AFRICA.

THE knowledge which ancient writers have transmitted to posterity, of this great continent, is of very limited extent, owing principally to its physical construction. The desert of sand, which in a broad belt stretches quite across the continent, forbade every attempt to pass it until the introduction of the camel by the Arabs. The want of any known great river, except the Nile, that might conduct into the interior, contributed to confine the Greek and Roman colonists to the habitable belt along the northern coast. We know, however, from unquestionable authority, for so we deem the sacred records to be, that 4000 years ago the grandson of Ham fled to and settled in Egypt or Misraim, names which that country has preserved to the present day; and that 3600 years ago it was as well or better known to eastern nations than any part of Europe was at that time. The latter, indeed, may be said to have received the germs of civilisation from the Egyptian colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean; for we have sufficient proof that Egypt had reached to a considerable degree of civilisation in the patriarchal ages, from the circumstance of the sons of Jacob proceeding thither out of Asia to purchase corn; for a commerce in grain implies civilisation. The Carthaginians are also known to have formed establishments on the northern coast of Africa at a very early period of history, certainly not less than 2700 years ago; and the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses dates as far back as 2300 years. We may consider, therefore, the coasts of Egypt, of the Red Sea, and of the Mediterranean, to have been settled and well known to the ancient Asiatics, who were constantly passing the narrow isthmus which divided their country from Africa, and led them immediately from parched deserts into a fertile valley, watered by a magnificent river. But whether they were much or little acquainted with the western coast, which bounds the Atlantic, and the eastern coast washed by the Indian Ocean, is a question that has exercised the research and ingenuity of the ablest scholars and geographers, and has not yet been satisfactorily answered.

This question being one of curiosity rather than utility, we shall only state the case, and the results of the several inquiries, without entering into the merits of the arguments advanced by the different parties. We are told by Herodotus, that Necho, king of Egypt, sent out an expedition under the command of certain Phoenician seamen, for the purpose of circumnavigating Africa; and that, on their return, they asserted that they had accomplished this undertaking. Few of the ancient writers give credit to the story; but, among the moderns, the Abbé Paris and Montesquieu have contended that this voyage was actually performed. Isaac Vossius and D’Anville have strong doubts; and Dr Vincent and Μ. Gosselin maintain that such an expedition, at such a period, exceeds all the means and resources of navigation, then in its infancy. Last of all comes Major Rennell, who, in his elucidation of the geography of Herodotus, has done more than all the rest in clearing away the doubts of history; and he argues the possibility of such a voyage, from the construction of their ships, with flat bottoms and low masts, enabling them to keep close to the land, and to discover and enter into all the creeks and harbours which any part of the coast might present. At all events, one thing is evident: if such an expedition ever left the Pillars of Hercules, and proceeded down the coast, the fruits of it have nearly, if not entirely, perished.

About half a century after this supposed expedition, the account of another voyage, down the western coast, is contained in the Periplus of Hanno, which has also called forth many learned and elaborate discussions among modern geographers. The principal persons engaged in this controversy were Bougainville, Rennell, and Gosselin, the several results of whose researches will be seen in the following table; the first column of which exhibits the description of the successive lines of coast, and their most remarkable features, as given by Hanno, who commences his narrative from the Pillars of Hercules or Straits of Gibraltar. The others show the correspondent modern positions, as severally assigned by these three distinguished geographers.
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The extent to which ancient discovery proceeded along the eastern coast of Africa, has divided the opinion of the learned nearly as much as its progress on the western coast. Delisle, Huet, and Bochart, made the discovery of the coast to extend as far south as Mozambique and Madagascar. D’Anville could trace such discovery no farther than to Cape Delgado; and Μ. Gosselin contends that the ancients never proceeded down the coast beyond Brava. But Dr Vincent, who has entered more profoundly into the subject than any of his predecessors, and brought a great fund of learning to bear on the question, in His Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, has with great plausibility extended these boundaries to Mozambique and to the island of Madagascar. The following table exhibits at one view the comparative nomenclature and supposed identities of the several places on the coast, as found in the two ancient authorities and the two modern commentators; and also the description of the coast.
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Egypt, under the Ptolemies, the great patrons of science and promoters of discovery, possessing the advantage of the only great river which falls from the African continent into the Mediterranean, made no progress beyond its ancient boundaries; and though the Romans, who subsequently colonized Egypt, penetrated beyond the limits of their own dependencies, they extended their discoveries no farther than Fezzan in one direction, and, at a later period, beyond Nubia as far as Abyssinia. But the source of the Nile eluded their research, and is still but imperfectly known, from the account of it as given by Bruce, who appears to have borrowed a portion of his description of Gondar from Tellez and Payz. If we admit, what seems to be thefact, that the Bahr-el-Abiad is the [7:2:221]main branch from which the Nile derives its supply of water, the source of this celebrated river is still unknown; and we may say with the poet,
… in extremum fugit perterritus orbem,
Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet.

We know nothing of the progress made by the Carthaginians in the discovery of interior Africa; but although it has been asserted that their merchants had reached the banks of the interior river, which we call the Niger, they have left nothing on record that will warrant such a supposition. The story told by Herodotus at fourth hand, of some Nasamonians crossing the desert and arriving at the same river, appears to be deserving of very little credit. The people from whom we derive the first information concerning the interior of Northern Africa are the Arabs, who, by means of the camel, were able to penetrate across the great sandy desert to the very centre of the continent, and along the two coasts as far as the Senegal and the Gambia on the west, and to Sofala on the east. On this latter coast they not only explored to an extent far beyond any supposed limits of ancient discovery, but planted colonies at Sofala, Mombas, Melinda, and at various other places.

The fifteenth century produced a new era in maritime discovery. The voyages of the Portuguese were the first to give any thing like an accurate outline of the two coasts, and to complete the circumnavigation of Africa. The discovery of America and the West India islands gave rise to that horrible traffic in African negroes, which has since been carried on without intermission; and this traffic has been the means of acquiring a more extended and accurate knowledge of that part of the coast which lies between the rivers Senegal and the Cameroons, as well as of the manners and character of the people who inhabit this extended line of coast. The English settlements along this line gave opportunities for making surveys, and occasionally of visiting certain portions of the interior. Still more recently, a regular survey has been made by Captain Owen of the navy, between the Cape Guardafui or Guardefan, in the Arabian Sea, to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence continued to the Gulf of Guinea, the completion of which is now (1829) in progress, as far as to the Straits of Gibraltar.

The uncertainty and the confusion that prevailed in the geography of the interior of Africa, induced a few learned and scientific individuals to form themselves into an association for promoting discoveries in the interior of Africa; under whose patronage those important additions made by Houghton, Horneinann, Mungo Park, and Burckhardt were effected, and under which an individual, who had travelled as draughtsman to Mr William Banks, has more recently been employed in exploring the source of the Bahr-el-Abiad. In consequence of an opinion given by Park and Maxwell, as to the southern course of the Niger, an expedition was fitted out by the government to explore the source of the river Congo, under the direction of Captain Tuckey, the result of which did not add so much to our information respecting that great river and surrounding country as might have been expected, owing to the great mortality of the party, occasioned, as it would seem, more from imprudent exposure and exertion, than from un-healthiness of climate. The next attempt to push discovery into the interior of Africa was the mission of Oudney, Denham, and Clapperton, from Tripoli to Bornou, under the auspices of government; which was followed up by another under Clapperton, from the Bight of Benin to the same part of the country which he had reached on tlte first journey; thus supplying a complete series of observations for the latitudes and longitudes, from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea. These two expeditions have cleared away all those conjectural speculations of the courses of rivers, ranges of mountains, and positions of lakes and cities, many of which are now ascertained to have no existence; while others that do exist are found to have been placed on the maps several hundred miles out of their true situations, to the utter confusion of topographical consistency. In short, our maps of this great continent were very little better than those of the sixteenth century, wherein, as Swift facetiously says,
Geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps;
And o’er uninhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns.

In consequence of the recent expeditions and surveys above mentioned, and a variety of other information, we are now in a condition to give a far more accurate and detailed account of this great continent than has appeared in any former edition of this work. It may be right, however, in the first place, to take a general and comprehensive view of this quarter of the globe, on which will be found to exist many peculiarities to distinguish it from the other continents.

Africa is separated from Asia by the Isthmus of Suez, and from Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar; stretching from the equator to about the average latitude of 35° N., and also to the same degree of latitude south. It embraces every variety of temperature, from extreme heat to the mildest of European climates, the softness and salubrity of the latter of which are experienced in the Barbary States, and at the Cape of Good Hope. On the other hand, its tropical regions, especially on the sea-coast, are most destructive to Europeans who attempt to settle in them, by diseases occasioned by a rich and swampy soil, clothed with an exuberant vegetation. The greatest length, from north to south, is from Cape Serrat in Algiers, in lat. 37. 18. N., to Cape Laguillas, in lat. 34. 55. S.; and the greatest breadth, from Cape Verde, in long. 17. 31. W., to Cape Guardafui, in long. 51. 15. E. Its mean length may be estimated at about 4000, and mean breadth at 2000 miles, containing an area of 8,000,000 geographical miles. The northern portion of this great continent is fully twice the size of the southern portion, and may be considered as about equal to South America. South Africa is contracted to half the width of the northern part, and is, as nearly as may be, about the size of Australia or New Holland. The inspection of a map of the world would induce one to conclude, that the two continents of Africa and America were once united; the bulging part of the former fitting in exactly to the Gulf of Mexico and the bulging part of South America, about Paraiba and Pernambuco, being about the size and shape to fill up the Gulf of Guinea.

Africa has neither the lofty mountain chains nor the magnificent rivers of the opposite continent of America. Of the mountains, those of the greatest height that are actually known are the great cluster of the Atlas, one chain of which runs southerly to the desert of Zahara, and another easterly to the neighbourhood of the Syr-tes; two or three points of which are said to be perpetually covered with snow, which would give them an elevation of from 12,000 to 13,000 feet. The cluster of Abyssinian mountains, on the opposite side, are very similar in their shape and grouping to those of Atlas. Those parts which lie in the provinces of Tigré and Gojam, from being almost constantly covered with snow, may be considered as about the same height as those of Atlas. The Kong mountains, which were supposed, and are so drawn [7:2:222]in the maps, to run across the continent in one unbroken chain near the equator, are of doubtful existence as to their continuity. Where crossed by Clapperton, they nowhere rose to the height of 3000 feet; but they were of granite; and a few degrees to the southward, and behind the river Cameroons, two or three lofty peaks are visible from the sea, which appear by triangulation to be from 13,000 to 14,000 feet. Along the eastern coast, one continued chain extends from the Abyssinian range to the Table Mountain of the Cape of Good Hope, but of no great height, as far as known. Perhaps we may consider the continent of Africa as one great plateau, supported by littoral chains, presenting their steep sides seawards, and sloping gently into the interior, in which many rivers will be found to descend from them, that in all probability never reach the ocean.

All the rivers discharged into the Mediterranean, with the exception of the Nile, are small mountain streams. The same is the case from Ceuta along the western coast to the commencement of the desert, a distance of about eight degrees of latitude. On the coast of the Zahara there are no rivers. The Senegal, the Gambia, and the Rio Grandé, are rivers of considerable magnitude, and each has its source in the same system of mountains. But it is into the Gulf of Guinea that the largest rivers of Africa discharge their waters. The Volta, the Benin or Formosa, the Bonny, the Old and New Calabar, the Rio del Rey, and the Cameroons, are all of them large rivers; but nothing is known of them farther than some forty or fifty miles from their mouths, and they have been supposed, except the last two, to be branches of one and the same river. Farther down, and near the equator, are the Angra, the Gaboon, and the Lopez, all of which, with the others, probably derive their sources from the range of lofty peaked mountains which have been mentioned as seen from the sea. Still farther south is the great river Zaire or Congo, and lower down still the Coanza, and a few smaller ones, comprehended within the Portuguese settlements, which extend from about lat. 6. to 16. S. From hence to the Cape of Good Hope, with the exception of the Gariep or Orange River, there is none deserving of notice. On the eastern coast the rivers are much smaller, but more numerous. From the Isthmus of Suez, along the whole coast of the Red Sea, and from Babelmandel to Cape Guardafui, and from this cape to Pattah, in lat. 2. 15. S∙, opposite to which is the river Obii or Zebee, there is not a stream of any note throughout the distance of 2500 miles. In proceeding hence southerly we have the Quilimance, Mombas, Monghow or Mongallow, Mozambique, Quiloa, Lindy, Quillimané, Jambezé, Sofala, Inhambanĕ, and Marfooma and Mapoota, which fall into De la Goa Bay. From hence to the Cape of Good Hope a few streams of little importance fall into the Eastern Ocean.

A very short description will suffice to give a general outline of the surface of Africa. Between the Straits of Gibraltar and the Gulf of the Syrtis, which is about two-thirds of the Mediterranean coast, the country exhibits a broken chain of mountains, interspersed with fertile valleys, in width extending between the 35th and 29th parallels, or about 360 miles. The rest of this coast, including Egypt (which, with Abyssinia, extends to the 12th paralleD, is generally composed of fine fertile hills and dales and valleys, mixed, however, with deserts, in which are a few insulated’ spots of verdure, known by the name of oases. This portion of Africa belongs (with the exception of Egypt) to the Barbary states of Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. The next region, proceeding southerly, is the Zahara or great sandy desert, lying be tween the 29th and 16th parallels, or about 780 miles in breadth, and extending across the continent, from the Atlantic to the borders of Nubia. It is inhabited only by wandering pastoral tribes, who move about from one oasis to another, where a little verdure may be found. Some of these tribes add, to the scanty means of subsistence, the plunder of such feeble caravans as they may venture to attack, and others are employed in collecting salt and natron for the markets of Bornou and Soudan. The third region is that of Soudan, or the country of the negroes, extending in a belt quite across the continent as far as Abyssinia, and from the 16th to the 5th parallels, or about 660 miles in width; a rich and fertile region, yielding, with little labour, all the valuable productions of tropical climates. Beyond the latter degree of latitude we are in utter ignorance of what the rest of North, and the whole of South Africa may contain, with the exception of the Cape of Good Hope and the Portuguese settlements on the eastern and the western coasts, between which they are said at one time to have kept up a communication; but if so, they have taken good care to keep to themselves whatever knowledge of the intermediate country they might have acquired. The colony of the Cape, on the southern angle, extends not above 500 miles on either coast from that promontory. Thus, then, there still remains a tract of country at the least 30 degrees of latitude, by 25 of longitude, or about 2,600,000 square geographical miles, of which nothing whatever is known.

The vegetable productions of a country which embraces such a variety of surface, soil, and climate, must necessarily be very varied. There is, however, a great similarity in those, both of the vegetable and animal world, which exist in the two temperate extremities; and most of the larger kinds of animals, peculiar to this continent, are found in every part of it, north and south of the line, except perhaps in Egypt, which is too thickly inhabited, and on the broad belt of the desert, where there is nothing for them to subsist on. At the two extremities, the forest trees are not remarkable, either for their exuberance of growth or their utility in naval and civil architecture, machinery, or domestic uses. In the valleys, and on the sides of the hills of Mount Atlas, are extensive forests; but in no other part of the northern region. The erythrina, several mimosas or accasias, particularly the mimosa nilotica, numerous species of euphorbia and cactus, of rhamnus, aloe, and the huge adansonia, are found in the most arid soils, even on the great desert, but there in a more dwarfish state. The scanty vegetation, however, that partially appears on the surface of this “land of perpetual thirst,” this “leonum arida nutrix” is mostly confined to the more humble tribe of mysembri-anthema, salsolae, salicor-niae, gnaphaliae, and a few other species of saline and succulent plants, which are able to support a feeble existence in a soil unrefreshed by rain or moisture. The southern extremity of Africa enjoys, in addition to the northern Flora, the magnificent family of proteas, and innumerable species of the elegant heaths. The tropical regions, it is almost unnecessary to add, abound with forests of the finest timber trees, many of them of dimensions that can scarcely be credited. The finest naval timber, stated to be superior either to oak or teak, is imported from the western coast of Africa, chiefly from the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone and the River Gambia. Throughout Soudan, wherever there is soil, vegetation is most vigorous, and much more labour is requisite to keep it under, than would be necessary for the cultivation of alimentary and other useful plants, if the ground were once cleared.

Those vegetable productions which are raised by the [7:2:223]hand of man, and which administer to his sustenance, his 'clothing and shelter, and also to his other comforts, are abundantly supplied, without severe labour, in all parts of this continent, with the exception of the sandy desert. In the tropical regions, near the coast, they have the two most useful trees, the cocoa-palm and the common species of palm, which supply them with oil and wine. They have citrons, lemons, oranges, pomegranates, plantains, and bananas; rice and Indian corn, and various other useful plants, the introduction of some of which they owe to the Portuguese; perhaps the only benefit conferred, in compensation for the many evils inflicted by them on this unfortunate people. In the interior they have figs, pomegranates, plantains, abundance of fine yams, melons, gourds, and pumpkins; earth-nuts, coly-cynth, dourrha, and other kinds of millet; maize or Guinea com, rice, vegetable butter, sweet potatoes, onions,· and pepper. But the dourrha is the grain chiefly cultivated; and from this, with a mixture of pepper and honey, they make the fermented beverage, known in almost every part of Africa under the name of booza, with which the negroes delight to make themselves intoxicated. Cotton and indigo are everywhere cultivated with the greatest ease; and they have plants which afford them dyes of every shade of colour for their cloths. In the temperate parts of the continent, the finest grain of every species is produced, not excluding the maize and millets; every kind of European fruits and vegetables, and many of the tropical ones, particularly oranges, lemons, and limes. All the varieties of grapes, figs, peaches, and apricos, are of the richest and most delicious flavour; but apples, pears, plums, and cherries, are found to deteriorate, both at the northern and southern extremities. Melons, pumpkins, and every species of pulse, are as fine as can be produced in any part of Europe. In the northern portion grows the rhamnus lotos or jujube, on which the lotophagi of the ancients are supposed to have fed; and on the skirts of the desert, that most useful tree the date-palm grows in whole forests, affording a very considerable part of the subsistence of the natives.

It would require a volume to name the several objects in the vegetable world. We proceed, therefore, to take a glance at the animal part of the creation; and first, as being most important, of its lord and master, Man. The first peopling of any country is always an object of curious research, though rarely productive of a satisfactory result. If we admit the grandson of Ham to have settled in Egypt, perhaps we shall not err in considering the rest of Africa, at least of tropical Africa, to have been originally peopled by the negroes, and every other race of man now found on it, whether pure or mixed, to be ad- ventitious. This hypothesis is grounded on the fact, that all the people now in Africa, except the blacks, can be traced to an Asiatic origin; while no negroes were ever found, except as slaves, in Asia, though they are met with on some of the Asiatic islands. Whether this nation, now confined to the tropical regions, were ever in possession of the two extremities of the continent, it w ere in vain to inquire; but, considering their indolent disposition, which makes them averse from labour, and anxious to avoid it whenever it is possible, their great delight being to bask in the sun all day, and to sing, dance, drum, and drink booza all night, we may naturally suppose they would make choice of a country where all the necessaries of life are either produced spontaneously, or with the least possible exertion of those who are to use them. This is not the case in the extra-tropical regions of Africa, where labour is required to render the soil productive. It has been conjectured, on grounds slender enough—the features of the sphynx—that’ the ancient' Egyptians were negroes; the lips, however, are the only negro feature in that extraordinary piece of sculpture. But were it completely negro, it would prove nothing, unless it could be shown that this statue was more ancient than all the temples of Egypt— the Memnonium, Epsambul, Tentyra, the tombs of the kings of Thebes, and many others—in all of which the sculpture and the paintings of the human figure are invariably represented with features that approach nearest to the Persians, that original hive, as Sir William Jones has supposed, of the human race, or at least of the greater portion of the orientals. The negroes are by nature a harmless and inoffensive race, and their easy and timid disposition has been turned to their disadvantage, by the facility with which they have suffered themselves, and still submit, to be dragged from their country and friends into a state of foreign slavery. Domestic slavery has undoubtedly existed in all times among the negroes, as well as among other nations, and without being considered as an evil; but the peculiarly unfortunate lot of the negro is that of being torn away from all his connections, never to see them again. In the interior, the slaves are as happy and cheerful as their masters, and treated just as well; and strangers are received by them with cheerfulness, kindness, and hospitality.

Considering, then, the negroes as the sole aborigines of Africa, and the other races inhabiting this continent as capable of being traced to an Asiatic origin, the numbers that have poured in are easily accounted for, by the facility with which the Isthmus of Suez afforded them a passage, like a bridge, from one continent to the other. They may be classed, according to the purity of their race, as follows: the Berbers, the Moors, the Arabs, and the Turks; of the mixed breeds, the Copts, Nubians, and Abyssinians, are not greatly dissimilar; the Caffres (Kafirs) or infidels of the eastern coast are obviously of Arab and negro extraction; and the Hottentots, crammed into one single and the most distant corner of Africa, if not an original race, are, it must be admitted, a most singular anomaly among mankind. Of the Jews it is unnecessary to say any thing, as they are scattered over the whole world, and everywhere the same.

The Berbers are probably the most ancient inhabitants of the northern belt of Africa. The authors of Mithridates seem to consider them as the remains of the ancient Getidoe, to the west of Mount Atlas, and of the Libyans to the east. But from whence did these two people proceed? At present they are found in different parts of the continent under different names. The Shillas in the mountains of Morocco, the Kabyles in the mountains of Algiers and Tunis, the Tibboos in the eastern part of the great desert, and the Tuaricks in the western and central parts of the desert, may all be considered as emanating from the same race. 1ney all speak different modifications of the same language, which, though written in a character wholly distinct (if Oudney be correct) from every other existing, is said to partake of the Hebrew and Phoenician. Mr Marsden, who has paid great attention to the subject, has traced this language from the extreme east to the extreme west of Northern Africa, and conjectures that it may have been the general language of the northern part, antecedent to the period of the Mahometan conquests; and that so marked is its affinity to certain forms of the oriental languages, as to make it not unreasonable to consider it as connected with the ancient Punic; an opinion in which Μ. Langlés is disposed to concur. They are a stout hardy race, of a complexion varying in hue from white to almost black, according to the exposure they have en*
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dured, and the degree of latitude they inhabit. Their form is generally well made, tall and thin, their carriage erect and independent. They are most abstemious, their food consisting chiefly of coarse brown bread, dates, olives, and water. Even on the heated desert, where the thermometer generally is from 90° to 120°, they are clothed from head to foot; and they cover the face up to the eyes with a black or coloured handkerchief. Those who inhabit the desert live by plundering the caravans from Morocco to Soudan, or by carrying salt to Timbuctoo, Kano, and even as far as Soccatoo. Lander, the servant of the late Captain Clapperton, describes a troop of 500 camels laden with this article for the Soccatoo market. “They were preceded,” he says, “by a party of 20 Tuarick salt merchants, whose appearance was grand and imposing. They entered at full trot, riding on handsome camels, some of them red and white, and others black and white. All the party were dressed exactly alike. They wore black cotton tobes and trousers, and white caps with black turbans, which hid every part of the face but the nose and eyes. In their right hand they held a long and highly polished spear, whilst the left was occupied in holding their shields and retaining the reins of their camels. The shields were made of white leather, with a piece of silver in the centre. As they passed on, their spears glittering in the sun, and their whole bearing bold and warlike, they had a novel and singular effect, which delighted me.” They are, however, a very dirty people, and never wash themselves. Water, they say, was given to man to drink, and that it does not agree with the skin of a Tuarick, who always falls sick after much washing. They have partly embraced Mahometanism, and make use of water to perform their ablutions. They are exceedingly superstitious; and their whole clothing, spears, swords and muskets, if they have them, are covered over with charms.

The Tibboos are apparently of a less pure race than the Tuaricks, being much more slender in their shape, having softer features, of a dark shining colour, nearly black, but with little or no appearance of the negro features. The women are described by Lyon as models of black beauties, full of vivacity, and fond of music and dancing. On the desert they frequent all the wells and wadeys, or little oases, with their sheep and goats. Neither the men nor the women cover their faces, but have the same bold independent gait as the Tuaricks. The men are great traffickers in slaves to Bornou, Kanem, and Baghermi, which they carry to Fez-zan, Tripoli, and Egypt, in exchange for horses, which they sell at a high rate to the Bornouese. They are reported to be great thieves, laying wait to rob the caravans between Tripoli and Bornou, but never daring to attack them openly. Poor as they are, they are constantly exposed to the predatory excursions of the more fierce and warlike Tuaricks, who carry on their marauding expeditions to the very frontiers of Bornou and Soudan. The language of these several tribes of Berbers of the desert, as far as the few vocabularies extend, has been found to be very nearly the same.

The Moors are numerously spread over that northern belt of Africa which is known, as we have already said, by the name of the Barbary States. They are a handsome race of men, resembling in their stature and features the best formed Europeans or western Asiatics, but of a darker complexion. They are more robust than the Arabs, their features more full; but they speak a dialect of the Arabic, abounding in expressions, however, that are peculiar to themselves. They are supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Mauritanians, from whom they derive their name, mixed perhaps with the Numidians, and subsequently the Arabs; and as Sallust says that the Numidians and Mauritanians were originally descended from an Asiatic colony composed of Armenians, Medes, and Persians, a comparison of the Moorish with these languages might prove interesting to the philologist. The Moors are described as a cruel, revengeful, and blood-thirsty race. They abound most in Morocco and Tripoli. The emperor of the former state was of the race of Moors that conquered Spain, but since 1547∙ the posterity of Mahomet has sat on the throne; but the pasha of the latter state is of the Moorish race. The reigning family of both the one and the other, have been guilty of such atrocious and cold-blooded acts as make human nature shudder. The present pasha of Tripoli shot his own brother in cold blood, while he was sitting and conversing with his mother on an ottoman; and two years ago, his second son, Sidi Hamet, who is to succeed to the throne, the eldest being in exile, deliberately drew a pistol and shot his wife, a beautiful Georgian, just after her confinement, for having accused him of infidelity with two of her slaves. The Moors are temperate in their diet, and simple in their dress; but the women of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers wear splendid apparel, and deck themselves all over with gold, silver, and ornaments of precious stones. In the towns the Moors are merchants, and in the country the labours of the field are chiefly in their hands. On the borders of the desert, particularly in the Morocco dominions, they are found in considerable numbers, living, like the Arabs, in tents, and subsisting on dates, millet, and Indian corn, in the most frugal and abstemious manner. Here they practise the art of weaving, and of preparing what is known by us as Morocco leather. They dye skins and cotton cloth of different colours; they manufacture swords, and decorate their scabbards with plates of gold and silver; make stirrups and bridle-bits of single pieces of metal; work gold rings, chains, bracelets, and all other decorative ornaments, with great taste and skill; and are, in short, an ingenious people.

The Arabs are spread over every known part of Africa, and are just now in possession of the finest portions of Soudan. Mounted on their camels, or the swifter species of dromedary called mohercy, they fly across the desert, and have planted the standard of their prophet from the shores of the Red Sea to Cape Negro, and from the Senegal to Sofala. “The conquest of Africa,” says Gibbon, “from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, was first attempted by the arms of the Caliph Othman. The pious design was approved by the companions of Mahomet and the chiefs of the tribes; and 20,000 Arabs marched from Medina with the gifts and the blessing of the commander of the faithful.” This event took place in the year of Christ G47. These conquests, however, were suspended, and about forty years afterwards the complete subjugation of this unfortunate country was reserved for Ackbah, whose career, as we are told, but not his zeal, was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean. “He spurred his horse,” says the Roman historian, “into the waves, and raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed, with the voice of a fanatic, ‘ Great God! if my course were not stopped by this sea, I would still go on to the unknown kingdoms of the west, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship any other gods than thee.’” Gibbon had no dislike to an oriental hyperbole, and the one just quoted is made up from two French interpreters of Novairè’s Encyclopedia. The Greek colonists were expelled the country, but it was some time before the Moors consented to receive the laws, the religion, and the language of the Arabs. It is [7:2:225]the custom to speak of the conquest of Spain by the Moors; but the motley crew which passed the strait, from Ceuta and Tangier, consisted of a far greater proportion of Arabs than of Moors.

The true unmixed Arabs, or those who call themselves Shirifs, the descendants of the family of Mahomet, are easily distinguished from the Bedouins and the numerous tribes who have freely mingled with the people among whom they have planted themselves. The true Arab has a more lively and expressive physiognomy; a complexion more approaching to the olive colour; a small, dark, sparkling eye, deeply sunk in the head; an angular face; a short pointed beard; hair strong and black; a mouth but half-closed, discovering his teeth; and a form of body more adapted for agility than strength. Those who dwell near the towns are cultivators of the soil, but the greater number lead a wandering pastoral life; and though capable of the greatest exertion, and patient of hunger and fatigue, they are nearly as fond of an indolent inactive life as the negroes. The Arab women are almost universally ill-featured, and when a little advanced in years are horribly ugly; notwithstanding which they exercise a considerable degree of influence over the men.

It might have been supposed that the Moors and Arabs, who had driven the Greek and Roman colonists out of Africa, and who had succeeded in conquering Spain, when driven back out of the latter, would have been able to maintain their government in the former country; but this unfortunate portion of Africa was doomed to endure the more galling yoke of Turkish ferocity, nurtured by fanaticism and ignorance. A handful of Turkish adventurers succeeded in establishing their dominion on the Barbary coast, and, by the payment of an annual tribute to the Ottoman Porte, have ever since continued their barbarous rule, by means of a few Turkish troops, over the more docile and industrious Moors and Arabs. The Turks are an ignorant, bigoted, and indolent race. They will lounge whole days, lying at full length on the flat roofs of their houses, or on the ground in the public places, or in frequenting the baths, or smoking opium and drinking coffee in the houses where these ingredients are sold; but they are very rarely found to submit to any kind of labour. In Africa, indeed, they are almost exclusively employed in the military service. The most enlightened Turkish ruler in Africa is Mahomed Ali Pasha of Egypt, but he has yet done as little as any of the rest to meliorate the condition of his subjects. Aiming at independence, since the fatal blow recently given to the Ottoman dominion, and being free from the fanaticism of Islam, there is some hope, by the ardour with which he is adopting European arts and habits, that he may live to regenerate the fertile country over which he presides.

The Copts are very generally supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, mingled with the Persians who are said to have been left by Cambyses, and with the Greeks carried thither by Alexander and the Ptolemies, the Romans under the eastern empire, and most probably with the Arabs, more particularly those who inhabit Upper Egypt and Nubia. Their complexion is somewhat darker than that of the Arabs, their foreheads flat, and their hair partakes rather of a soft and woolly character; their noses are short, but not flat; mouths wide, and lips thick; the eyes are large, and bent upwards in an angle like those of the Mongols; and their cheek-bones also are high, and their beards thin; and Denon says there is no grace or symmetry in their shape, and that their bandy-legs and long flat toes are ill adapted for agility. Their original language, which they have still preserved, is a relic of the ancient Egyptian, mixed with some Arabic and Greek words. The Coptic alphabet, though evidently modelled on the Greek, contains some characters belonging to the ancient writing of the Egyptians; and the knowledge of this language has greatly facilitated the alphabet, which Champollon by years of application has extended a little, and but a little, beyond the attempts originally instituted by De Sacy and Dr Young, and of which he has availed himself, without the decency of acknowledging the obligation, as he ought to have done. The Copts are Christians, and addicted to trade and business; a habitude which affords them generally employment under the ignorant and indolent Turks.

The Nubians are a mixed race between Arabs and Ethiopians. The Barabras or Berbers, though somewhat similar to those already mentioned, are supposed to be a different people, or at least to have a greater intermixture with the Arab: their language also is different, as far as the vocabularies have been compared. Like the Arabs, they are so remarkably spare in their persons, as to have apparently almost neither fat nor muscle. Their skin is shining, and in colour not unlike bronze. “Their hollow eyes sparkle under an uncommonly projecting eye-brow; their nostrils are large, the nose sharp; the mouth wide, but the lips thin; the hair of the head and beard is thin, and in small tufts. They become wrinkled at an early age, but are always lively and nimble; they only betray their age by the whiteness of their beards. Their physiognomy is cheerful, and their dispositions lively and good-humoured. They dress in a piece of white or blue woollen cloth; earn very little by their labour, subsist on next to nothing, and are always attached and faithful to their masters.” (JWalte-Brun.') These people are found from Darfoor to Sennaar, and they are described by Burckhardt, at least such of them as dwelt at Berber and Shendi, to be a most debauched and drunken set,—men and women equally immoral and abandoned.

The next class of Nubians are the Ababdés, who inhabit the deserts to the east of the Nile. They are Arabs, but differ in customs, language, and dress, from the Arabs in Egypt. They are nearly black, but have Asiatic features; live in tents, use little clothing, possess sheep, horses, and cattle; but what they take most pride in is a species of camel, smaller and more active than the common kind, which they call aguine. They are Mahometans. Burck-hardt says they have for ages preserved the purity of their race, and will not permit their women to intermarry with the Nubians. “They pride themselves, and justly,* says this intelligent traveller, “in the beauty of their girls ;” and he describes them as an honest and hospitable people.

The Nubians to the west of the Nile are descendants, in all probability, of the Nubae or Ethiopians of Ptolemy. They are a gentle kind of negroes, with small features, flat noses, and woolly hair. They are idolaters, and, according to Bruce, worship the new moon. They use circumcision, but feed pigs, and eat pork without any scruple. They are found in this neighbourhood, and the whole way between the Nile and the great desert; and as far down as Bornou are found a great number of different tribes of Arabs, mixed more or less with the original native blacks of Africa, of many of which Burckhardt has given the best account probably that is extant, from his intimate knowledge of the language and history of the Arabians.

Abyssinia is the country of the ancient Ethiopians. The inhabitants, however, are, strictly speaking, not black, but their complexion is rather peculiar to themselves, which Mr Bruce compares to the colour of pale ink; or, as may be inferred, a sort of iron-grey. Many, [7:2:226]however, are described as of an olive brown, somewhat resembling bronze. And although in their well-shaped forms, their regular features, and their long hair, they approach to the European, there may still be discovered in their features some faint traits of the negro. The Gheez language, in which the books of the Abyssinians are written, is considered to be a dialect of the Arabic; and the Amharic, which is the spoken language, and in use at court, though full of Arabic roots, is of a peculiar construction. It is concluded, therefore, that whatever the original race may have been, it has received a mixture of Arab blood; and the maritime parts, most probably, at some period or other, have been peopled by an Arab colony. They have, however, successfully resisted Islamism; but their Christianity is mixed with some of the Jewish rituals, and admits circumcision in both sexes as a harmless practice. The Troglodytes, who inhabit the country of Habesh, which extends along the Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea, seem to have changed little of the manners and customs ascribed to them by the ancients. The hollows of the rocks were, and still are, their dwellings; they subsist by fishing, and breeding a few sheep and goats; they speak the Gheez language, and arc in all probability a branch of the original Abyssinians.

Along the whole range of the eastern coast of Africa, from Cape Guardafui to within 500 miles of the Cape of Good Hope, are a race of people more or less black, generally of a deep bronze colour, large in stature, of a bold and independent gait, of fine forms, and strongly built, having the head shaped like the most perfect of Europeans, the nose a little arched, the lips somewhat thickened, the hair frizzled, but wiry rather than woolly, and, when suffered to grow long, hanging in spiral locks like so many cork-screws. They make use of different dialects of the same language, in all of which may be heard a mixture of Arabic words, more or less as they are nearer to or farther from the Strait of Babel-mandib. The Portuguese, when they had first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and touched at the Arab settlements on the eastern coast, learned from the Mahometan settlers, that these people were called Caffres or Kafirs, by which they meant only that they were infidels. Those tribes nearest to the colony of the Cape still bear the name. It does not appear that they anywhere extend a great way into the interior, as the whole of the many thousand slaves that have lately been carried away from this coast of Africa by the French, the Portuguese, and the ĭmaum of Moscat, were negroes, the warlike Caffres having successfully repelled every attempt of these infamous traders to reduce them to a state of slavery. The tribe nearest to the Cape colony call themselves Koussie. Beyond them are the Hamboonas, and at Port Natal the Zoolas. Those who inhabit the interior to the north and north-west are the Boshuanas, the Barroloos, and the Wanketzens; and thus, till we reach the Gallas, at the foot of the Abyssinian Mountains, each tribe has its own name, though they arc evidently sprung from the same origin, a mixture of Arabs with the native black African. These several tribes subsist almost entirely by their herds of cattle, and a little millet (holcus), and a species of bitter gourd, these being almost the only plants they cultivate, at least to the southward. More northerly, the country, increasing in warmth of climate and fertility, may probably afford them spontaneous products of nutriment. At Port Natal a lieutenant of the English navy has established a little colony, to which these people bring him large quantities of ivory, skins, bees-wax, and some other articles, which he purchases cheap, and sends to the Cape of Good Hope.

In the southern angle of Africa, and confined within very narrow limits, is a race of men totally distinct from every other tribe of people on that continent, and, in some respects, from every known people in any part of the globe. Where they originally came from, and how they happened to be hemmed in, and confined entirely to this remote corner of the earth, is a problem not likely to be ever satisfactorily solved. The only people to whom the Hottentot has been thought to bear a resemblance, are the Chinese or Malays, or their original stock the Mongols. Like these people, they have the broad forehead, the high cheek-bones, the oblique eye, the thin beard, and the dull yellow tint of complexion, resembling the colour of a dried tobacco leaf; but there is a difference with regard to the hair, which grows in small tufts, harsh, and rather wiry, covering the scalp somewhat like the hard pellets of a shoe-brush. The women, too, have a peculiarity in their physical conformation, which, though occasionally to be met with in other nations, is not universal, as among the Hottentots. Their constitutional “bustles” sometimes grow to three times the size of those artificial stuffings, with which our ladies are now (1829) disfiguring themselves. Even the females of the diminutive Bosjesmen Hottentots, who frequently perish of hunger in the barren mountains, and are reduced to skeletons, have the same protuberances as the Hottentots of the plains. It is not known even whence the name of Hottentot proceeds, as it is none of their own. It has been conjectured that hot and tot frequently occurring in their singular language, in which the monosyllables are enunciated with a palatic clacking with the tongue, like that of a hen, may have given rise to the name, and that the early Dutch settlers named them hot-en-tot. They call themselves qui-quoe, pronounced with a clack. They are a lively, cheerful, good-humoured people, and by no means wanting in talent; but they have met with nothing but harsh treatment since their first connection with Europeans. Neither Bartholomew Diaz, who first discovered, nor Vasco de Gama, who first doubled, the Cape of Good Hope, nor any of the subsequent Portuguese navigators, down to 1509, had much communication with the natives of this southern angle of Africa; but in the year above mentioned, Francisco d’Almeyda, viceroy of India, having landed, on his return, at Saldanha (now Table) Bay, was killed, with about twenty of his people, in a scuffle with the natives. To avenge his death, a Portuguese captain, about three years afterwards, is said to have landed a piece of ordnance loaded with grape shot, as a pretended present to the Hottentots. Two ropes were attached to this fatal engine; the Hottentots poured down in swarms. Men, women, and children flocked round the deadly machine, as the Trojans did round the wooden horse, “funemqu¢ manu contingere gaudent.” The brutal Portuguese fired off the piece, and viewed with savage delight the mangled carcasses of the deluded people. The Dutch effected their ruin by gratifying their propensity for brandy and tobacco, at the expense of their herds of cattle, on which they subsisted. Under the British sway they have received protection, and shown themselves not unworthy of it. They now possess property, and enjoy it in security. One of the most beautiful villages, and the neatest and best cultivated gardens, belong to a large community of Hottentots, under the instruction and guidance of a few· Moravian missionaries.

Africa possesses in abundance all the larger kinds of quadrupeds that are found on other continents, with many that are peculiar to itself; as, for instance, the giraffe or camelopardalis, the hippopotamus, the zebra, the quacha, the gnoo, and some other species of the antelope tribe, [7:2:227]of the last of which there are about twenty, and the two-horned rhinoceros, of which there are at least two varieties. Of the minor quadrupeds, there are also many species unknown to other countries,and many yet,no doubt, remain to be discovered. The ancients had a strange notion, from the extraordinary nature of the camelopardalis, the ostrich, and some others, that newly-created species were constantly springing up in Africa, which is thus accounted for by Pliny: “Africa haec maxime spectat, inopia aquarum ad paucos amnes congregantibus se feris. Ideo multiformes ibi animalium partus, varie fceminis cujusque generis mares aut vi aut voluptate miscente. Unde etiam vulgare Grcecìae dictum— semper aliquid novi Africam afferre." A brief notice of some of the more remarkable animals will suffice, in the general view we are now taking of the continent of Africa.

That extraordinary animal, named the camelopardalis or giraffe, is found in all the dry regions of Africa, between the sources of the Senegal and Dongola; but it is doubtful whether it is ever met with in the rich soil of Soudan. There is reason to believe, however, that it is common in most parts of South Africa, as far down as the Orange River, along the northern banks of which they are found in great numbers; but none has been known to cross this river. For a long time the existence of such an animal was considered to be doubtful, though various writers have mentioned their being exhibited at Rome; but it is now familiar enough, particularly since the pasha of Tripoli sent over two living species, one for his Majesty, and the other for the king of France. In its native country it browses on trees, particularly on a species of mimosa; but when domesticated, which it soon becomes, it will eat any kind of vegetable food. On the passage of the two in question from Tripoli, they were fed chiefly on cow’s milk. They are mild and inoffensive animals.

Tnis singular and unwieldy animal, we believe, is peculiar to Africa, in almost all the large rivers of which it is found in considerable numbers, though it has been supposed to exist in the rivers of Sumatra. This is not very probable, as it would not be easily explained how it came into this insulated situation, seeing that it has no existence in India or China, or in any other of the large islands of the Indian Ocean. This amphibious creature seems to derive its chief sustenance from the land, though its dwelling is mostly in the water, from which it never proceeds to any great distance. It browses on the nearest shrubs, and feeds on the reeds of the marshes. “He licth,” we are told in the book of Job, “under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed and fens; the shady trees cover him with their shadow, the willows of the brook compass him about.” In their track, which is easily discovered by two deep furrows like the ruts of waggon-wheels, the negroes make a deep pit carefully covered over, into which if he once fall, there is no possibility of his ever getting out. The Caffres and Hottentots, however, say that he has learnt to be too cunning to fall into the trap; and their mode of taking him is to watch by night, and to wound him with their darts or spears in the tendons of the knee-joint, which lames him so much that they easily dispatch him with their numerous hassagais. The little Bosjesmen Hottentots, however, continue to take them in pits. Mr Barrow says, that in the Orange River his party shot no less than four in one day, out of one of which a perfectly formed foetus was taken, wanting only the teeth and tusks. It was only seven inches long, while the weight of the parent was estimated to be from three to four thousand pounds.

This curious animal, of the asinine tribe, is singular from having its body striped in every part, from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail; but its head is large, its ears long, and it is without beauty of form in any part of its body. It is difficult, if not impossible to tame it, when taken at full growth, being vicious in the highest degree. An Irishman belonging to a dragoon regiment persisted in mounting a half-tamed female zebra belonging to the Landrost of Zwellendam. She kicked, plunged, and threw herself down, to no purpose; the man kept his seat. She then threw herself from a high bank into a hole in the river; the dragoon was thrown, but still kept hold of the bridle, and she dragged him to the shore, when turning quickly round, and putting her head close to his face, she completely bit off his ear.

This animal is also peculiar to Africa, and was long considered as the female zebra. It is, however, a distinct species, less striped, but much more robust, and better shaped, than the zebra, and not difficult to domesticate. A pair of these animals were to be seen not long ago drawing a light carriage in Hyde Park. The late Lord Morton had a stallion that covered an Arabian mare, which produced a handsome horse, partaking much of the form, and having the stripes of the quacha. But the most remarkable circumstance is, that the same mare afterwards produced two foals in succession, on which the stripes were very visible, though she had been removed from the quacha to another part of the country, and had never seen him but at the time above alluded to. This fact has been attested by Sir Everard Home, who examined the two foals.

This animal, of the antelope genus, for so it has been classified by naturalists, is a most extraordinary creature. It has been described as partaking in its form of the horse, the ox, the stag, and the antelope; the shoulders, body, thighs, and mane, being equine; the head completely bovine; the tail partly of the one and partly of the other, exactly resembling that of the quacha; the legs and feet slender and elegant like those of the stag; and lastly, it has the subocular sinus, which is supposed to be the distinguishing characteristic of the antelope tribe. In the Systema Natures of Linnaeus, it is described, by Sparrman, among the antelopes, and mentioned also a second time as a variety of the bos Coffer, under the description of elegans et parvus Africanus bos. It is so fierce, and so full of gambols, that the Dutch boors of the Cape have named it the wilde beest. It possesses in an eminent degree strength, swiftness, a nice nose, and a quick sight. Its motions are free, varied, and always elegant: whole herds of them are seen together in the plains bordering the Orange River. Truter and Somerville procured in the Boshuana country a much larger species called the kokoon, having a long flowing black mane, not erect and trimmed, as it appears to be in the common gnoo.

The common two-horned rhinoceros of Africa is altogether different from that of India in its figure and character. The skin may be called smooth when compared with the folds that are so remarkable in the Indian species, which is covered as it were with a hide of mail. The eyes are very low in the head, almost at the root of the nose, and close under the upper horn, and so minute, that One would be apt to conclude them of little use to so enormous an animal; but by being placed in a sort of projecting socket, nature has compensated this apparent want by giving them a greater range, allowing them, without moving the head, to sweep round a portion of the horizon equal perhaps to 260 degrees. The variety found near the mouth of the Orange River is called the white rhinoceros, being much larger than the other, having its hide remarkably thin, and of a pale carnation colour, all of which, however, may be the effects of age. Another variety was met with at a considerable distance to the [7:2:228]north-east of the Cape colony by the missionary Campbell, having the longer horn almost perfectly straight and of an unusual length, while the lesser one was smaller in proportion. And Truter and Somerville, in the Boshu-ana country, met with a very large species, with the two horns nearly of the same length, which the natives called the jeckloo. This large animal, of one species or another, is found in all the woods of Africa, from Soudan to the Cape of Good Hope.

Of this family of animals Africa contains more species than are to be found in all the rest of the world, and of all sizes, from the large oreas, which the Dutch call eland, to the small pigmy antelope; but then Africa is supposed not to possess a single species of the Cervus or deer tribe in a state of nature. The oreas is the finest species of this numerous genus; it has a large dewlap, and other characteristics of the bovine genus. The male has been known to measure the enormous length of ten feet and a half, by six feet and a half in height. The flesh resembles that of beef, on which account the boors hunt them, and salt the flesh for winter provision; and so easily are these animals overtaken, that in all probability the eland has ere this disappeared from the colony.

This is another large species, also partaking of the ox, and hunted down for the sake of its carcass. Like the former, this is also a mild and patient animal; its size about seven feet long by five high. Like the eland, too, it is a gregarious animal; but being easily hunted down, both species will probably disappear altogether.

This is a noble animal, but somewhat inferior in size to the bubalus. It is the striped antelope of Pennant, and is remarkable for its long spiral horns, which are commonly to be met with in almost every museum of natural history. A black mane adorns the neck of the male, and along the spine is a ridge of white hairs. The female has none of these, nor any horns.

This is one of the most elegant, and by far the most numerous, of all the species of antelope that frequent Southern Africa. They have been known to assemble in herds of thousands, particularly when about to migrate towards the north. The leaps that this creature is enabled to take are quite astonishing, being from fifteen to twenty-five feet. No dog is able to approach them, except when jammed together like a flock of sheep, which sometimes happens in making their way through a narrow pass. The other antelope species that are met with in the colony of the Cape, are (taken in the order of their size), the gems-bok; (J. Oryx of Syst. Nat. and Passan of Buffon); the blau-bok (A. Leucophaea) ; bonté-bok (A. Scripta); the steen-bok; the bosch-bok; the klip-springer; the greis-bok; the duyker; the reit-bok; the 0 rabie ; and the Pygmoea, the smallest perhaps of hoofed quadrupeds, with the exception of the little Indian musk-deer. Many other species of this extensive genus are no doubt to be found in other parts of Africa. Two new ones were seen by Messrs Truter and Daniell in the Boshuana country, the one named the palla, resembling the spring-bok in shape and horns, but larger; and the tak-heizé, or wild creature, so named from its ferocity, though apparently partaking of the cow and the antelope. Two or three others, apparently new, were also seen by Denham and Clapperton in Soudan. The numbers that formerly frequented the Cape have considerably diminished since the formation of the new settlements to the eastward: even previously to this, where the Caffres had possession of the plains of the Zeure-feld, their mode of hunting was not only most destructive to the several kinds of game, but calculated to drive them away beyond the limits of the colony. A party, consisting of several hundreds, men, women, and children, formed a circle round the plain on which they discovered a herd of antelopes: they then marched towards the centro, narrowing the diameter till the objects of their pursuit were completely fenced in. The antelope tribe, more particularly the spring-bok, follow their leaders like sheep. An opening is made in the circle, through which all endeavour to rush, and while impeding each other, the men with their hassagais get in among them and make a dreadful slaughter.

This huge animal is found in all the wooded parts of Africa, from the southern boundary of the great desert, to the Cape of Good Hope, on the eastern coast of which they are still very numerous. Gigantic as it is, the elephant is a harmless animal in comparison with the lion, the leopard, wolves, and hyenas; but if irritated, he never fails to seek revenge. The Caffres and the Negroes usually take them in pits, at the bottom of which are fixed sharp stakes. The African elephant is of a less size than those of India, Pegu, Siam, Cochin-China, and Ceylon, rarely averaging more than nine feet; whereas in the countries above mentioned they attain the height of eleven feet. Dr Lichtenstein was assured by experienced hunters, and he was silly enough to believe them, that in the forests of Tsitsikamma, in Southern Africa, there are elephants eighteen feet high, that run in troops of 500 together. Major Denham also says, that on the margin of the lake Tsad may sometimes be seen elephants of sixteen feet high, in troops of 400. It does not appear, however, that he ever had any opportunity of measuring one, otherwise he would have corrected his mistake as to size.

This animal is the bos Caffer of the Systema Natura, and is probably the most fierce and powerful of the bovine tribe. Its height is about that of a common-sized ox, but it is nearly twice its bulk. Its horns are twelve or thirteen inches broad at the base, separated only by a narrow channel, which fills up with age, and gives to the animal a forehead of solid horn, hard as rock. The lion is said sometimes to measure his strength with the buffalo, but his attack is, as usual, by stratagem. Couching till his prey is within his reach, he springs upon his back, fixes his fangs in his throat, strikes his paw in his face, and pins him by the horns down to the ground.

The African lion is the noblest animal of his race. None of the Asiatic lions are to be compared with him for size, strength, or beauty. Indeed it is a remarkable fact, that all the animals in Africa are superior to those of the same species in other countries, with the exception perhaps of the elephant, which, as we have said, is much smaller than those of India, Siam, and Cochin-China, and also of Ceylon. The habits of the lion differ little from those of the rest of the feline tribe. He seldom attacks openly, and not at all except when pressed by hunger. Much of his life is supposed to be passed in sleep, from which he is roused only by hunger. He then watches in ambush till an opportunity offers for pouncing on his prey; but if nothing present itself near his den, he walks out leisurely; and in the exact manner of a cat when she advances towards a mouse or bird, does the kingly monster approach a flock of antelopes or sheep, till he may be able to pounce upon his victim. The Hottentots say, and the Dutch boors of the Cape confirm it, that if a lion should get near a flock of sheep guarded by one of these people, he will invariably prefer the biped to the quadruped, and in doing so he shows his judgment; for, to uncase a sheep of its woolly covering would require some labour, which his indolent habits prompt him to avoid. The naked Hottentot requires no preparation; besides which, he is generally well basted with grease. The lion is found in every part of Africa.
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The striped Bengal tiger is peculiar to India and some other parts of Asia; but in Africa there are various species of the tiger family, less powerful, but not less ferocious than that of Bengal. Leopards are numerous and very fierce; and a smaller kind, known as the tiger-cat, not less so; and all of them, if hard pressed, will turn round and spring upon their pursuers.

The native dogs are of two kinds, one large, resembling the common wolf, and another small, not unlike the fox or common jackal. There are besides two species of ravenous wolves, which commit great depredations among the cattle; two species of jackal; and two of hyenas, one striped, the other a dark brown colour. These disgusting animals, in the early periods of the Cape settlements, were numerous in the caves of the Tabic Mountain, and used to prowl the streets of the town at night. Kolbe relates a story of a drunken trumpeter, while asleep in the street, being seized and dragged along by one of these powerful animals. The man awaking, and without exactly knowing what was going on, got his trumpet to his mouth and blew a blast, which so terrified the ravenous beast, that he immediately let loose his prey, and ran off at full speed.

That curious animal, the sus Ethiopica, is found in all the woods, whose hooked tusks, curved upwards, have puzzled philosophers so much in endeavouring to explain their utility: they are certainly not intended, as an ingenious Frenchman suggested, to hang up the animal’s head on a branch while it sleeps. The earth hog of the Dutch is the myrmecophaga, or ant-eater. The hystrix cristata, or crested porcupine, is also common; and almost every species of the genus viverra is abundantly found in all parts of Africa. Baboons and monkeys of all sizes and varieties are most abundant in the woods of the tropical regions; but the cynocephalus, or black baboon, is almost the only one that frequents the more temperate climates. Lizards abound in all the sandy deserts, and two or three species of the cameleon; and the crocodile or alligator is found in all the larger rivers, to the great terror of the negroes. In fact, they are as dangerous to man when in the water as the sharks are. The singular attack made by one of these animals on Isaaco, who accompanied Mungo Park, would not be credited on less authority than that of the unfortunate traveller himself.

It is almost unnecessary to observe, that in such a climate as Africa, noxious insects and reptiles of almost every kind abound: scorpions, scolopendras, enormous spiders, snakes, and other venomous creatures. But the Africans suffer less from any of these than from two other objects, which, though individually harmless, are, when in swarms, the greatest scourge that can be inflicted on a country. These are the termites or white ants, and the grylli or locusts. These ants, small as they are, construct their habitations of clay of an enormous size. Clapperton met with some of these in his last journey, rising to the height of ten or twelve feet, and having the appearance of so many gothic cathedrals in miniature. In the extra-tropical parts they rarely exceed four or five feet. This destructive creature devours every thing in the shape of wood, leather, I cloth, &c. that falls in its way; and they march together in such swarms, that the devastation they commit is almost incredible. One of the Portuguese missionaries to Congo relates, that an army of these insects not only drove him out of his house, but ate the whole of it. except the walls; and another says, that having tied up a cow in an cuthouse, he found in the morning nothing left of the animal but the skeleton. Stories equally wonderful are told of this pernicious insect in India.

The locusts are still more destructive, for they sometimes lay waste a whole country. They are gregarious, and whenever an army of these insects is on its march, not a blade of grass or leaf of tree or shrub escapes their voracious appetite; and the tract of country over which they have passed appears as if it had been swept with a broom. In a few hours a whole field of corn is totally consumed. No remedy has yet been discovered to stay this afflicting scourge. The smoke of green wood seems to annoy them; but if they rise from one place, it is only to alight again in the immediate vicinity. It has been stated by various travellers of undoubted veracity, that, when on the wing, they form so numerous and dense a phalanx, as to obscure the face of the sun like a black cloud.

Africa contains the hugest of birds, the ostrich, as well as the largest of quadrupeds; and it has specimens of the feathered race of all gradations of size, and brilliant plumage, down to the beautiful little certhia or creeper. The condor vulture is not uncommon; the percnopterus or Egyptian vulture, and the sociable vulture, are most abundant; and all that Pliny has related of this bird, as to its sagacity in discovering dead carcasses, seems to be perfectly correct. We are told, that if an animal should die in the very midst of the dreary desert, in the course of a few minutes there will be seen, high in the zenith, a number of minute objects descending in regular gyrations, and increasing in size at every revolution, and these on their approach to the earth are discovered to be vultures. Thus descending even in the presence of man, they will at once pounce on the prey, which they devour with such greediness as frequently to be unable to rise from the ground. The serpentarius, or snake-eater, called by the Dutch the secretary bird (from some quill-feathers growing out of the head), is the declared enemy of snakes, which it attacks wherever they are met with, and feeds its young with them. Eagles, kites, and crows are abundant; and guinea fowls, bustards of an enormous size, grouse, partridges, and quails, much more so. The Numidian, the virgin, and Balearic cranes, the rose-coloured flamingo, the solitary pelican, and a great variety of water-fowl, frequent the lakes and rivers of every part of Africa except the sandy desert. In the equinoctial regions are parrots and paroquets innumerable, and birds of the most beautiful plumage, but without those sweet notes with which our more modestly clothed warblers are gifted. Nothing can exceed in elegance and brilliancy, on a sunny day, the numerous tribes of certhias, which, perched on the petals of the vaseshaped corollas of the protea mellifera, may be seen in great numbers, sipping out the honey with their long scimitar-shaped beaks.

It is almost unnecessary to say, that on both coasts of Africa, within the tropics, sharks are most abundant. Whole shoals of them may be seen in the Bight of Benin and that neighbourhood, following the slave ships in particular, from which no day occurs without some unfortunate victim being launched overboard. On the southern coasts, on both sides of the continent, both the black and spermaceti whales arc plentiful. The edible fish are various, and some of them, of the perch genus in particular, are very good.

Having thus taken a very general view of the face of the country, its productions and varied inhabitants, the next step will be to give a brief account of their particular distribution and condition, state of society, habits of industry, and other particulars, as far as our limits will allow; commencing with Egypt and Abyssinia, continuing down the eastern coast to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to the Straits of Gibraltar, and returning along the Mediterranean to the Isthmus of Suez, whence we set out: after this to take a condensed view of the interior of Northern [7:2:230]Africa, as far as the late geographical discoveries will with certainty admit.

The government of Egypt, under its present ruler Mahomed Ali, is unquestionably the most civilized of any in Northern Africa. Perhaps also it is the most populous, and, with its late conquests, embraces a larger extent of territory, comprehending Nubia, Dongola, Sennaar, and, nominally at least, Cordofan, and Darfoor.

The pasha nominally holds under the Ottoman Porte; and his confidential officers, and those of the army, were mostly Turks, until the late unfortunate campaign with Russia, since which he is said to have discharged every Turk from his army. There are however many Arabs, particularly in the upper parts of Egypt, and in the deserts on each side of the Nile. The Copts are mostly in Lower Egypt, and are many of them employed as writers and factors. The great mass of the population are the fellahs or cultivators of the land, a mixed race of Moors, Arabs, Copts, and Ntegroes. The chief city is Cairo, which has often been described, and the principal port Alexandria. It is said, that from 20,000 to 40,000 pilgrims, from the Barbary States and other parts of Africa, on their way to Mecca, used annually to pitch their tents under the walls of Cairo, where they were supplied with provisions for their future journey, on which the pasha took care to levy a contribution; but there is reason to suppose that these pilgrimages have received their deathblow by the late events.

From Cairo*, the two chains of hills which bound the valley of the Nile begin to diverge, the one turning east to Suez, the other north-west to the Mediterranean. The valley they inclose is the delta of the seven-mouthed Nile, all now closed up except two; the one emptying itself into the Mediterranean at Rosetta, the other at Damietta. This great triangular plain owes its fertility to the annual overflowing of the Nile, which is of so extraordinary a nature, that without manure or lying fallow, it has continued to yield an annual crop for several thousand years. The mud which the Nile deposits, on being analyzed by the French, was found to contain nearly one-half of pure argillaceous earth, about one-fourth of carbonate of lime, the remaining fourth carbonate of magnesia, oxide of iron, and water. All kinds of grain and vegetables grow on the delta with the greatest luxuriance. Cotton, flax, indigo, carthemum, tobacco, beans in great variety, and cucurbitaceous vegetables, are the most common products of Lower Egypt. In Upper Egypt, Nubia, Dongola, and Sennaar, the dourrha (holcus) is the common food of the people. The date-palm is seen in groves of thousands together, and gives a striking character to the country. Citrons, lemons, oranges, pomegranates, bananas, figs, the carob, jujube, and olives, and the laurus Persia, are abundant. The cassia fistula and the mulberry are also common. The few trees not of much use are chiefly confined to accacias or mimosas, sycamores and willows.

They have plenty of good horses; those from Dongola being of an excellent breed. They have also fine asses and mules, camels and buffaloes, sheep and goats. Poultry is abundant; and the factitious incubation of eggs, by means of artificial heat, is still practised. The Nile is not much celebrated for esculent fish; and the huge hippopotamus and the crocodile are almost entirely banished from Egypt, particularly the former. The ibis, held sacred by the ancient Egyptians, is a species of curlew still extant; and the percnopterus vulture still acts as the scavenger of the towns and villages.

The invasion by the French destroyed what little trade the port of Alexandria then possessed, which it has not yet recovered, though it is on the increase. Most travellers agree in the melancholy feelings, excited by the forlorn and neglected state of this once magnificent city, which' abounded in temples, palaces, baths, and theatres, and which is said to have reckoned 300,000 freemen among its population, when it first fell under the dominion of the Romans. On Mahomed Ali’s accession to the government, not more than about 100 vessels frequented the port: they are now at least 1000. The population maybe reckoned about 20,000. Rosetta is a dark and dismal city, the upper parts of whose houses, like those in the old towns on the continent of Europe, overhang the ground stories, and almost meet at top; but it is surrounded with date-trees, bananas, and sycamores. Damietta is surrounded by a swamp or morass, which is noted for the excellence of its rice. It is a dirty town, with a considerable population, among whom fevers, agues, and blindness, are the predominant diseases. The former of these cities contains about 20,000 inhabitants, and the latter about 40,000. The total population of Egypt, exclusive of the wandering Arab tribes, is reckoned at about 2,000,000; and these pastoral tribes may perhaps amount to about half a million more. The Greek war, in which the pasha was compelled to take a part, and the annual tribute he has been obliged to pay to the Ottoman Porte, have greatly embarrassed his finances. Before the battle of Navarin, he is said to have had 50 sail of ships of war, great and small, and from 30,000 to 40,000 regular troops. To recruit these, both the agriculturists and the merchants, chiefly Jews and Armenians, have been greatly oppressed by new and excessive contributions.

The condition of all classes of the population, but more especially of the agriculturists, is as miserable as can well be imagined. It would appear indeed to have undergone no change for the better since the days of the Pharaohs; and in later times, whether under the yoke of the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Turks, Mamelukes, or French, this unfortunate country, as Niebuhr has justly observed, has enjoyed no interval of tranquillity and freedom, but has constantly been oppressed and pillaged by the lieutenants of a distant lord; the sole object of both being that of extorting as large a revenue as possible from the hard hands of the peasants.

In Nubia, the mass of the inhabitants who are named Barabras, or Berebers, or Berbers, are more independent than those below the cataracts of the Nile. They are found in Dongola and Sennaar, and along the western side of the Nile, residing among the Arabs and Negroes, and their mixed offspring, from whom however they are easily distinguished. They are stated to be a frugal, harmless, and honest people, subsisting chiefly on dates, dourrha, and a few leguminous plants. When Mr Legh visited Dehr, which he calls the capital of Nubia, the cachef was drunk. He had 300 armed negroes at his elbow, and at least 3000 in the district. These fellows, as Burck-hardt observes, are to be dreaded by travellers; but there is nothing to fear from the Nubians, who are in general free from the vice of pilfering. This intelligent traveller makes a remark which is curious, that the size and figure of the Nubians were generally proportioned to the breadth of their cultivable soil, that is, in other words, to the quantity of food they had to subsist upon. The chief produce is dourrha, of which they make a kind of cake, not unlike the teff of the Abyssinians; and they also brew a strong beer or spirit from it, called booza, which, it appears, is known under the same name all over Soudan, and in which all classes were observed by Burckhardt to indulge to the greatest excess, as he advanced to the southward, more particularly at Berber and Shendi.

Still farther south is Sennaar, which also submitted a [7:2:231]few years ago to the arms of the pasha of Egypt; but the mountaineers to the southward and westward, between the rivers Azrek and Abiad, refused to acknowledge their new master. These mountaineers are described as a fine and handsome race of men, quite black, but with Arab features, which nearly resemble those of the inhabitants of Sennaar. They are called Bokki, and resemble in their dress very much the Indians of South America, being covered almost with beads, bracelets, and trinkets, made of pebbles, bones, and ivory. The men have helmets of iron, coats of mail made of leather, carry long lances, and a weapon resembling the ancient bills used by the yeomanry of England. A musket, which was new to them on the invasion of the Turks, they called a coward’s weapon, which destroyed life by an invisible stroke.

An American gentleman, who accompanied the pasha’s army, describes the people from Assuan to Sennaar as differing in character and complexion as follows: Those of Succoot are less black than the Nubian and Dongolese; the latter arc dirty, idle, and ferocious; those of the third cataract are indolent, but honest and obliging. The Berbers are the most civilized; the people of Shendi and Halfcya are sullen, scowling, crafty, and ferocious; while the peasants of Sennaar are a quiet and respectable people, but very much the reverse in the capital. They resemble, he thinks, the Indians of America in possessing the general characteristics of courage and self-respect.

That long strip of land interjacent between the Nile and the Red Sea, and from the Isthmus of Suez to the Strait of Babelmandib, an extent of 13 degrees of latitude, or 780 geographical miles, is a naked and arid desert of rock and sand, wholly destitute of water. A precipitous chain of mountains bounds the eastern shores of the Nile like an artificial wall; and the boundary next the Red Sea is in most places equally precipitous, affording very few, and these but indifferent, harbours. This country seems to have no particular name, though it is sometimes called Habesh, by some Asiatic Egypt, and by others African Arabia. The latter might be the most proper, as it is chiefly inhabited by a few straggling Ababdé Arabs, with their sheep and goats, and by some mixed Arabs, and Negroes, and Copts, as fishermen on the seacoast. Bruce calls them Agazi or Gheez, which means shepherds; and they speak the Gheez language, which is a dialect of the Arabic. It was in this miserable country that the ancients placed the small race of men called the Troglodytes, from their dwellings being the caverns of the rocks; and it was here, too, that the ancients were supposed to have worked the emerald and the topaz mines, and which the present pasha of Egypt employed a Frenchman of the name of Caillaud to explore and work. At Mount Zaborah, seven leagues from the Red Sea, and 45 to the southward of Cosseir, he gives a marvellous account of a mine into which he descended through difficult and winding passages, 400 feet under ground, and brought back a hexahcdral prism of emerald. This mountain appears to be the Jebel Zumnid of Bruce, who “saw in four days more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper, than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen such cities.” Belzoni thought these mines, with their pits and shafts, nothing more than stone quarries. The pasha, however, was so pleased with his emerald, that he gave Caillaud ' 120 camels, and 50 Ababdé Arabs to take care of them, to load with the precious stones; but the whole party, men and beasts, had nearly perished for want of water. He brought back, however, to Cairo several pounds’ weight of green stones, which he called emeralds, but which were probably nothing more than beryl or aqua marina, which did not answer the purpose of the pasha, and the search was discontinued. He talks of thousands of excavations, and traced the ruins of a Greek city of stone, 500 houses of which were still standing, in which were lamps, broken vases of earth and glass, and circular stones for grinding corn. The Arabs call it Sekket Bender el Kebyr. It was on this desert also that Ptolemy Philadelphus built the city of Berenice, which afterwards became the emporium of the eastern trade carried on by the Romans, and whose site is supposed to be near the port of Habesh. It was on this arid desert also that the ancient Ascetics, equally ignorant and uncivilized as the savage Troglodytes, had their cells; and it is said that the monasteries of St Anthony and St Paul are still inhabited by Coptic monks, who pretend to have power over the serpents and scorpions, the demons, and the few prowling beasts of prey that infest the country, while they are unable to protect themselves from the depredations of the starving Arabs of the desert. Cosseir, and Suakim, and Massuah, are the principal ports on this barren coast of the Red Sea.

The name of Habesh, or the mixed people, is given to the Abyssinians by the Mahometans. Abyssinia is a mountainous country of considerable extent, divided into several kingdoms, or rather provinces, as Tigré, Wagora, Samen, Dembea, Gojam, Amhara, Damota, and some others. Whatever may have been the primitive race of Abyssinia, it is evident, from the two languages of the country, the Gheez and the Amharic, being dialects of the Arabic, that the present inhabitants are a mixed race of Arabs and some other, probably that of the Copts, with a little of native African Or negro blood also in their veins. They have a history which goe^ back to the celebrated queen of Sheba, who travelled to Judea to admire the magnificence of Solomon, and is said to have brought back a living token of the effect which her charms produced on the Jewish king; and that his descendants continued to reign for 960 years after the birth of Christ. In the fourth century, the Christian religion was introduced into Abyssinia, and has continued ever since; but they retain the Jewish rite of circumcision.

The city of Axum, in Tigré, is the ancient residence of the Abyssinian monarchs, who still go thither to be crowned. The obelisk described by the early Portuguese travellers, of a single block of granite, was seen by Salt, who states it to be 80 feet high. There are many ruins of temples, and palaces, and monuments, bearing inscriptions in the Greek, Latin, and Ethiopian languages. This town has now not more than 600 houses, and a few manufactories of parchment and cotton stuffs. Gondar is stated by Bruce to contain 10,000 families and 100 Christian churches. One quarter is inhabited by Moors or Arabs. There is a good market; and the medium of exchange is gold, salt, and cotton cloth.

The natives, whatever they might originally have been, are at present what the Arabs call them, a very mixed race, partaking much of the Arab and the Negro character; and even their language, though confined to this great cluster of mountains, has a very considerable mixture of Arabic roots in it. Their manners are brutal, and their habits filthy. Their houses are mostly circular, and covered with conical-shaped roofs, which is the common form through the central parts of Africa, among the negroes, and down to the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The children go naked to an advanced age. They are excessively indolent, and all the works of artisans and artificers are in the hands of the Jews. The great lords have the newly-dressed food actually put into their mouths by their servants. They eat raw flesh, quivering almost with life, and placed between cakes of teff, made from a [7:2:232]species of small millet, or rather grass-seed (Poa Abyssinica); but they do not cut the flesh from the animal while alive, as Bruce has asserted. This is one of those ∙ romances, or exaggerated pictures, which brought his whole narrative into discredit; but which, though circumstantially false, is substantially true. The principal alimentary plants of Abyssinia are millet, barley, wheat, maize, and various cucurbitaceous vegetables, and a considerable variety of fruit. Their domestic animals are small horses, buffaloes with long extended horns, cows with bumps between the shoulders, goats, and sheep; besides asses and mules as beasts of burden. Most of the animals already enumerated as natives of Africa, both great and small, are to be found in Abyssinia.

Their southern neighbours, the Gallas and Shangallas, have more of the negro and less of the Arab blood in their veins, and are somewhat less civilized. Beyond them to the southward and westward are the negroes, and to the eastward the Samaulies, who a little farther back in the interior take the name of Caffres.

From the narrow entrance into the Red Sea, or Babelmandib, along the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden, and from thence south by Cape Guardafui to Cape Bashas, in lat. 5. N., the whole territory of both coasts is inhabited by the Samaulies, who are supposed to be a tribe of the same people as the Gallas, mixed, however, with the Arabs, who have from time immemorial occupied the eastern coast of Africa down to Sofala, and whose language is partially incorporated with the native tongue, and traced through all the Samaulie or Caffre tribes, down to the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The territory above mentioned was known to the ancients under the name of Asania, which is obviously taken from the Arabic name Azine, a descriptive term signifying a rocky, barren, inaccessible coast. The rocky cliffs rise out of the sea to the height of three and four hundred feet, and where they cease, in about 7. 40. N., the coast is sandy, but improves towards the equator. The want of harbours along this coast, the general barrenness of the country, the fierceness of the natives, and probably the difficulty of procuring negroes in this portion of Africa, have prevented any traffic of slaves in this quarter.

From the equator to 10. 50. S., the whole country is extremely fertile, clothed with forests of the finest timber, well watered with numerous fine rivers, and contains many excellent ports. The river Jubo or Jabon, or, as the natives call it, Wooreenda, immediately under the line, is a very fine river, said to have its source in the mountains of Abyssinia. At Raas Boorghal, in lat. 1.13. S., is port Durnford, having safe anchorage, and a fine river. The bays and harbours of Lamoo, Patta, Quayhoo, but particularly between Lamoo and Mandra Islands, in about the lat. 2. 15. S∙, afford safe and convenient anchorage. The port of Melinda, in lat. 3. 12. S∙, though deprived of its former splendour, possesses all the advantages of a good harbour. The pillar erected here by Vasco de Gama is still standing. The island and city of Mombas, placed in the centre of a most magnificent harbour, sufficient to contain the largest fleets, appears to be the central point of Arab commerce on this coast, more particularly in slaves, who are brought down in great numbers by the two fine rivers which fall into the southern and western sides of the harbour. The city is situated in lat. 4. 4. S. In 5. 30. S. is the Quillimané, one of the largest rivers on the east coast. Quiloa or Kulwa Island, like Mombas, is surrounded by a fine harbour, into which flow two large rivers. It is situated in lat. 9. S. There is also a port and river at Querimba, named Lindy, in lat. 9. 59. S.; and in 10. 7. is the great river and port of Monghow or

Mongallow. The whole of this country to Cape Delgado, is under the dominion of the imaum of Moscat, who appoints his officers to the several stations on the coast to levy taxes on the natives, and to participate, as he does largely, in the slave-trade. In fact, he is said to demand, as his share of the revenues, one-half, careless how they are raised, or in what manner the people are oppressed. The governor of Mombas, who exercises a sort of control over all the other settlements, was so dissatisfied with the conduct of the imaum, that when Captain Owen called there, he waited on him at the head of 200 chiefs, and at least 2000 of the inhabitants, to entreat that he would accept the country, in the name of the king of England, as a free gift, without any reservation or restriction, and take it under his protection. His Majesty’s government, however, did not think it proper to accept the offer of a territory, nominally at least, belonging to the imaum of Moscat.

From Cape Delgado, in about the lat. 10., to De la Goa Bay in lat. 26., the whole extent of coast, though everywhere inhabited by Arabs, and Samaulies or Caffres, is nominally belonging to the Portuguese, or the half-casts of that people, who are held in great contempt by the Arabs, some of whom told Captain Owen that they could at any time drive them away from every part of the coast, even their head-quarters, on the small island of Mozambique, if it were not for fear of drawing upon them the hostility of the English, under whose protection these Portuguese represent themselves to be. This settlement, which once bore some appearance of prosperity, while suffered to carry on an uninterrupted trade in slaves, is now reduced to a very contemptible state. The population consists of about 500 half-cast Portuguese, a mixed race of Arabs and Caffres, and an equal number of negro slaves, the whole not amounting to 3000 souls. The si-tuatión for trade is admirable, and behind it is a fine deep bay, with rivers that communicate with the interior, from whence they still clandestinely procure slaves, a small quantity of gold dust, ivory, bees-wax, rice and other grain, fruits and vegetables.

In the district of Sofala is also a fine river, named Quillimané, or Great Water, which preserves its width of more than a mile up to the town, situated at the distance of twelve miles from its mouth, which, however, has a bar across it. Near the town it divides into two other branches, forming an extensive delta; and at Senné, it is formed by the union of two large rivers, the Jambezé from the southwest, and the Suaba from the north-west. To explore these rivers, Captain Owen sent Lieutenant Brown, Mr Forbes, a botanist, Assistant-surgeon Kilpatrick, an interpreter, and three servants, accompanied by a Portuguese serjeant. They arrived at Senné all well; but after this the only account received of them was, that they had all died. Senné is about 250 miles from the mouth of the river, and another settlement called Teté, 150 miles farther in the interior. About a hundred miles farther west are the silver mines of Chicoa; and on the Suaba, the other branch of the Quillimané, are Monica and Zamba, where it is supposed the gold mines are situated. Neither the one nor the other, however, is productive; and the probability is, that the small quantity of gold brought down to Mozambique is collected by the natives from washing the sand and the alluvial soil of the rivers.

Sofala itself is a miserable village, having a governor who is a petty trafficker, with a small fort, defended by about 60 soldiers, half black and half Portuguese; the inhabitants a mixture of Arabs, Moors, Portuguese, and Negroes; the country fertile, producing rice, pulse, palms, wangoes, bananas, pine-apples, and numerous other fruits.
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The river has a bar across its mouth, which is also the case with the fine river Inhambané, ijn lat. 23.45. S. The whole of the coast of this district is intersected with rivers and bays, and fenced in, as it were, with numerous fertile islands, remarkable for the number of large trees of the cassuarina genus. The continent is here thickly covered with wood, and the native inhabitants appear to be sparingly scattered along the coast.

The kingdom of Monomotapa, of whose queen we have heard nearly as much as of the queen of Sheba, is at the distance inland of about 40 days journey from Sofala. The natives are clothed in goat-skins, and subsist chiefly on rice and millet, manioc and sweet potatoes. Their weapons are bows and arrows. A small quantity of gold, topazes, and rubies, are brought down to Sofala, in exchange for such luxuries as the governor, the chief trader, may have to dispose of.

De la Goa Bay, where the Portuguese establishments, if they can be so called, end, in about the 26th parallel of latitude, has the two rivers Mafooma or English River falling into it from the west, and Mapoota from the south. A black Portuguese serjeant, or corporal, with a handful of men of the same colour, commands a miserable fort in this fine bay.

From hence to the Great Fish River, in lat. 33⅜. S., where the colony of the Cape of Good Hope commences, the sea-coast is inhabited by the Hamboonas, the Mam-bookis, the Tambookis, the Zoolas, and the Koussie, or Ma-kousie, adjoining the Cape, all of whom are of the same race of people as those farther north; Cafí’res or Samaulies, or by whatever name they may be called—a mixed breed of Arabs and Negroes. The Zoolas, who are stationed along the coast of Natal, having driven down their next neighbours to the borders of the Cape colony, and alarmed its nearest residents, the Caffres, about 500 English troops were sent into the country of the latter to drive them back. They resisted, and a battle ensued. About ten thousand of them, armed with spears, and covered with shields of leather, stood the fire of musketry, which seemed to make but little impression. Our troops then charged them with the bayonet, and some accounts state that more than a thousand were left dead on the field before they gave way, while the cowardly Caffres, on whose behalf they were thus attacked, looked on,or rather began to massacre the women and children, and to plunder them of their cattle, which, however, was speedily put a stop to by the English forces. In fact, the cattle form the chief support of these roving tribes, who on moving them from place to place in search of food, encroach upon some other tribe, and hostilities ensue, which, with occasional famines, keep down the population to the level of subsistence. A little millet (holcus sorghum), and a sort of tasteless water-melon, and a bitter gourd, are the only vegetables they attempt to cultivate.

It is not known how far the Caffre race extend into the interior, but, from the number of negroes that are brought to every part of the coast, from the equator to Mozambique, and part of Sofala, it may be concluded that they extend to no very great distance; nor is there any good authority for the great chain of mountains, which are called Lapoota or the Spine of the Earth, as laid down on the maps. It would seem, however, from the accounts drawn .from some negro children brought down to Mozambique, that there must be high land in the interior, as they spoke of hunting the boar in the cold season, when “they can walk on the water.”

The colony of the Cape of Good Hope extends on the east to the Great Fish River, and on the north to the Gariep or Orange River, which empties itself into the Southern Atlantic in lat. 28. 50. S. While in the hands of the Dutch, this colony wa⅛ little more than an intermediate convenient station between Holland and its Indian possessions, from which it received tea, nankeens, muslins, spices, and other articles, in exchange for wheat and wine, which were raised chiefly by the labour of negro slaves; even the boors or farmers in the interior, who were of the laziest description of men, cultivating only what was barely sufficient for their own families, and employing Hottentots to tend their cattle. The population of Europeans was very limited, and all in good circumstances. Since it has become an English settlement, the population is supposed to have nearly doubled, and the slaves diminished more than one-half; and in the course of a few years they will probably disappear altogether. The colony, however, can never become of much value in an agricultural point of view, owing to the very great proportion of waste land, unfit either for culture or pasturage, which is at least two-thirds of the whole. The frequent visitations of drought, rust, and locusts, make the crops of grain very uncertain, and numbers of cattle perish for want of food. The great value of this colony to England is its position as a half-way house to India, where troops required for the latter country become well-seasoned, and on an emergency can speedily be forwarded thither, as has been done on several occasions. As a general emporium of commerce, there is not perhaps a spot on the globe more favourably situated; but the East India Company have strong objections to its being made a free-port, or even to its receiving any India and China produce for the consumption of the natives, but such as may be carried thither in their own vessels.

The exportable products of the Cape are, wine, dried fruits, hides, salted meat, ostrich feathers, leopard skins, a small quantity of ivory, whale-oil, wax, and a few other trifling articles, for which they receive clothing, furniture, and other manufactures from England. Almost every species of animal, already enumerated as belonging to Africa in general, is to be found within the limits of the colony; and nothing can exceed the beauty of the vegetable part of the creation, as our conservatories can testify. About 300 species of heath are supposed to be scattered over the colony; those of protea are numerous, beautiful, and magnificent; the bulbous-rooted plants are inexhaustible; and those of a succulent nature, such as euphorbia, crassula, aloe, and cotelydon, in great variety and grandeur. Forest trees, however, are scarce, except along the sea-coast, and accaciasor mimosas along the banks of some permanent or occasional stream. Oaks, chesnuts, and other European trees grow well in the valleys, where-ever they have been planted; and the fruit-trees of Europe, with the exception of those of the apple and cherry, all do well; and figs, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, and limes, are everywhere met with in great abundance in this fine and healthful climate.

The western coast of ’ the Cape colony is sandy and barren, with here and there a spring of water and a little verdure in the valleys. On it is the beautiful harbour of Saldanha, whose shores are surrounded by sterility. From the Orange River to Cape Negro, in lat. 16. S., upwards of 1000 miles, the whole coast consists of sand-hills, without a tree or a drop of water, having only in all this distance three bays entirely exposed to the north-west winds, the Great Fish Bay, Walvisch Bay, and Angra Pequina. From Cape Negro, where the hilly country commences, to the equator, are the Portuguese settlements of Caconda, Benguela, Angola, Congo, and Loango, of the wealth and splendour of which we read so much in the old accounts of the Jesuits, who, to magnify their own merits and the success of their missions, exaggerated and [7:2:234]falsified their reports and descriptions wherever they went. These colonies are now miserable in the extreme, and scarcely a trace remains among the wretched natives, a great part of whom are a sort of half-east between Portuguese and Negroes, of former prosperity, or of that religion to which these holy fathers represented many hundred thousands to have been converted. To add to the general stock of misery in which these countries are involved, the person who at present (1829) holds the throne of Portugal has banished thither several hundred families, who must perish from famine and the climate. Till within a few years, the governors and lieutenant-governors, and officers of black troops, and other employees, had subsisted entirely by the abominable traffic in slaves; but this resource appears to have failed them, not in consequence of the expiration of the time allowed by treaty for carrying on that traffic, butbecause the interior has been completely exhausted of its negro population. Captain Tuckey’s unfortunate expedition afforded some insight into the interior of the district of Congo. The extraordinary mortality that took place was never satisfactorily explained. The climate, after passing the falls, appears, by Captain Tuckey’s journal, to have been excellent, the thermometer having never descended below 60° in the night, and seldom rising above 76° of Fahrenheit during the day, and the atmosphere being remarkably dry. The slave-dealers towards the lower part of the river are described as the vilest of mankind, a mongrel breed of French, Portuguese, and Negroes. Above the cataracts the negro population was far more respectable, but so indolent, that with difficulty they could be prevailed on to assist, on any terms, to push forward the canoes. Captain Tuckey states his reasons for concluding that the source of the Zaire must be to the northward of the equator, probably in those high mountains, a portion of which are visible from the sea in the Bight of Biafra.

Proceeding to the northward, and crossing the equator, we arrive at the bottom of that great bay or indent generally known as the Gulf of Guinea, a part of which forms the Bights of Benin and Biafra. Beginning at Cape Palmas, the extreme western point of this gulf, we have in succession the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, and the Slave Coast, the last extending from the river Volta to Gabon under the line. The inhabitants of this great extent of coast are nearly the same, very much corrupted by their intercourse with Europeans, more especially at those several places where European settlements have been formed. They are all intolerably lazy, and the richness of the soil, and the great heat and constant moisture, enable them to be so, and at the same time may be considered as some excuse for indolence. Nothing can exeeed the fertility of the coast of Guinea. Maize, rice, holeus of various species, yams, cassava, sugar-cane, fruits of every kind common to tropical climates, spices, peppers, gums of five or six sorts, the oil, the tallow, and the butter-tree, cotton, indigo, and various dye-woods, are produced with little labour, and many of them spontaneously. Behind the Ivory Coast elephants roam in the woods and savannahs, in the latter of which the grass and reeds are said to exceed the height of 20 feet, and into which these huge animals retire to rest: these are sometimes caught by the negroes setting fire to the thickets, but mostly by pitting. In Bambouk and Akim, and various other places, gold-dust is collected in the sand brought down the mountain streams, but in no great quantity.

Higher up the coast is the settlement of Sierra Leone, which, as a place for civilizing the negroes by education and free labour, would appear to have entirely failed: it certainly is of very little value, either as a commercial or naval depot, and every body avoids it as much as possible, on account of its extreme insalubrity. Its chief value in a national point of view is the great quantity of ship-timber, said to be superior to oak, which is brought down the river from the interior, and imported at a lower price than English oak bears in the market. To the northward of this the half-east Portuguese have a slave-dealing settlement among the Bissagos Islands; and higher up on the coast is the English colony on the river Gambia; and lastly, the French settlement on the Senegal. The chief articles of the trade which is carried on at the last two settlements, are spirituous liquors and tobacco; in return for gums of different kinds, bees-wax, a
little
gold-dust, and ivory. The territory in the neighbourhood of these rivers is in possession of various mixed tribes, Moors, Arabs, Berbers, and Negroes; but the pure negro is rarely found among them, except in a state of slavery. The Felatas, under the name of Foulahs, arc numerous; so are the Serrawolles of Galam, the Mandingos, the Bamboukis, the Feelops, the Jalofs, the Soosoos, and an endless number of tribes, half Mahometans, half Pagans, most of them of a treacherous and inhuman disposition, very little advanced in the arts, conveniencies, and manners of civilized life, and almost constantly at war with each other. The country inhabited by this description of people brings us to the commencement of the great desert of Zahara, the coast of which is occasionally inhabited by prowling Arabs looking out for shipwrecked vessels, which they plunder without mercy. This barren coast extends northerly as far as Suz, where the emperor of Morocco’s dominions may be said to commence, though the Moors and Berbers on this skirt of the desert are a lawless race, and scarcely pay allegiance to any sovereign but of their own choosing.

Why this Barbary state should be dignified with the name of Empire is by no means obvious, unless it be that the title of Sultan has been translated into that of Emperor. The present ruler is a Shirif, or descendant of Mahomet. The country is of great extent, and very varied in its productions; but owing to the bad system of government, agriculture and commerce are both neglected, and the population scanty, the highest estimate of which cannot be considered to reach five millions, though Jackson, the loosest of all writers on Africa, has swelled it to fifteen millions, which is absurd. The Atlas Mountains, which occupy the central parts, send forth their fertilizing streams in every direction; and the perpetual snow which appears on one of the highest peaks, behind the city of Morocco, tempers the summer heat, and communicates a freshness to the climate, scarcely known in other parts of the African continent. Grain of every description may be raised in Morocco. All the fruits of Europe, and most of those of Asia, thrive remarkably well. The shrubby and herbaceous plants are rich and in great variety. The oaks of Atlas are of good dimensions, but forest trees in general are rather stunted in their growth. These are chiefly the quercus suber, and ilex, thuia, mimosa, cedar, walnut, andchesnut The olive and argan (eleodendron) supply them with abundance of oil. They have black-cattle and broadtailed sheep in abundance, and bees producing the finest honey and wax. But the late emperor Muley Soliman, in one of his despotic mandates, prohibited the exportation of oil, wheat, and wool, three of the most productive articles, which at once impoverished the agriculturists,— so much indeed, that wheat and barley have since been imported from Europe; and the nephew, who usurped the sovereign power, ruined the merchants and manufacturers of Fez by his excesses and extortions. All the foreign establishments at Mogadore have left the place, except one single English house. Only twelve small [7:2:235] vessels entered that port during the year 1828, which amounted formerly to thirty or forty; and these twelve are stated to have found a bad market, and not half cargoes in return. The port of Santa Cruz has long been wholly abandoned by European traders, and the town is now little better than a heap of ruins. The trade from Tetuan, Tangier, and Rabat is very trifling.

The present emperor Muley Abderahman, like some of his predecessors, has been mostly employed, since his accession in 1821, in efforts to bring into proper submission his refractory subjects in the southern provinces, who have felt themselves strong enough to refuse paying contributions; and in levying additional taxes, taking off heads, and confiscating the property of those who have any, particularly that of Jews and Moorish merchants. Even the slave-trade with Soudan by means of the caravans has greatly diminished. There are very few Turks in Morocco. The population consists chiefly of Moors, Arabs, Berbers, Negroes, with all their varied mixtures, and Jews. The last are subject to the worst treatment, but, as it has been stated, “no insult, indignity, or oppression, prevents the Israelite from domiciliating himself wherever he happens to fix his abode. He is a plant that seems to be suited for every soil, and generally thrives best when the pruning-knife is most applied. Among the Moors he is made to suffer beyond what any nature but that of a Jew could bear; yet such is the ignorance of the ruling powers and their Moorish subjects, that the affairs of state could hardly be carried on without him. Most of the trades and professions are exercised by Jews; they farm the revenues; act as commissaries and custom-house officers, as secretaries and interpreters; they coin money; furnish and fabricate all the jewellery and silver ornaments and trappings for the sultans, beys, and bashaws, and their respective harems; and in return for all this they are oppressed by the higher ranks, and reviled and insulted by the rabble.” Such is their situation in all the four Barbary states.

The chief cities of Morocco are, the capital of that name, supposed to contain about 30,000 inhabitants; Fez, about the same number; Mequincz, not quite so many; Tetuan, on the coast, about 20,000; and Tangier, 16,000. The buildings are flat-roofed, and the streets narrow and dirty. OnthesouthareTafiletandSegilmessa, once populous cities, but now depending mostly on the caravans to Soudan, which resort to these places. Still farther south, and bordering on the desert, is the Bled-el-Jereed, or country of dates. The manufactures are chiefly confined to cotton and 1 woollen cloths, silks, paper, and morocco leather.

í The Morocco territory is separated from that of Algiers by the desert of Angara, on which the Arabs pursue lions, ostriches, and antelopes, and plunder the defenceless traveller. The mountain chain of Atlas extends behind it, and separates it from the great desert. In front of these is a long tract of fertile country, productive of all kinds of grain and good fruits. Numerous rills pour down the sides of the mountains, some of which are frequently 'covered with snow, giving a freshness to the temperature, which is almost always agreeable. The southern parts of the range of mountains, and various places from the highest Atlas to the Gulf of Sidra, or the Syrtis, are inhabited by tribes of Berbers, usually called Shillooks, who very much resemble the Tuaricks of the desert.

The city of Algiers rises in the form of an amphitheatre un the side of a hill, surrounded by a wall, and having its sea-front completely protected by strong batteries, which have resisted every attempt against them save one—that ff Lord Exmouth,—one of the most daring, the most loubtful in its issue, and most brilliant exploits on record. The city is said to contain 80,000 inhabitants. It is placed in the midst of a country well clothed with all manner of fruit-trees, among which are scattered a great number of villas or country seats, to which the inhabitants repairanthe hot season. The city of Constantine is said to contain 100,000 souls. Its site is entirely covered with broken walls, cisterns, aqueducts, and other ruins. Shershell, the ancient Caesarea, is covered with similar ruins of great extent and grandeur. Indeed the whole of this part, of Africa exhibits the remains of temples, aqueducts, amphitheatres, triumphal arches, and other ancient edifices of extraordinary magnificence. Besides these, numerous other cities and modern towns are found in the interior and along the sea-coast, as Mascara, Oran, and Bona; near the last of which is the great coral fishery. The army is composed of Turks, who elect the dey, whose arbitrary power is in some degree mitigated by the divan, composed of the oldest and highest of the military officers. He acknowledges the sovereignty of the grand signior, and pays him an annual tribute. One of the chief sources of revenue is the monopoly of grain; to which are added, confiscations, taxes on the Jews and other foreigners, and the sale and ransom of prisoners, which has been greatly diminished since the Barbary powers have been compelled, by the interference of England, to liberate all Christian slaves.

Bordering on Algiers, and to the eastward of it, is Tunis, once the flourishing capital of the Carthaginian power. The hereditary bey is neither Turk nor Moor, but the descendant of a Greek renegado and a Genoese slave. Christians and Jews are less subject in this state to oppression and insult than in any of the other three; and the Tunisians are also less addicted to piracy. Their great pursuit is agriculture and commerce, which are mostly in the hands of the Moors; but a vast number of Nomade Arabs are scattered over the interior of the country. The cattle and horses are small, but the sheep are of a large size. The southern side of the tail of the Atlas range of mountains is sandy and barren, and a desert intervenes between it and the oasis of Ghadamis, which, from its position, ought to belong to Tunis, but nominally is under the dominion of the bashaw of Tripoli. The crops of grain are very fine, and the Tunisians have all the fruits that are common to the other states.

The city of Tunis, if we except Cairo, is the first in all Africa, and possesses a well-fortified harbour. The Go-letta, a strong fortress, commands the roadstead, and the entrance of the lagoon or lake, which, however, is navigable only by boats. The ruins of ancient Carthage appear a little to the north-west of it. The ruins of the works that formed her harbour, and the remains of an aqueduct, are still visible. In the interior is the Arabian city of Cairoan, which for many centuries was reckoned the capital of Africa, but of which little is known at present. Its principal mosque is reported by the Moors to be supported by 500 columns of granite. Along the coast are several towns and small harbours, as Sooza, Gabes, and Porto-Farina, near which the ancient Utica was situated, where the younger Cato underwent a voluntary death. In all the towns of this state are considerable manufactories of silks, velvets, cloths, and morocco leather, and a peculiar kind of red cloth cap, which is very much worn by the seamen and peasantry of the coasts of the Mediterranean.

The state of Tripoli may be said to extend from the Lesser Syrtis or Gulf of Gabes to the eastern extremity of Barca, on the confines of Egypt. On its deserts and its arid mountains are numerous tribes of Nomade Arabs, Moors, and Tuaricks or Berbers, who frequently threaten [7:2:236]the bashaw in his capital. It has a tolerably good harbour, and a strong castle to command both it and the town. To the eastward is Lebida, the ancient Leptis Magna, where the remains of temples, triumphal arches, and aqueducts, are still visible. The French carried off a great number of large and beautiful columns; and Captain Smyth of the British navy sent home several shafts and capitals, which were lying for a long time in the court-yard of the British Museum. Farther east is the town and bay of Mesurata, and beyond it the Libyan Pentapolis, the ruins of whose five cities, Cyrene, Barce, Ptolemais, Berenice, and Taukera, still exist, under names scarcely dissimilar from their ancient appellations, and are still inhabited as towns' and villages, but with a very different description of people. Cyrene was undoubtedly the most ancient and splendid of the Greek colonies on the coast of Africa, whose ruins and catacombs, scattered along the summit of the third stage of hills, or last terrace which overlooks the Mediterranean, are still magnificent. The succession of terraces corresponds very accurately with the description given of the face of the country by Herodotus; and among the splendid ruins still flows the limpid spring described by him, along whose verdant banks the Arab now pitches his tent. Tolemata or Ptolemais, in the port of Barca, preserves its ancient walls, covered with inscriptions; and the ruins of it£ temples and arches are all to be traced. Here, indeed, we are on classic ground; and modern travellers have fancied even to have discovered the gardens of the Hesperides. At Derné the country puts on a beautiful appearance, and receives fertility from the rills descending from the mountains. It is governed by a bey appointed by the bashaw of Tripoli, and so is Bengazi. These two towns are inhabited by Moors, Jews, and Arabs; but the greater part of the country is in possession of the wandering tribes of Arabs, who pasture their flocks as far as the oasis of Audjela, and along the edge of the desert to Fezzan, both of which are, nominally at least, dependent on the bashaw of Tripoli. Of the sea-coast of this part of Africa, from Tripoli round the Greater Syrtis, of the Cyrenaica, and to the confines of Egypt, we have the best detailed information as to its present state, its antiquities, and productions, from Della Celia and Mr Beechey.

It is quite true, as Major Rennell has observed, that “nothing can evince the low state of African geography more than Μ. D’Anville’s having had recourse to the works of Ptolemy and Edrisi to compose the interior part of his map of Africa in 1749.” This map, and indeed all that have followed of the interior, are now (1829) rendered nearly worthless by the discoveries of modern travellers. The first traveller who made much progress into the interior was Mungo Park, who proceeded from Pisa-nia, on the river Gambia, to Medina, Fatteconda, Kem-moo, Jarra in Ludimar, the frontier town of the Moors, who took him prisoner, and confined him at Benown for two months. On being released, he travelled, chiefly by the charity of negroes, through a wooded country to Sego, where he fell in with the Niger, so named by Leo Africanus, who supposed it to be the Niger of Pliny. From Sego, continuing his journey along the banks of the river, he reached Silla, from which place he deemed it prudent to return, on account of the jealousy of the Moors, whose ill treatment he had already experienced. Returning by a more southerly route, along the northern banks of the great river thus discovered, as far as Bammakoo, where it appears first to become navigable, and passing through Manding, Konkodoo, Dentila, Neola, and Tenda, he at length reached Medina on the Gambia, having added greatly to our knowledge of this part of Africa. We have no account of his proceeding farther in his second journey than Sansanding, a little way beyond Sego; and all account of his discoveries from thence to Boussa, where he was wrecked, has perished with him. That he did so perish at that place, is rendered certain by the visit of Clapperton, and subsequently by that of his servant Lander.

To Mr Browne we owe whatever particulars he was able to collect (and, being kept a prisoner, they were not many) concerning Darfoor and the position of the oasis and ruins of the temple of Jupiter Ammon; the latter of which were afterwards corroborated by Horneman. From a vocabulary of the language of the natives of this oasis, Mr Marsden came to the conclusion that they were the same people as the Tuaricks, who inhabit the western part of the great desert from Morocco to Timbuctoo. In this oasis, and that of Augela, the inhabitants grow a little grain, and cultivate fruits and vegetables, chiefly dates. The women are mostly employed in weaving a coarse woollen cloth, the only covering they wear. The largest of the several islands interspersed among the sands of the desert, or rather a cluster of them, is Fezzan, the ancient Garamantes, whose chief town is Mourzouk. This is the intermediate station in the desert for the trade of Bornou and Soudan with Egypt and Tripoli, receiving gold-dust, slaves, and horses, in exchange for salt, fruit, and vegetables, goats and sheep for the caravans. The population of this oasis is stated to be from 70,000 to 80,000 souls. They cultivate barley, maize, pulse, and dates; figs and pomegranates grow in abundance. They have no water but what they receive from partial springs or deep wells, and it is generally brackish, from the salt and natron with which the soil abounds.

The Zahara or Great Desert has also its oases, and wadeys or valleys, in which springs of water are found, and shrubby plants, chiefly stunted accacias, and tufts of grass. For hundreds of miles, however, the surface is one continued plain of sand, in some places blown up into high ridges, in others in undulating lines, like the waves of the sea. In parts of the desert, insulated hills of naked sandstone rock, or ridges of hills, rise out of the sandy or stony surface, appearing like so many islands in the ocean. Many indeed have supposed that the Zahara must once have been the bed of the ocean, judging from the springs and pools of salt water, the flags of rock-salt, the beds of natron, and the saline particles that abound in the sand, and also from the shells and fragments of marine animals that are found in the limestone of Augela and other parts of the desert. On the eastern side is the Bahr Bdlama, or sea without water; and Riley describes an immense ravine on the side of the Atlantic, running from the seashore more than 300 miles into the interior, full of salt water springs, and the sandy surface incrusted with marine salt, which “crumbled,” he says, “under the feet of the camels like a crust of snow.” The banks of this deep ravine were distant from each other eight or ten miles, and were from 500 to 600 feet high. This valley Riley calls the bed of an arm of the sea, and supposes it to lie somewhere about the 20th parallel of latitude. Other travellers describe ravines of the same kind between the southern foot of the Atlas Mountains and the Zahara, like so many deep beds of a formerly existing sea, with incrustations of salt, rolled pebbles, and broken shells. It would be very desirable to trace the levels somewhere across the northern commencement of the Zahara, from the bottom of the Gulf of Syrtis to the Atlantic. We know nothing of the southern face of the Mauritanian Atlas, and the plains of Segilmessa, and the Bled-el-Jereed, or land of dates; and we cannot help thinking, [7:2:237]that while we are sending out travellers to perish in the central parts of Africa, it would be as well, in the first place, to obtain a knowledge of the emperor of Morocco’s dominions; more especially of those parts to the southward of Atlas, and contiguous to the Great Desert It has been suggested that the whole country between the Syrtis and the Atlantic, over which the Atlas chain extends, may have once been insulated, and in that state formed the celebrated Atlantis. This, however, is not very probable, but might easily be determined by a series of levels.

The Zahara, miserable as it is, is not wholly without inhabitants. On the western shore are scattered, a few Moorish and Arab shepherds and goat-herds, usually looking out for plunder of shipwrecks. Towards the centre are the Tuaricks, traders in salt, and robbers of the caravans; and to the eastward, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the salt-water pools and marshes of Bilmah, are the Tibboos, a less pure people than the Tuaricks, who also collect salt for the Bornou market, and feed a few sheep and goats.

The Desert ceases in about 15. north latitude, sloping gradually down to the fertile and well-watered countries of Bornou on the east, Houssa in the centre, and the regions already mentioned to the westward of Timbuctoo. Houssa and Bornou collectively comprehend that region of Africa known by the name of Soudan, or Land of the Blacks: the former is under the rule of the Sultan Bello, a descendant of the Foula tribe, called by the negroes Foulatas or Fellatas; and the latter is governed by the Sheik el Kanemy of some Arab tribe. These two chiefs, dividing this fine country between them, are, or recently were, in a state of hostility, by which the poor and peaceable negroes are made to suffer greatly. The élite of the black troops of Bomou are habited in coats of mail, composedof iron chains, with helmets or skull-caps of the same metal. The heads of their horses are also defended by plates of iron or brass, sufficient room being left only for the eyes of the animal.

There are 13 principal towns in Bornou. Kouka, the modern capital, is situated on the eastern border of the lake Tsad. Among the other principal towns are New Birnie, Old Birnie, Affagy, Angola, Kabshary, Showy, and Angornow; the last of which is said to be the largest town in Bornou, and supposed to contain about 30,000 inhabitants. The market held at this place every Wednesday, is said by Denham to be attended sometimes by 80,000 or 100,000 persons. Bornou is intersected by two considerable rivers which fall into the Tsad; the Yeou, which has its rise in a ridge of hills about Katagum, and which divide this country from that of the Fellatas; and the Shary, whose source is unknown, but which falls into the lake from the southward. Kanem, to the north of the lake, and Baghermi to the westward, are dependent on Bornou; but the country to the southward of it, and as far as the great range of mountains, is in possession of the Fellatas. On all sides of the lake are tribes of Arabs in great numbers, particularly those of the Shoua tribe of Beni Hassan, feeding their numerous flocks and herds.

The climate is far from being healthful. Though situated between the 10th and 15th parallels of latitude, the cold of winter is sometimes very severe, the thermometer rarely reaching 74° or 75°, while in the mornings it usually stands at 58° or 60°. In summer it rises sometimes to 105° and 107°, with suffocating and scorching winds from the south and south-east. During the rains of summer, from the extreme flatness of the country, tracts of many miles in extent are converted into lakes. The soil is rich, but the people are indolent, and cultivate little for food but a species of millet, which they call gressub, and three or four kinds of beans known by the name of gufooly i the common food of slaves and the poorer class of people. Indian corn, cotton and indigo, with a little senna, make up nearly the catalogue of their husbandry. Indigo indeed grows wild, and with it they dye their blue tobes or frocks. They have domestic fowls in great numbers; and all the quadrupeds and birds which have been already mentioned, besides many others, are natives of the woods, the lakes, and the plains of Bornou. They have little commerce except with the people of Fezzan and Tripoli, chiefly supplying the Moors with slaves, horses, elephants’ tusks, and ostrich feathers, receiving in return red caps, brass basins, coral, fire-arms, powder and shot, swords, and salt.

The Soudan population consisted originally of negroes; but the Arabs, and the Moors, and the Berbers have converted it into a mixed race, in which not only the features have been changed, but the native simplicity of the pure Ethiopian destroyed, if we may judge from the character and disposition of the unmixed negroes, whom Clapperton met with to the southward, beyond the line to which the Fellatas had carried their conquests. Corrupted as they are within the limits subjected by these people, Clapperton speaks of them in high terms of praise. In his way to Soccatoo, the residence of Bello, the country not only improved in appearance, from the moment he crossed the Bornou boundary, but the valleys were well peopled and cultivated, and the plains were covered with herds of cattle. Crowds of people were on the road from the market of Kano, bearing their purchases on bullocks, on asses, or on their heads. This city, the Ghana of the Arabs, is the great emporium of Houssa, about 15 miles in circumference, surrounded with a clay wall about 30 feet high, having a dry ditch within and without. The space within contains fields, orchards, and gardens. It is said to contain from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. The market is well stocked with goods from every part of Northern Africa, and with European articles, even to English umbrellas. From Kano to Soccatoo the country increased in population, and town followed town in quick succession, most of them surrounded with walls and ditches. Clapperton says that this part of the country resembled one of our English ornamented parks, clothed with woods and clumps of trees.

Bello sent out 150 of his horsemen with drums and trumpets to meet this traveller, and escort him to Soccatoo. This city he considered to be the most populous of any he had met with in Africa, though it was founded only in 1805; but the mud walls of an African town are soon run up, and as soon demolished. It is situated in long. 6. 12. E. lat. 13. 5. N., near to a small river which, rising in the hills between Kashna and Kano, and running to the west, is said to fall into the Quorra (Niger) at four days’ journey to the westward of Soccatoo. There is one city of considerable strength at no great distance from Socca-too, which Bello has not been able to conquer. It is named Goober, and the people, by the sultan’s own account, “are free-born, because their origin is from the Copts of Egypt.” Clapperton, on his second visit, was present at the siege of this place, of which he gives an amusing account, not very creditable to the army of Bello.

By the second journey of this unfortunate traveller we are made acquainted with the manners and habits of a negro population in the interior, behind or to the northward of the range of mountains that are supposed to cross Northern Africa like a belt. From the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo large and populous kingdoms follow each other, containing towns and cities of mud houses, surrounded with mud walls, peopled with 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, and even 40,000 inhabitants; the country well cultivated, and the people employed in various manufactures for domestic [7:2:238]use·; such as Weaving, dying, tanning, working in iron and other metals, and in pottery. In all the towns he found them a good-humoured, but a vitious and licentious set, both male and female; fond of music, dancing, and drinking booza; extremely superstitious, and placing confidence in the power of various charms. The chief or king of Yourriba had as many wives, he told Clapperton, as, if linked, hand in hand, would reach from one end of his kingdom to the other; but these queens are less for luxury than for use, being employed in all kinds of hard labour. The emperor of China does not receive from his ministers more humiliating submission than does the king of Your-riba from his black vassals, who fall flat on their bellies before him, and cover themselves with dust.

Next to Yourriba is the kingdom of Borghoo, whose capital is Kiama, famous for its horses. The sultan is attended by a body-guard of young females, when he makes his appearance in public. He waited on Clapperton, attended by six naked young girls, from 15 to 17 years of age, a white bandeau or fillet of white cloth round the fore-head, and a string of beads round the waist, being their only clothing. Each carried three light spears. “Their light form, the vivacity of their eyes, and the ease with which they appeared to fly over the ground, made them appear something more than mortal, as they flew alongside his horse.” The subjects of Borghoo had the reputation of being great robbers, but Clapperton received nothing but civility in passing through their country. Kiama is said to contain 30,000 inhabitants. From hence he proceeded to Wawa, a town with 18,000 inhabitants, also belonging to Borghoo.

From Wawa our traveller proceeded to the northward as far as Boussa, situated on the Quorra, for the purpose of gaining information respecting the death of Mungo Park, which happened at this spot of the river. The reports varied, though they all agreed in the main point, that the boat upset over a ledge of rocks which here crosses the river, and the few that were in her were unfortunately drowned. It appears, too, that by a mistake they were engaged in hostility at the moment with the natives on shore. On Lander’s return, the sultan of Boussa employed him in cleaning some muskets, six of which had the Tower mark upon them. Clapperton got some indirect information respecting Park’s papers, but it appeared doubtful whether they were still in existence. On his return to Wawa, he fell in with a coffle or caravan, from Ashantee to Houssa, which occupied-a long line of march, consisting of bullocks, asses, horses, and women and men to the amount of a thousand persons. From Wawa he proceeded to the ferry of the river Quorra, which was here about the width of the Thames at Westminster. Having crossed the river, the first town was Koolfa, in Nyffé, a walled town, containing from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants, Mussulmans and Pagans. Here the whole night was spent in singing, dancing, and drinking booza. Beyond this, towns and villages increased in number, and the fields were better cultivated than bad hitherto been the case; but every labourer was armed to protect himself against the inroads of the Fellatas, who were very numerous in this part of Africa.

Zaria, the capital of Zeg-zeg, is a large Fellata city, as populous as Kano, and has several Mahometan mosques with minarets; and the houses are flat-roofed. The environs are stated to be very beautiful and well cultivated, which continues to be the character of the country the whole way from thence to Kano. On the whole, it may be collected from this interesting journey of Clapperton, that though sobriety and chastity form no part of the character of the native negroes, they are a happy, kind-hearted, and sociable people, undergoing just as much labour as is necessary to procure them food, clothing, and booza; and, having accomplished this, preferring to bask in the sun, or to sleep in the shade all day, and to commit all kinds of debauchery in the night; just like the booza-driukers of Berber and Shendi, as described by the late Mr Burckhardt.

It would appear, from the journal of Clapperton’s servant, on his return by a more easterly route, that the inhabitants are several degrees lower in the scale of civilisation than those more to the westward. In one place, men, women, and children exposed themselves without any covering whatever; and a range of hills to the eastward of his route was pointed out as being inhabited by a ferocious tribe of people called Yam-yams, who were declared by all to be cannibals. The Sultan Bello assured Clapperton that he had seen these people eat human flesh. These, however, may be considered as exceptions. The great mass of the people are gentle and docile; but so long as the Fellatas send out their marauding parties to carry off slaves and cattle, there is little reason to expect they will make any progress in civilisation. Domestic slavery has in all probability existed among them for ages past, and even yet the slave appears to be treated like any other member of the family; but the foreign slave-trade, that greatest of all curses, leads to perpetual wars among neighbouring tribes, it being well known that a coflle of human beings is a species of traffic easiest to be conveyed to the sea-coast, and fetches there the highest prices, for which the venders are enabled to purchase in return ardent spirits and other articles suited to their depraved appetites. There is one way, and but one, of putting an end to this infamous traffic, and that is by all the maritime nations of Europe and America declaring it to be piracy; but there are too many interested in its continuance to allow us to indulge a hope that this will ever be done.

The discoveries of Clapperton and Denham have done much to reform the geography of Northern Africa, the maps of which were disgraceful to that branch of knowledge in the nineteenth century. All those gratuitous lakes, rivers, and mountains, put down at random to fill up the vacant paper, may now be swept away, and those cities or towns that do exist, be placed in their proper situations; some of which, before the late expeditions, were from 300 to 500 miles out of their true positions. The Arab writers, from Edrisi downwards, appear to have been wholly ignorant of the course of the Joliba or Quorra, some making it run directly eastward, as far as the Nile of Egypt, and others in a contrary direction. Some placed the cities of Kashna, Kano, Nyfte, &c. along its banks, all in an easterly series; mistaking possibly, as they make no ùse of river navigation, the Yeou for a continuation of the said Quorra; a mistake that a very ingenious French writer has fallen into, even subsequently to the publication of Clapperton’s journal; and an English author has also done the same, and carried its waters under ground through the Great Desert, and into the Gulf of the Syrtis. We now know that, at some distance beyond Timbuctoo, the Joliba or Quorra, the Niger of modern days, turns off to the southward, passes to the westward of Soccatoo, through Boussa, where Park was wrecked, skirts the province of Nyffé, and continues to flow southerly to at least the 9th parallel of latitude; and here all information as to its course ceases. But there can only be two alternatives,— either that it penetrates the range of granite mountains, whose width is somewhere about 80 miles, and height from 2000 to 3000 feet, and falls into the Bight of Benin, through the river Formosa,—or, that it turns off to the [7:2:239]eastward, joins the Shary, and falls into the lake Tsad. Testimonies, such as they are, have been procured in favour of both suppositions; and if those for the latter course are the most strong, those for the former may perhaps be considered as the more probable. In what direction the waters of the Tsad discharge themselves, is as yet mere conjecture, as little is known for certain to the eastward of that lake; but the water of the lake being at all times fresh, which it could not be if discharged only by evaporation, there must be some outlet, and that outlet will probably be found on the yet unexamined eastern side, creeping on in a connected chain of nearly stagnant pools to the “dead-flowing” stream of the Bahr-el-Abiad.

The Bahr-el-Abiad, as far as it has yet been traced from its junction with the Nile, strongly favours this supposition. It has been ascended as far as Aleis, by Monsieur Liuant, in the employ of the African Association. It has been ascended by Μ. Rouppel; and Lord Prudhoe and Major Felix ascended it to a considerable distance, and obtained some curious information of the country-through which it passes, and the singular character of the river. For a great part of the year it is very shallow, and the water nearly stagnant; its width extends from two to twenty miles; and it is thickly studded with islands that are covered with fine forest-trees. In this state it resembles an endless lake radier than a river; but when the freshes come down, about the same time as the Nile begins to swell, they are not gradual, like those of that river, but the torrent rises with great rapidity, sweeping all before it, and bringing down most extraordinary multitudes of fish. These circumstances led the travellers to conclude that it was supplied from some great reservoir far in the west, and that this reservoir is probably the lake Tsad. Some of the officers of the pasha of Egypt’s army had been nearly 400 miles up the river, still coming from the setting sun; and in that direction not a mountain nor a hill of any size was visible. It would seem, therefore, to form a sort of great drain to carry off the waters of Bornou, and of the continuous low swampy country reported to extend easterly from Bornou, in which the lake Fittré and other lakes are said to be situated.

The Bahr-el-Azrek and the Nile may be considered as one and the same river: they have the same character in all respects; the same high banks, with the same dark soil, which gives a colour to the water: the same birds, the same fish, and the same plants, accompany both; but the Bahr-el-Abiad and the Nile are totally different. Low meadow banks accompany the former, as far as it has been traced; the birds, the fish, and the animals, are wholly distinct. The elephant, the hippopotamus, and the rhinoceros, are here found in whole herds. They are unknown in the neighbourhood of the Nile. The water of the one is black and turbid; of the other it is of a white opal colour. The only difficulty in exploring this interesting river upwards seems to be the hostility of a tribe, at 150 or 200 miles from its junction with the Nile, called Shillooks, who are a large race of men, entirely black, and without clothing, and are represented by their lower neighbours, not exactly as cannibals, for they never can want fish to eat, but as a very fierce and savage race. But the real character of people living in a savage state is not to be procured from their neighbours, especially when in a state of warfare with each other. The Shillooks, however, may easily be passed, by proceeding through the Denka country on the right bank, or to the southward between the mountains and the Bahr-el-Abiad, where an intelligent sheik of the name of Idrees Adelan resides; who, being now subject to the pasha of Egypt, would readily conduct any traveller, recommended by the pasha, beyond the territory of these formidable blacks, wheβe would probably be met some of those pastoral tribes of Arabs that are known to feed their flocks along this prolonged valley of Soudan, even to the confines of Bornou. An expedition from the Nile to Bornou through this tract of country, the most fertile probably in the whole interior, would afford materials to complete the geography of Northern Africa.

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