we sailed for England, and crossing the Atlantic, arrived in the Downs on the 9th of September, after I had been absent from my native country sixteen years and about nine months-fifteen years of which had been spent in captivity. By the captain's direction, I went ashore, he having previously supplied me with what was necessary for my journey to London; yet I did not set forward till I had returned thanks to God, in the most solemn manner, for my safe arrival, and for my deliverance from the many dangers I had escaped, and from the many miseries I had so long endured.

[The pleasure which Drury felt on reaching London, was greatly damped by the intelligence of the death of his father and mother, grief at his loss having for years preyed on their spirits. His father had died only lately, and left him the sum of £200, with a house at Stoke-Newington. Discouraged by the loss of his parents, he tells us that, after settling his affairs, he returned to Madagascar on a trading expedition; and having there procured a cargo of slaves, and taken them to Virginia, he came back to England in September 1720. Here his narrative terminates; and we are led to infer that, settling in London on the moderate competence he had acquired, he did not again tempt the dangers of the ocean. Some years

before his death, says the editor of his volume, he was to be spoken with every day at Old Tom's Coffee-house, in Birchin Lane; at which place several inquisitive gentlemen received from his own mouth the confirmation of those particulars which seemed dubious, or carried with them the least air of a romance.

We have only to add, in regard to the present condition of Madagascar, that one of the tribes, the Hovas, who seem to be of Malay or Polynesian origin, have acquired a kind of supremacy over most of the others of African race, and that, in the beginning of this century, under a chief or king of the Hovas, Christian missionaries were established, and some progress was made in introducing European arts. The female sovereign who succeeded him endeavoured to exterminate Christianity, and banished Europeans from the island. Her son and successor (1862) gave promise of favouring European civilisation, but he soon fell a victim to a conspiracy, and further progress is in the meantime arrested. The French have formed a settlement on the islet of Sainte-Marie, on the east coast, and this will probably end in their taking possession of the whole island.]*

*The present tract is an abridgment of a somewhat scarce and curious autobiography, in one volume, published originally in London in 1743, and reprinted in 1807.-ED.

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T an early period, the boundaries of England differed considerably from their present_limits. The southeastern provinces of Lothian and Berwickshire belonged to England, while the south-western frontier of Scotland was enlarged beyond its present bounds by the possession of the ancient British kingdom of Cumberland. In the year 1018, Eadulf, Earl of Northumberland, ceded to Malcolm II. the whole district of Lothian and Berwickshire to the Tweed. But this extension of territory on the eastern frontier was balanced by the loss of Cumberland, which was wrested from Malcolm Canmore by William the Conqueror. After this period, no permanent_change took place on the boundaries of the two kingdoms; and the Borders, with the exception of Berwick on the east, and the 'Debatable Land' on the west, which were constant subjects of dispute, might be considered as finally settled according to the present limits.

At the eastern extremity of the boundary-line between England and Scotland stands the town of Berwick, on the north bank of the Tweed. This ancient town was the key of the kingdom on this side, and was therefore the object of perpetual strife for several centuries. It was finally left in possession of the English about the close of the fifteenth century. In 1551 the town, and a small district adjoining to it, called Berwick Bounds-in all about eight miles-were made

No. 37.

I

independent of both England and Scotland, and in acts of parliament applicable to England and Wales, 'the good town of Berwickon-Tweed' was always added. But this practice has been abolished, and Berwick, with its liberties, now forms part of the county of Northumberland. In consequence of this circumstance, the boundary-line between the two countries at its eastern extremity leaves the German Ocean about three miles to the north of the Tweed, and proceeding in a south-westerly direction, strikes the river about three miles from the sea. From this point the Tweed forms the line of demarcation as far as Carham, four miles west from Coldstream, when the boundary proceeds southward, inclining to the east for a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles; it afterwards turns towards the south-west, in which direction it continues nearly the whole of the remaining distance. For forty or fifty miles the dividing line runs through a wild and mountainous country, and along the highest ridges of the Cheviot Hills-the waterbreak, as it is called, being understood as the proper boundary. A large extent of the district through which this part of the line runs was formerly in the condition of a forest, and now consists of extensive sheep-walks. On leaving the mountain ridges which divide Northumberland from Roxburghshire, the line takes the bottom of a valley, along by a stream called the Kershope (a branch of the Liddel), and afterwards along the river Liddel, till about four miles north of Longtown, when it strikes off abruptly from the course of this stream in a direction due west, being marked by an old ditch and embankment called the Scots Dike. This dike is four miles in length, and terminates on the banks of a stream called the Sark, which flows in a southerly direction towards the Solway, and forms the boundary of the two countries between the place where the Scots Dike touches it and its efflux into the Solway. The Solway Firth, which separates Cumberland from the Scottish counties of Dumfries and Kirkcudbright, may be considered as forming the remaining portion of the boundary between the two kingdoms. In ordinary conversation it is customary to speak of the Tweed as the great dividing line of England and Scotland; but it will be observed from the above that the Tweed really forms a comparatively small part of the boundary, by far the larger portion being an ill-marked track across a mountainous country.

From the indistinctness of the line in many parts of its course, there are, in different places, disputed or debatable lands, claimed by opposite jurisdictions; but these being desolate pastoral tracts, no practical inconvenience ensues.

In consequence of the mutual discord which long unhappily subsisted between England and Scotland, as well as from the feebleness of the administrative law on both sides, the tract of country along the Borders, extending to a length of seventy or eighty miles, by an irregular breadth of from ten to thirty or forty, was distinguished as the scene of almost perpetual disturbance. Apart from that of

England and Scotland, the Borders may be said to have a history of their own; for while the two conterminous nations were at peace, this central district was often engaged in its own family wars and predatory forays, over which the monarchs on either side had no vigorous control.

To remedy this state of things as far as possible, the Borders were divided into east, west, and middle marches, which were placed under the charge of officers of high rank, holding special commissions from the crown, and entitled wardens or guardians of the marches. The persons who filled this important office were usually noblemen or chiefs possessed of great personal influence in the districts committed to their jurisdiction. The duties intrusted to their charge were of a very extensive nature, comprehending the maintenance of law and good order among the inhabitants of their own districts; the control and administration of all the crown manors within their jurisdiction; and the power of apprehending and inflicting summary punishment on those who had been guilty of march treason and felony, or of violating any of the ancient rules and customs of the marches. In time of war, the warden was captain-general within his district, with full powers to call out all the fencible men,' for the purpose either of defending their own territory, or of invading that of the enemy. In time of peace, he had the difficult duty committed to him of maintaining the amicable relations between the two countries, and of redressing the various grievances arising out of the continual incursions of the mosstroopers on both sides.

The weakness of the Scottish monarchs usually compelled them to confer the office of warden on some of the chiefs of the great Border clans, who appear, without any scruple, to have employed their authority to crush their private enemies, rather than to preserve the public peace, or to secure the impartial administration of justice. The extensive power of these turbulent chieftains made it almost equally dangerous to withhold or to grant whatever boons they chose to exact. Their numerous and devoted clansmen and allies were ever ready to obey their commands, even in opposition to the royal authority; and a combination of these formidable barons, on more than one occasion, proved too strong for the reigning sovereign.

BORDER CLANS AND FEUDS.

The system of clanship existed at a very early period on the Borders, and continued to flourish there until the union of the crowns. The frontier provinces of England and Scotland were inhabited in ancient times by several tribes of Britons or Celts, and the patriarchal form of government-a leading feature of Celtic manners-remained on the Borders long after the abrogation of the

:

other peculiar usages of the ancient inhabitants, and in despite of the feudal system, with which it was often at variance. According to this simple mode of government, which was universal among the ancient Celtic nations, the chief of the clan was supposed to be the immediate representative of the common ancestor whose name they usually bore, and from whom, it was alleged, they were all descended. He was their counsellor in peace, and their leader in war. His authority over them was absolute, and they paid the most unlimited obedience to his commands. Indeed, they respected no other authority and so completely were they devoted to the service of their chief, that they were at all times ready to follow him against the king himself. In return for this devoted attachment to his person and interest, the clansmen looked up to their chief for advice, subsistence, protection, and revenge. He was expected to display the most profuse hospitality, and to expend his means of subsistence in the service of his clan. He seems to have had little that he could properly call his own, except his horses and his arms. However extensive his domains, he derived no advantage from them, save only from such parts as he could himself cultivate or occupy. The rest of his territories were distributed among his friends and principal followers, who repaid him by their personal service in battle, their assistance in labouring the land retained in his own possession, the payment of the various feudal casualties, and probably by a share of their plunder. Payment of rent was unknown on the Borders till after the union of the crowns. The revenues of the chieftains were therefore almost exclusively derived from their extensive flocks and herds, and from the black-mail which they exacted from their neighbours in payment of the protection afforded them from plunder.

As the clansmen were expected to exhibit the deepest devotion to the interests of their chief, so, in return, he was expected to extend to them his protection under all circumstances, and by all means, legal or illegal. The authority of the feudal superior was greatly inferior to that of the chief; for, in the acts regulating the Borders, we find repeated mention of 'clannes having captaines and chieftaines, on whom they depend, oft-times against the willes of their landeslordes.' Consequently, these laws looked to the chieftain rather than to the feudal superior for the restraint of the disorderly tribes; and it is repeatedly enacted that the head of the clan should be first called upon to deliver those of his sept who should commit any trespass; and that on his failure to do so, he should be liable to the injured party in full redress. Hence, in accordance with the ancient Celtic usages, the chief not unfrequently made atonement for the murders or acts of aggression committed by his clan, by the payment of such a fine, or 'assythement,' as it was called, as might make up the feud. Oftener, however, the chieftains not only connived at the misconduct of their clansmen and allies, but protected