The Red Cloud chief., 1877-05-24

vt91Ie1 Z lorenzo. Hay. eoeths oSetuoufo
with wonder, because he found there.
In the LAurentixn Library. - msp Of
the world. drawn In I4lo. which
shows clearly the course Of the Nile.
its division into two streams. and is
connection with the two srea; lAkea-
He dos not understand how IL was pos
sible, 49, years ago. for a European
map-mAker % have an accurate knowE
edge OF the river Nile and IS soasceA
lThisN NowlniaeN hieh the royal geo
graphical societies, and ihe.African ex'
plorers. Of modern times. nave sought
for years: and. even now they Heoniy
beginning 20 design accurate mAps II
the Nile. Nevertheless. there. in a IL
brary in FlQsence. he found proof that
sbnbeUs Skhoiars Of LarvpS G66ll
the knowledge necessary for the con-
struction Of such maps. nessk30 esR
turies ago. Probably this writer Is one
OF those who have been taught - bs.
lieve that the knowledge o. mankind
was not Of mlclI account previous TO
orr time. This is one Of those delu-
sions Of modern egotism which have
done more than anything else TO Oh
struct intelligent and successful study
Of s,ciept pistsy. whether in the study
81 Me BOOKS Or in the revelations Of
archaeology.
Five hundred and tour handled years
ago. the people Of Europe had no
knowledge Of Central and Southern
Africa. except what they could get
from Ptolemy's geography and from re-
ports of the Arabians. They had some
knowledge of Lower Egypt, and of the
so-called Barhary States. Beyond this
they knew nothing from their " OBJ
servation. In constructing maps Of the
Nile and of the southern coast of At
RIGA, they followed Ptolemy; but his
work was q reproduction Of the geog
raphy Of Marinus, Of Tyre; that is 70
say, il was a revised edition OF an old
geography of the Penicians. who had
al accurate knowledge Of Central and
| Southern Africa, including the river
Nile and its sources. Their geogra-
PIXIES described and named the "Moun.
tains of the Noon" which the geogra-
pliers of modern Europe are not yet
able to locate with certainty. Modern
travellers tell us that the region around
the great lakes is still called Moon
land" by the natives. Spoke says:
"U-nyamueZi. or the Country of the
Moon, must have been one of the largest
kingdoms Of Africa" The same an
cient knowledge Of Central Africa is
found in some Of the old Sanskrit Pu-
ranas, which describe this "MOonland:"
and give an accurate account of the
sources and flow of the Nile. They say
the Nile rises in the Lakes Of the
Gods" and give a particular account Of
its course. until it reaches the Mediter-
ranean.
This ancient knowledge of Africa
and the Nile, preserved in Ptolemy's
geography. made it possible in Europe.
FIVE hundred years ago, to construct
such maps of the Nile as that found in
the Larentian Library, at Florence.
Long before VascO da CANA sailed
round the Cape of Good Hope. there
were. in the libraries of Italy, accurate
maps Of this cape. and the southern
portion Of Africa, drawn from geo.
graphical knowledge derived from the
Arabians. Humboldt mentions and de-
scribes several of these maps. One of
them appears in the "planisphere Of The
Sanuto," which was made in 1906.
Another, constructed by a Genoese, was
made In 1851. The "Plainsferio de Ia
Palatina," made at Florence, in r14l7,
presents n of these maps.
The largest. most particular, and
most complete of them, perhaps, ap-
pears in Fra Mauro's famous MAP of
the World" which was constructed in
the years Of 1857 and 1859. No more
accurate map of the southern cape and
coasts Of Africa can be drawn now.
What We call the Cape of Good Hope.
was called -Cape Dsiab," by the Arab.
Sns. In the Italian maps it is called
Cape dab" Pedreio CovAhan, hav-
ing visited India, and Sofala in Africa.
wrote to King John of Portugal, in 1887.
that he had learned from the Arabians
that the Portuguese could sail round
Africa to India; and he gave specific
directions for a voyage from Portugal
to Madagascar. A few years after this
letter was written, Da Cana sailed
round Africa reached Sofala and went
to India. = =
Much is lost, and our study of the
past is seriously ~obstructed, by that
egotistical assumption of the moderns,
which denies the knowledge of the
ancients, or greatly undertakes it. Ca
pacity to acquire knowledge, disposition
to investigate, genius for invention. and
ingenuity to contrive appliances of civ
il~izatiOn. did not wait until our time. to
make their first appearance in the
world. 1t should not be difficult for US
to believe. that the great manufactur-
ing. commercial and colonizing people
of antiquity. acquired accurate and ex-
tensive geographical knowledge Of the
countries with which they had fixed
and long continued relations. If the
moderns could have had faith enough
in the geography of Mar,nus. as revised
by Ptoiemny, to use il as a Trustworthy