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Leader (1850-1860), 30th August 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20, HOME TRAVEL. Handbook for Travellers in ...

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      The Indian Archipelago. A D<>Scrij>Tire ...

      Java , -with excursive sketches of the other islands in the great Eastern group . In the preface to his new volume , he mentions that , abandoning the idea of a second edition , he has preferred to supersede his former work by a general account of the Indian and Philippine archipelagos , treated alphabetically . We wish he had reconsidered this decision , and remodelled the three volumes on Java in a more attractive form , giving them a less inaccurate title . His new attempt is only a partial success . It is at once unnecessarily meagre , and unnecessarily voluminous . The most interesting $ pp ics are dismissed with the slig htest notices—Mr . Crawfurd says from want of materials ; but he seems to have neglected half the literature of the subject . His account of piracy is an example of inexcusable neglect or astonishing scantiness of information . It seems to have been compiled from three or four

      books out of a dozen , and occupies two pages , leaving the largest proportion of ascertained facts unrecorded . Scarcely one page is devoted to the illustration of the recent history of Sarawak , though Mr . Crawfurd amplifies at leisure over the monotonous and meaningless annals of other Archipelago States . Surely , Sarawak was worth a serious description ; surely , also , the remarkable experiment in administration which Sir James Brooke has applied with such triumphant success to that province of Borneo would have furnished a writer not so weary of his task as Mr . Crawfurd with materials for more than twelve cursory lines . At all events , these are the matters which the reader expects to find treated in a book of encyclopaedic pretensions , " probably the most comprehensive , " says the diffident author , " that has yet been published . " h not ambi

      Had he translated M . Temminck ' s volumes—which , thoug so - tious , are , as far as they go , admirable—his praise would have been better applied . Indeed , to write a new book , on this scale , thirty-six years after the publication of three large volumes , was not a discreet undertaking . Some bold corrections and omissions would have rendered thework on Java a necessary addition to Indian Archipelago literature ; but , in the attempt to cover the whole ground , Mr . Crawfurd imposed upon himself a task unjustified by the extent of his studies . No parts of the world are more inviting to research than the vast groups of the Eastern seas . Their early annals are as romantic as those of America , their natural aspects are of astonishing beauty , their inhabitants suggest ethnological questions of the highest importance , and many problems of physical science are connected with their geological formation . That Mr . Crawfurd should not have entered at large into all these subjects , multiplied anecdotes and pictures of private life , introduced among his articles a biography of the first man who ever founded a humane government in Borneo , or traced the curious story

      of the spice trade , is not , perhaps , to be-imputed to his book as a fault . The nature of a dictionary implies formality and dryness of detail , which , however , are not the invariable characteristics of Mr . Crawfurd ' s writing , since he writes , at times , with a fulness of information and an ease that force us the more sincerely to regret that he has cut to pieces his descriptions of Java , to incorporate the fragments with a mass of less interesting , because less satisfactory , materials . We say we did not expect the picturesqueness of history or the precision of special studies in this alphabetical body of articles : but we have a right to complain if Mr . Crawfurd , assuming to supply a manual , glosses over some of the most important subjects in a style that implies a deficiency of knowledge , or of appreciation . An encyclopaedia is nothing unless it be up to the level of the time in which it is published . But the student of Eastern Archipelago geography , natural history , or politics , after consulting Mr . Crawfurd ' s Dictionary , will find himself compelled to look elsewhere , in connexion with many points , even for slender summaries . This being the case , the work is not entitled to the rank claimed for it by the author .

      836 The Leader. [No. 336, Saturday ,

      836 THE LEADER . [ No . 336 , Saturday ,

      The Autobiography Of An Indian Chief. Th...

      THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN INDIAN CHIEF . The Life and Adventures of James P . Beckwourth , Mountaineer , Scout , and Pioneer , and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians . Written from his own Dictation , by T . D . Bonner . Sampson Low . T . D . Bonneb testifies to the veracity of J . P . Beckwourth ; but who will testify to T . D . Bonner ? He took the story down , he says , literally , day by day , from Beckwourth ' s dictation . Now , Beckwourth had kept no journal , and relied on his memory alone ; but as he is personally acquainted with " thousands of people on both sides of the mountains , " has been employed by the United States Government , and has been politically recognized aa the Chief of the Crow Indians , it follows that—part of his narrative may be un invention . We hope it is . He may " compete with refined gentlemen ' at San Francisco , but he competed with the worst brutes in nature at the Beaver River , where he tried to brain his wife for dancing without his

      per-. He is a Virginian by birth , his father having fought for the American cause during the revolutionary war . Transplanted , at aa curly age , to St . Louis , on the Mississippi , ho became familiar with the incidents of wild life , with Indian traffic , and blockhouse perils . Eight scalped children , in fact , figure among tho reminiscences of his infancy . Apprenticed ^ in his fourteenth year , to a blacksmith , he fought his master with a hummer , menaced a one-armed constable with death , and so tortured his father that he obtained permission to travel , and set off with a horse- mid four hundred dollars for enterprises in the Indian country . There ho'became a favourite , and hunted and mined so profitably that , in eighteen months , foeling quite opulent , ho

      first travelled home , and then to the Rocky Mountains . 'Hie account of this expedition is naturally worded , and full of interest . Tho autobiography then becomes slig htly auspicious , being interspersed with dramatic passages of sentiment , enunciated with mock simplicity . Judging Hcckwourth , however , upon his own evidence , wo find him swearing fidelity at homo to a certain Eliza , his betrothed , and then penetrating tho country of the Flat Heads and Black Feet , tuking part in a murderous buttle between thoso nations , sharing their festivals of peace , and becoming tho son-in-law of Heavy Shield , a warrior and chief of tho Mack Feet . Soon afterwards occurred ti ?* slight difficulty in his family ulliiirs , " which Beckwourth , or hii * " autobiographcr" thus refers to : A paity of Indiana came Into camp one diiy , bringing with thorn tbrco white men ' s

      scalps . The sight of them made my blood boil with rage ; but there was no help for it , so I determined to wait with patience my day of revenge . In accordance with their custom , a scalp-dance was held , at which there was much additional rejoicing . My wife came to me with the information that her people were rejoicing , and that she wished to join them in the dance . I replied , " No ; these scalps belongedto my people ; my heart is crying for their death ; you must not rejoice when my heart cries ; you must not dance when I mourn . " She then went out , as I supposed , satisfied . My two white friends , having a great curiosity to witness the performance , were looking out upon the scene . I reproved them for wishing to witness the savage rejoicings over the fall of white men who had probably belonged to our own company . One of them answered , " Well , your wife is the best dancer of the whole party -, 8 he out-dances them all . "

      This was a sting which pierced my very heart . Taking my battle-axe , and forcing myself into the ring , I watched my opportunity , and struck my disobedient wife a heavy blow in the head with the side of my battle-axe , which dropped her as if a ball had pierced her heart . I dragged her through the crowd , and left her ; I then went back to my tent . The girl ' s father theatrically bestows a second daughter upon the champion of his race , who finds her " prettier than her sister , " and who is proud of the change : — During the night , while I and my wife-were quietly reposing , some person crawled into our couch , sobbing most bitterly . Angry at the intrusion , I asked who was there . "Me , " answered a voice , which , although well-nigh stifled with bitter sobs , I recognized as that of my other wife , whom everyone had supposed dead . After lying outside the lodge senseless for some hours , she had recovered and groped her way to my bed .

      " Go away , " I said , " you have no business here ; I have a new wife now , one who has sense . " " I will not go away , " she replied ; " my ears are open now . I was a fool not to hearken to my husband ' s words when his heart was crying , but now I have good sense , and will always hearken to your words . " It did really seem " as if her heart was broken , and she kept her position until morning . I thought myself now well supplied with wives , having two more than I cared to have ; but I deemed it hardly worth while to complain , as I should soon leave the camp , wives and all . A series of battles , surprises , escapes ; three years' wanderings , without the sight of a white man ; a third marriage , with Still-Water , the daughter of a Crow chief ; single combats ; a long love episode concerning Pine-Leai ' , a red-skinned amazon , whose feats would be astounding in a circus ; the capture of many beautiful girls in war ; three whippings inflicted by women on Beckwourth for violating the moral law of the Crows ; his appointment

      as first councillor and chief of the nation , make up , it may be supposed , a very dramatic story . Finally , Beckwourth , after meeting with more adventures than Ulysses , and breaking the heartstrings of many a savage Calypso , settled in a valley near the Feather River , on the great Pacific road . Discovering in the mountains a pass—Beckwourth ' s Pass in the maps—which greatly facilitated the Californian immigration , his house became known as the hall of the pilgrims , and he was once more attached to semi-civilized life . " I think of my son , who is the chief , " he says , " I think of his mother , who went unharmed through the Medicine Lodge ; I think of Bar-cheeampe , the brave heroine . I see her , tearful , watching my departure that

      from the banks of Yellow Stone . Her nation expects my return , I may be buried with my supposed fathers , but none looks so eagerly for the great warrior as Pine-Leaf . " We have a very decided opinion as to the merits of this narrative . It is not altogether fictitious , we know . Beckwourth is a real personage , who encountered the wildest adventures , and became the favourite of the Crow nation . His instincts were partly those of the barbarian , partly those of the restless trader ; and , no doubt , he did leave a wife sighing for him in an Indian hut , as an English traveller— " let none him name "—deserted a young bride in an Ansayrieh valley . But the narrative is so injudiciously written , that every chapter suggests a suspicion of interpolated forgeries .

      Home Travel. Handbook For Travellers In ...

      HOME TRAVEL . Handbook for Travellers in Wiltshire , Dorsetshij-e , and Somersetshire . Murray The tide of travel begins , we trust , to set homewards . Switzerland , the Rhine , nnd even the East , have been so completely ' done' by the Great British tourists , that nothing now remains to Brown , Jones , and Robinson but to explore the natural beauties and antiquities of their own—their native hind . To assist this most desirable retrogression , we are glnd to find Mr . Murray , the ' guide , philosopher , and friend' of so muiiy thousands of our wandering countrymen , undertaking to publish a series of Handbooks for homo tourists on a similar plan to thoso immortal Manuals , which ,

      oven hud Byron never lived , would have rendered the name of '' ohn Murray ' famous through the world . Having started from Cornwall and Devon , Mr . Murray now takes us into the lovely county of Somerset , witli its irrecn English scenery so rich and soft , its luxuriant pictures , its purple distances of hilla , its delightful CombcH , its fine old church towers , its »» c 1 ^™ British und Roman camps , and a hundred other interesting associations , vvc have looked through that part of tho Handbook which is devoted to Somersetshire , having just acquaintance enough with that county to enable us to pronounce a trustworthy opinion on the merits of tho Guide , and we can now conscientiously recommend it for its fidelity and accuracy . Indeed , tno Handbook reveals to us much wo were sadly ignorant of , even in places we have known familiarly nnd well . Of Dorsetshire and of Wiltshire we spoaK

      with less confidence , knowing little or nothing of those counties . JJut , in truth , this Handbook is not . only an inducement to us to make w tour at homo , and infinitely useful in telling us how to do so in the hcut manner , but it will form one of a series , which , Avhen completed , will be a valuable contribution to the library . To tho ' intelligent foreigner , ' theso Handbooks for England will bo us indispensable as tho Continental Handbooks arc to tho Great Briton abroad .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1856, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30081856/page/20/