fourth a wide plateau affords every convenience for besieging it, provided the besiegers can bring up their artillery through the next six leagues of road, where defiles, and precipices, and guerrillas impede their advance at every step. Unable from his local position to obtain any succours from abroad, he has been obliged to trust to the precarious supplies which he could either conquer or purchase from his enemiesthe Christino authorities not unfrequently selling, in the true spirit of commerce, at a very cheap rate, the arms and ammunition they had obtained still more cheaply from England. But the jealousy of that portion of the lynx-eyed population of the towns which did not profit by the bargain, and the mistrust of the contracting parties, did not allow this trade to become as flourishing as was mutually desired. Cabrera was, consequently, generally in want of gunpowder, of which his soldiers, like all irregular troops, used no inconsiderable quantity, and the scarcity of cartridges was never greater than when the royal army, which was entirely without this necessary article, effected its junction with him. He had, indeed, obtained some loads of saltpetre, but, although all the workmen at Cantavieja were busy in manufacturing it into gunpowder, the royal divisions remained so entirely destitute of ammunition that until it could be obtained it would be impossible to commence active operations. All the artillery that Cabrera possessed consisted of some old heavy guns; but, in the foundry which he had just established, he undertook to cast some field-pieces, the want of which the expeditionary army had so sorely experienced. Meanwhile an attempt was made on the city of Valencia, which had been left in a very inadequate state of defence; but the Portuguese Legion, having embarked at Barcelona on board some British steamers, landed there before the Carlists reached it, whilst Oraa, with an army of 15,000 men, advanced to its relief by land, and surprised them near Chivas, whither they had retired after the failure of their coup de main. Several whole companies of a battalion, of which the soldiers, quartered in a village below, were cleaning their muskets, were either captured or cut to pieces: the rest of the army were, however, soon drawn up in battle on the heights, where they were attacked by Oraa with the greatest determination. Although obliged to husband their ammunition, the positions occupied by the royalists were defended with great obstinacy for several hours, after which they retired with the greatest sang froid and order to the next heights, which overlooked those they had been defending; and here the same thing, and their subsequent abandonment, took place again; thus, although retreating by degrees, they fought so steadily that Oraa desisted from his attack, and from all pursuit. The Carlist head-quarters retired to the neighbourhood of Cantavieja, where it was more easy to avoid an engagement, until their supplies and artillery were ready. To attain this object more easily, and to overcome the difficulty of feeding even so small an army in so barren and rugged a country, two divisions only remained with the King: Cabrera, to effect a diversion, occupied the confines of Valencia and Arragon; Sanz, with the Navarrese, marched to the sea-coast about Castellon de la Plana, where he collected horses and provisions; Quilez, with the Arragonese, was sent in another direction; and all the cavalry entered the rich plains south of Zarragossa, where the abundance of forage and the evenness of the country it was hoped would considerably ameliorate its condition. Oraa, having

advanced, amused himself with pursuing Don Carlos and his two divisions, who continued to fly before him, but always within a ring-fence, as he had done in the commencement of the war in the Basque provinces. On one occasion he was, in truth, very near capturing him near Mirambelle: the guide, having misunderstood the direction in which he was required to go, had led him right upon the enemy instead of away from him, and the mistake was only discovered when within a quarter of an hour's march of the Christinos. The approach of Espartero, who was said to be at Daroca, with 18,000 men, caused the greatest consternation, as for ten days or a fortnight it would be impossible to get ready the ammunition, shoes, &c., which were indispensable to render the army in fighting order; and, meanwhile, with such an accumulation of force, Cantavieja and all its magazines might be carried, and the position of the King thus be rendered very desperate. Fortunately, at this juncture, the rapid advance of Zariategui, who, with another expedition, had left the provinces, and was carrying everything before him between the Ebro and Madrid, forced Espartero to make a retrograde movement to cover the capital; and the divisions, or rather brigades, of Quilez and Sanz having been called in, the provincial army -which having been joined by several hundred stragglers from Catalonia and some recruits-now amounted to 8000 men-marched again in very excellent order; and Oraa, feeling himself too weak to attack them in the mountains, and beginning to suffer from hunger, retired to Daroca, dividing his force into two divisions, the second under the command of Burens, and both remaining in observation of the Carlists. Having completed the distribution of shoes and cartridges, and received four small field-pieces, which, being only of 4 lb. calibre, although exceedingly well cast, were likely to be of little service-the whole expeditionary army marched towards the rich plains of Carinena, and made halt at Villar de los Navarros, a small village on the confines of the plain and mountainous country. Moreno here found that Burens was in the plain, and Oraa, occupying Daroca on his left, would immediately fall upon his rear if he advanced: finding, however, that he did not move forward, Burens determined to attack him, and despatched a messenger to Oraa, concerting a simultaneous advance from opposite sides, so that they should effect their junction before the enemy. The messenger was, however, intercepted by a party of Manuelines horse in the village of Herrera, and the dispatch found upon him—and a few hours after, Burens, who was not informed of his mishap, commenced his march and entered Herrera, which is about one league distant from Villar de los Navarros, at the extremity of a wide uneven plain which fills up the intermediate space. Judging from the inactivity of Oraa that no other dispatch had reached him, Moreno sent the Alavese division, under Sopelana, to watch the road, which, following the banks of the Almonacid River, enters the high road from Carinena to Daroca-and along this parties of horse were stationed to give intelligence of any movement, that the Carlist army might have time to retreat. Having taken these precautions, Moreno prepared to give Burens battle.

BRITISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE GOLD COAST.*

In our last article upon the British settlements on the coast of Guinea,-after a brief recapitulation of their past history, we shortly touched upon their soil, climate, natural productions, and the general character of the natives, in the hope (which we are gratified to find has not been in vain) of drawing the attention of all who are interested in African civilization and commerce, to those hitherto neglected settlements; satisfied that, rightly understood and appreciated, they are surpassed by few of our colonies in moral, commercial, and political interest. We now proceed to look upon them, and to show their utility and value, in another point of view,-namely, as connected with, and as constituting, in fact, an important and essential link in, the abolition of the slave-trade.

In our former article we showed that these settlements had been originally formed, and that, up to the passing of the slave-trade abolition act, in 1807, they had continued to be maintained, for the sole and avowed purpose of supplying negroes for the transatlantic slave-markets; and that from the year 1661,-the date at which Cape Coast Castle and its dependencies were finally attached to the British crown,-these establishments constituted the great emporium whence the British West India colonies were supplied with slaves. Such being the case, and considering also the vast number of slaves which were annually exported, in order to meet the demands of so extensive a market, we are fully warranted in affirming that in no part of Africa was the slavetrade more firmly rooted, or more systematically and extensively carried on, than in these settlements. What is now termed legitimate com merce was, previously to the passing of the abolition act, but little thought of, and only attended to in so far as it was ancillary to the grand object-the acquisition of slaves for the West India markets. Gold dust, which may now be termed the staple article of commerce on the coast of Guinea, was not, as is now the case, eagerly purchased by merchants as forming a valuable remittance to Europe, but as constituting a standard of value, and a local currency, whereby the purchase of slaves was greatly facilitated: consequently, but little more gold-dust was collected and brought into the market from the interior than was sufficient for that purpose.

The slave-trade, also, appeared to be a species of traffic especially adapted to the genius and habits of the people among whom it had so long flourished, or, more correctly speaking, perhaps, the genius and habits of the people had been modelled to what they were by the slavetrade. This traffic, even when carried on peaceably, and in its least revolting shape, necessarily induces an aversion to, and even an utter contempt for, all industry and labour, properly so called; for all manual and bodily labour was performed only by that class, who were looked upon as so much stock, and who were bought and sold as such. But this effect upon the character of the people was but one of the evils that resulted from the slave-trade in that respect. Daily accustomed to

* Continued from page 353.

witness scenes of the most cold-blooded cruelty, they became utterly callous to human suffering; unrestrained by any form of law or sense of justice, each petty chief oppressed and plundered his weaker neighbour, to be, in his turn, plundered and oppressed by a stronger and more powerful than himself. In no portion of Africa, in short, were the demoralising-the brutalising-influences of the slave-trade more fully developed, more fearfully displayed, than in those extensive tracts of country which now form, or are adjoining to, our settlements on the Gold Coast.

Such, then, was the state of that unhappy country, such the debased character of its inhabitants, when, in 1808, the act of Parliament for the abolition of the slave-trade came into force. It will be readily imagined that the change was most unpalatable to all parties, save and except, perhaps, to the slaves themselves. Why the exportation of slaves should be prohibited, was to the native population utterly unintelligible. That the Government and people of England should wish to abolish a lucrative trade from motives of mere abstract humanity, was, to them, altogether incredible. They exclaimed also against the abolition-act, as pregnant with ruin to their principal source of wealth, and as an unjust and unwarrantable interference with their lawful and inherent right to dispose of their property as they thought fit. In these sentiments many of, if not all, the Europeans with whom they came into contact fully concurred; and the opinions of the natives upon the subject were therefore confirmed, and their feelings excited, when they heard the whites themselves-the soundness of whose judgment in such a matter they could not doubt-openly and loudly condemn a measure which they alleged would not only destroy a valuable and lucrative traffic, but must eventually prove ruinous to our West India colonies.

Here, then, was a portion of Western Africa-embracing a line of coast of some 260 miles in extent-where the slave-trade had been planted, protected, fostered, and encouraged for centuries; and where, therefore, it may be supposed to have, and where, in point of fact, it had, taken root more firmly than in any other part of that vast continent. Can any subject then, we would ask, possess a deeper interest for those philanthropic statesmen who have devoted their time, their talents, their energies, their lives, to the attainment of that grand object which has so long engaged the attention of Christian Europe the entire abolition of the infamous slave-trade ;-can any subject, we say, possess for them a deeper interest than an inquiry into the history, for the last thirty years, of that portion of Western Africa? Before, however, entering on this inquiry, let us glance for a moment at what have been the general effects of the abolition act.

It is admitted on all hands—and, if it be not, we are prepared to prove -that, notwithstanding the treasure that has been so lavishly expended, the lives that have been sacrificed by climate, and the blood that has been spilt, the slave-trade abolition act has utterly failed in its object. That act, which was dictated by the purest philanthropy, and intended as a first instalment towards the liquidation of that vast debt of justice which Great Britain owed to Africa-that act proved, unhappily, a curse instead of a blessing to the unfortunate beings for whose protection it was passed. Before the slave-trade was declared illegal, whatever horrors it occasioned-and they were dreadful enough-previously to

the shipment of the wretched beings who formed the cargo, or after their disembarkation in the West Indies, almost every precaution that humanity could suggest was adopted to ensure their well-being and comfort during the "middle passage." Several acts of Parliament were passed for the better regulation of the slave-trade, which were rigidly enforced. All vessels intended to be employed in the trade were obliged to have a certain height between decks; the number of slaves to be embarked was limited according to the tonnage of each vessel, while no vessel, however large, was permitted to carry more than 400. Bounties were made payable to the commander and surgeon of each ship whose cargo was not diminished by death (on her arrival at her destination), beyond a certain per centage. Every surgeon of a Guineaman was obliged to pass an examination as to his ability and fitness, before a board appointed for the purpose. Every vessel, before being allowed to clear out, was obliged to have on board a certain stock of provisions, and sufficient water-casks or tanks, according to the number of her intended cargo. And, in short, so admirable were the regulations under which the legalised slave-trade was carried on, that we are fully warranted in stating that the slaves, during their transit from the coast of Africa to the West Indies, were, at least, as comfortable as our soldiers were wont to be, during the war, in transports.

But what the condition has been of the wretched beings exported from the coast of Africa since the Abolition Act came into force-or, more correctly speaking, since it has been attempted to enforce that Act-we need not, here, attempt to describe. We have seen many, and sufficiently vivid, descriptions of the state of slave-ships, when captured by our cruisers; but we have seen none that have not fallen far, far short of the truth. It is, in fact, impossible to convey more than a very faint idea of the actual horrors that exist on board of a slaver of the present day. It has been our fortune frequently to witness them, and we can only say that they are indeed such as to make humanity shudder. In short, from long observation of, and intimate acquaintance with, the slave-trade, as carried on of late years, we have no hesitation in asserting, that the sum of human misery occasioned by that traffic during the thirty years that have elapsed since it was declared illegal, has been far greater than that caused by it during the three centuries wherein it was carried on under the sanction and protection of the laws.

"But perhaps" (it may be said)" although the horrors attending the slave-trade have been thus dreadfully aggravated in consequence of the Abolition Act, the trade itself has been diminished-the number of human beings subjected to this misery has been decreased—and we may eventually, though gradually, effect its entire abolition by increased means and increased activity." So far is this from being the case, that the number of negroes exported, and the number of vessels employed in the trade, have actually increased; and we assert, further, that, under the present system, that increase will go on. That we are not speaking without good grounds, will appear from the boarding-books of H.M. cruisers on the West African station for the last ten, but more especially for the last five, years. The same fact can be proved from the number of slavers which have, during the same period of time, visited