the day we entered it. That even the part where we crossed has some inhabitants I have no doubt, from the remains of huts which we discovered in two or three places; but their number must be very small. It fills the mind with regret to see so large and beautiful a portion of God's earth so destitute of population, and to think of its producing, year after year, provender sufficient to support millions of cattle, whilst only a few wild beasts roam over it. Many of Having crossed the river, we imme. diately began to ascend rising ground. Many footpaths became visible, all running in one direction, toward the N.E. which indicated our approach to the city. At three, P.M. reaching the summit of the hill, Lattakoo came all at once into view, lying in a valley between hills, stretching about three or four miles from E. to W. On descending the hill towards this African city, we were rather surprised that no person was to be seen in any direction, except two or three boys. Though come within a hundred yards of the houses, still no inhabitant appeared. When my waggon got to the entrance of the principal street or lane, a man appeared, and made signs for us to follow him. Proceeding amidst the houses, every thing remained as still as if the town had been forsaken of its inhabitants: this was the case till we came opposite to the king's house, when we were conducted into a square, formed by bushes and branches of trees laid one above another, in which were several hundreds of people assembled together, and a number of tall men with spears, drawn up in military order on the north side of the square. In a few minutes the square was filled with men, women, and children, who poured in from all quarters, to the number of a thousand or more. The noise from so many tongues, bawling with all their might, was rather confounding, after being so long accustomed to the stillness of the wilderness. We were soon separated, and lost sight of each other in the crowd. At first the women and children fled if we only looked at them, but they gradually became bolder. I observed some of the children, whose heads I had stroked, throwing themselves in my way, that I might do it again; when they looked to their more timid companions, as if they had said, Are not we courageous? The crowd so increased, that we could hardly find out each other, and wondered when we should be permitted to take some refreshment. We adopted a scheme, which, after a while, answered our purpose; we drew up the waggons in the form of a square, and placed our tent in the centre. We were introduced to Munaneets, the uncle, and to Salakootoo, the brother of the late king Mallayabang, who stood in the middle of the spearmen. A house in the square, used by them for some public purpose, was assigned to us for a kitchen. "On getting into our tent, a crowd of the chief men followed us and filled the tent to the outside, and the square formed by our waggons was like a bee-hive, in which the confused noise rendered conversation almost impossible. On something being put down on our table, we were agreeably surprised to find the crowd immediately retire. Whether this proceeded from a sense of decorum, or in consequence of orders from Munaneets, the uncle and deputy of the king, I could not learn. p. 245-247. It was ten days before the king returned from his hunting excursion, but the interval afforded our travellers an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the customs, manners and dispositions of his subjects, whom he describes as "a sprightly and ingenious people, -in point of natural abilities apparently superior to any of the African nations he had seen;" and at quitting the place he could not avoid regarding it as a city which may yet become a Jerusalem to Africa. We are happy to find that the Society have appointed four persons to this station, namely, Mr. Barker, Mr. Williams, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Evans. May their mission be crowned with success! At length, however, on the 5th July this important personage arrived. The following is our author's account of this matter. "Two parties, as forerunners of Mateebe, arrived in the morning, and at noon he himself arrived, with many attendants carrying spears, and poles dressed with black ostrich feathers, which are stuck into the ground around places where they halt, to frighten away lions, who it seems are not fond of their appearance. The arrival of Mateebe occasioned no more stir in the town than usual. On coming into the square, he took no notice of us or our waggons, but acted as if ignorant that strangers were there. He then with his people crouched down in the form of a circle, when Mateere related to him every thing that had taken place during his absence. He then related the circumstances of his own excursion, both of which speeches did not occupy ten minutes; after which, in consequence of orders, we walked up to him, when, without looking towards us, he stretched out his right hand, which we shook, saying to him, "Mateebe, O Iss," which is the salutation given to the king. During all this there was not the smallest alteration in his countenance. He appeared thoughtful, deep, and cautious, extremely like the portraits I have seen of Buonaparte, which were taken ten or twelve years ago. After remaining about two hours in the square, without appearing to notice us, he went across the road to his house, having hinted to Adam Kok, that when he had rested, he should converse with us on the object of our visit, which would be about the going down of the sun. "About sun-set, Mateebe, attended by his brother and some of his chief men, approached our tent. On entering, he sat down and remained in silence, first to receive our present, and then to hear what we had to say. I made him a present of some trinkets furnished me by the ladies of Kingsland, accompanied by the lid of my shaving box, which happened to contain a looking-glass. When taking out the different articles, I observed him slyly what was coming next. During the whole looking towards the parcel, to discover proceeding, he sat motionless, but when he saw no more presents were coming, he condescended to open his mouth, and said, "You would have been perfectly safe, though you had not had Adam Kok and his friends with you, or though I had received no presents. So soon as I was informed by Munaneets of your arrival, I came to you. 66 I proceeded to tell him, that I came from the same country from whence the missionaries had been sent to instruct the nations in Africa.--That when I came to Klaar Water, I heard his people would be glad to have teachers as well as other nations, wherefore I had undertaken a journey to his country to ask his permission to send them, and his protection for them when with him.-I stated to him that the teachers we should send, would convey information of the true God who made the heavens, the earth, and all creatures and things in them-of his love to the world-of the laws he has given respecting good and evil.--After answering some objections, the king said, 'SEND INSTRUCTORS, AND I WILL BE A FATHER TO THEM'." Religious and Literary Entelligence. LONDON SOCIETY the children of Israel that Jesus is the for promoting Christianity among the Messiah; it consequently became neces Jews. SOME important and fundamental alterations having recently taken place in the affairs of this Society, it may be useful to our readers to be made acquainted with them, and with the circumstances which occasioned them. "It appears, that on the formation of this Society, it consisted of Christians of various denominations, without any reference to their respective differences of sentiment; and in the earlier stages of its progress, it was stated in its Reports, that the exertions of the Institution, as far as they were of a spiritual nature, were to be confined to the simple object of convincing the Jews of the Messiahship of our Lord Jesus Christ; leaving the Jewish converts to decide for themselves, what external communion they would join. sary that the ordinance of Baptism should be administered to them. A part of the converts accordingly received Baptism in the Church of England, agreeably to the rites of that Church; and others were baptized at the Jews' Chapel, in Spitalfields, by a Minister of the Presbyterian and National Church of Scotland, and according to the forms of that National Church. The baptism of the converts from year to year has continued to be conducted in the same manner, with the exception of last year only. "At the same time that sermons and lectures, as above mentioned, were preached in the chapel of the Society, the committee embraced every opportunity of procuring aid from the talents and piety of the clergy of the Established Church, by soliciting them to preach occasional lectures to "It is evident, that so long as the opera- with the Church of England. In pursuthe Jews in places of worship connected tions of the Society were limited strictly ance of the same general plan, and with to the above object, it was possible for a design of connecting the Institution more them to proceed in their course without nearly with its friends of the Establishcoming upon disputed ground, involving in ment, and of procuring for it more general it the points of difference between Chris- support in that quarter, the committee obtians: and thus far, all truly pious Chris-tained a lease of a piece of ground at Bethtians could most cordially act together, without offering violence to their strictest and most conscientious views of duty. The Society having, very soon after its original formation, become possessed of a large place of worship in Spitalfields, since called the Jews' Chapel, it was opened for the Jews; Sermons were there delivered by Dissenting Ministers of various denominations, and Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity were preached by Mr. J. S. C. F. Frey. 'By the Divine blessing on the use of these means, a small congregation of converted Jews was collected: but, as the Society was not then possessed of an Episcopal place of worship, the Committee, anxious to conduct the Institution on the principles of strict impartiality, and to avoid giving occasion of offence to the conscientious members of the Established Church who were subscribers to the Institution, did not think it advisable that the Jews' Chapel should be permitted to assume the form of a Dissenting Church; and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper has consequently never been administered there. But it having pleased God, as above mentioned, very early to bless the efforts of the Institution, in convincing some of VOL, I nal Green; where a large Chapel for the Jews has been erected, and opened under a license from the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London.-This chapel is under the ministerial charge of the Rev. Mr. Hawtrey, a regular clergyman of the Church of England. "In prosecuting these various measures, it was the ardent desire of the committee to conciliate the minds of all pious persons, both in the Establishment, and amongst the Dissenters. It was their view to establish in the Episcopal Chapel a mis sion to the Jews conducted by the clergy of the Established Church; and that a similar mission should be formed in the Jews' Chapel, where the Rev. Mr. Frey should officiate as a regular minister after receiving ordination: and that in this cha pel pious and learned Dissenting Ministers should have opportunities afforded them of preaching to the Jews. It was thus the endeavour of the committee, to unite both the Church and the Dissenters, in the great work of evangelizing the Jews.' It has, however, been found by experience quite impracticable to conduct the affairs of the Institution prosperously upon the above principle. A debt of about six thousand pounds having been incurred by the purchase of ground and the erec X |