On the eastern shores the knowledge of the ancients does not appear to have extended beyond the isle of Pemba, south lat. 5°, or the vicinity. But of the interior parts Ptolemy, who resided in Egypt, appears to have had more precise knowledge in the second century, than has since been attained in any age. One of the most striking defects in the map adapted to his work by Agathademon is, that sufficient spaces are not left for the wide forests and deserts. Hence in Germany, Persia, Arabia, and other instances it has already been shewn that distant positions are often crowded together. In the map of Africa the same deficiency is apparent, the proper space not being left for the great desert of Zaara. Hence the source of the Nigir, lat. 11°, is elevated to lat. 18°, and its course approaches the land of Dates. On the other hand the southern parts of Ptolemy's map are too much expanded, and filled with numerous names of small tribes, like La Cruz's map of South America. The most remarkable feature, in the description of the Egyptian geographer, is the river Gir, which he delineates as equal in length to the Nigir; but running from east to west, till it be lost in the same lake, marsh, or desert, as the Nigir. This name of Gir or Ghir it certainly just and native, as there is another river of the same name in the country of Tafilet or Sijilmessa: and it is not a little surprising that Rennell, in his theory of these regions, should have totally omitted this striking feature. The Arabian geographer Edrisi, who wrote in. the twefth century, seems to indicate the Ghir only, when he speaks of the Nile of the Negroes, as running to tha west, and lost in an inland sea, in which was the isle Ulil. The river Bahr Kulla of Browne appears to be the Gir of Ptolemy. A fer'her consideration of this curious subject is reserved for the last section of this brief description, in which the discoveries and conjectures concerning the central parts are recapitulatad. Suffice it here to ( Verve, that as the ancient discovery of the river Nigir was made from the north, and not from the west, it cannot he considered as affecting the question concerning their knowledge of the western shores.

It is remarkable that Ptolemy's description of these shores extends little beyond the Fortunate or Canary islands, though it may have been expected, that as one of these islands was assumed as the first meridian, their position should have been pretty accurately determined. The ancient knowledge of the opposite shores might be best illustrated by views of the head lands and mountains, visible from the sea, so as to judge of the appearances which give name to the Chariot of the Gods, probably a mountain between two smaller like wheels, or some other fancied resemblance. Meanwhile it seems most likely that cape Bojador is the Arsinarium of Ptolemy; and that the White Mountains, or perhaps the Seven Hills, or Angel Hills, are the noted Chariot of the Gods. If the ancients had discovered Cape Verd, it is

of Cape Blanco, may well have terrified the ancients from any further progress. Nay the doubling of Cape Bojador itself was long an object of terror to the Portuguese. Upon the whole there seems reason to conclude, with some certainty, that Cape Blanco was the utmost limit of ancient knowledge in this quarter; but the lace of the coast has been greatly changed, even in modern times, by the force of the currents, and the accumulation of sands.

probable that the islands called by the same name could not have escaped their knowledge; yet no geographical inquirer has been led td infer that their geography extended so far; nor do the Arabs appear to have made any discoveries in this quarter. On the contrary, even the memory of the Fortunate Islands appears to have been lost, when the Normans of France, a people who inherited from their ancestors the Norwegians, a singular disposition for maritime enterprise, again discovered them in the fourteenth century; and in 1402 they were conquered by Bethencourt.* This achievement appears to have acted as the first impulse towards any efforts in that quarter. In 1412 John 1, king of Portugal, resolving to retaliate the attacks of the Moors, fitted out a fleet to assail the coasts of Barbary: and a few vessels were dispatched to explore the southern part of that country, as an attack from behind, or in an unguarded quarter, might reasonably promise more decisive success. Cape Nun had before been the utmost limit of Portuguese adventure, which was now extended to Cape Bojador. Prince Henry, the fourth son of king John, being fortunately a lover of science, fitted out ships to prosecute the discovery; and in 1419 Madeira was disclosed, and its fertility and exquisite climate soon invited a small colony.

Yet so slow was the progress of discovery in Africa, that Cape Bojador was first passed in 1433 || but the impulse having become vigorous, the discoveries were now more rapid; and in the space of a few years all the coast from Cape Blanco to Cape Verd, with the river of Senegal, was unveiled by the Portuguese, assisted by Italian navigators. So important did these discoveries now appear, that pope Eugene IV, granted u hull of possession to the Portuguese, of all the countries which they should discover, from Cape Nun to India. The islands of Cape Verd were discovered in 1446 ;** and the Azores, which from their relative position strictly belong to Europe, were all known before 1449. Yet in 1462, when prince Henry died, not above 1500 miles of the coast of Africa had been visited: and the equator was not passed till 1471. But the discovery of the gulf of Guinea, which in the ancient ideas might have been expected to terminate the continent; and of the still further southern protraction of the African shore; were far from being inconsiderable achievements.

Histoire de la premiere descouverte et conqueste des Canaries. Paris, 163U, 8vo.

t Bergeron, p. 36, says that Madeira had been already discovered by the English, 1344

The an

This word in the Portuguese signifies a doubling shore: in the Spanish bryar is to compass nr go around. Currents render this whole coast extremely dangerous; and the safest navigation is on the west of the Canaries. cients displayed no small courage in passing Cape Bojador, long an object of terror to the Portuguese.

Robertson's America, l. 59. The commander was Gilianez. Barros, Dec. 1, fol. 10. Italian translation by Ulloa, Venice, 1562, 4to.

Robertson, ib. Barros is not precise in dates; but says, fol. 32, that the isles of Cape Verd were discovered by Antonio di Nolle of Genoa. He is the Antoniettns Ligur of Cadamosta, who was present; and whose first voyage was thus 1445, the second 1446; not 1455 and 1456, as corruptly dated in the Italian edition, Yucenzu, 1507, 4to.

The protection of John II, king of Portugal, led to still further discoveries. Congo arose to notice in 1484; and the stars of another hemisphere began for the first time to appear to astonished Europeans. Hopes were soon entertained of a maritime passage to India; and an embassy was dispatched to Abyssinia to secure the friendship of the monarch, in case the circumnavigation should be completed. At length, in I486, the conduct of a voyage for this purpose, the most arduous at that time attempted in modern history, was committed to Bartholomew Diaz, who discovered near a thousand miles of new country; and at length descried that grand promontory, the utmost southern limit of Africa. But such was the violence of the tempests, that Diaz found his fleet unfit to navigate unknown seas, where the chance of refitment was uncertain; and, after a voyage of sixteen months, this great navigator was constrained to return, having named the utmost promontory Cabo Tormentoso, or the Cape of Tempests; but king John, as a better omen, assigned the received appellation of the Cape of Good Hope.

Intelligence from Abyssinia having confirmed the possibility of a passage, and trade with India, another expedition was instituted, which was further stimulated by the grand discoveries of Colon in 1492; and the success of Vasco de Gama, who, on the 20th of November 1497, passed the Cape of Good Hope, and explored the eastern coasts of Africa as far as Melinda in Zanguebar, whence he passed to India and arrived at Calicut 22d. May 1498, is recorded as the most distinguished period in African geography.

But that of the interior was destined to remain in obscurity, though early in the sixteenth century, Leo gave an ample description of the northern parts; and Alvarez who visiied Abyssynia in 1520, published a minute account of that country;* which was further illustrated by those of Lobo and Tellez. The Portuguese established several factories and settlements in the west, in order to secure the trade in gold and ivory and the additional title of king of Guinea had been assumed by the Portuguese. The accounts of the missionaries gradually enlarged the knowledge of African geography. Vet from peculiar circumstances, that knowledge continues extremely limited: the vast sandy deserts; high mountains; impenetrable forests; the unintermitting wars of the petty tribes, more spirited and ferocious than those of America, and unawed by European troops or conquests; and particularly the antipathy of the African Mahometans, many of them expelled from Spain, and retaining hereditary rancour against the Franks;

One of the best translations of Leo, is that in English by Pory, at the request of Hakluyt, with a map and additions prefixed, containing all the knowledge acquired at that time: London, 1600, folio. The work of Alva res was translated from Portuguese into Spanish. Antwerp, 1557, 12mo. pp. 414.

In 1588 Livio Sanuto published a geography of Africa in folio at Venice; and in 1670 Dapper gave another at Amsterdam, which was copied in Ogilby's folio, London, 1671. Marmol's noted work was written in Spanish, and the first volume appeared at Granada 1573, folio. But Leo remained the chief original authority. The Congo of Lopez was published at Rome 1591, 4to and a Latin translation 1598. The Decads of Barros began to ap pear 1560.

have presented obstacles almost unconquerable. Recently Browne has disclosed the small kingdom of Fur or Darfur, and some circumjacent territories; and particularly the river of Bahr Kulla, which seems, as already mentioned, to be the Gir of Ptolemy. The travels of Park establish with certainty that the Nigir flows to the east, as long before delineated in the maps of D'Anville, Gendron, and others; and shew that its western sources are nearer the shore than had been imagined. The endeavours of the African Society at London, to promote the Geography of this continent deserves the highest applause, and their publications are valuable records of the science. It is to be hoped that Mr. Hornemann, who has the advantage of profiting by the advice and even disappointments of his predecessors, and seems to have in consequence adopted the necessary concealment and precautions, will at least succeed in detecting the termination of the Gir and Nigir, and in visiting the neighbouring cities, particularly Tombuctoo; for those mentioned by Edrisi may be long ago in ruins.

Religion. The ruling religion of this continent is the Mahometan, which has unfortunately penetrated further in the interior than was at first conceived; and, as already mentioned, has presented a great obstacle to such travellers as, being unaware of this circumstance, have neglected the disguise and simulation indispensable amidst such a fanatic and intolerant race.

Climate. The climate which in the north is intensely hot, is rather more moderate in the southern extremity, the antarctic cold being more powerful than that of the other pole. In the centre it would appear that there is a prodigious ridge of mountains, extending from those of Kong in the west to those of Kumri or of the moon, and those of Abyssinia in the east ; thc whole range being about north latitude 10*. And from this another chain seems to extend, about lougitude 30*. east from Greenwich, in a southern direction. These ranges of mountains may probably be found to present a climate not expected in the torrid zone, and as adverse to the ancient belief, as that of South America, in which the chief features are the Marunon, and excess of moisture: and mountains clothed with perpetual snow.

INLAND SEAS. In Africa the want of inland seas is not supplied, as in South America, by large navigable rivers; and the singular deficiency of both may be regarded as a radical cause of the striking want of civilization, and slow progress of African geography. For inIand seas, or navigable rivers, would have naturally invited commercial intercourse, and foreign settlements, on a far larger scale than the small factories near the coast; and the more southern parts might thus have rivalled the ancient fame of those on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. But these grand inlets are rather boundaries of Africa; and there are no navigable waters which can diffuse commerce and industry from the shore to the centre.

Lakes. It is probable that considerable lakes may be discovered near the interior ranges of mountains; at present that of Moravi, south latitude 10°, is alone of such magnitude as to require notice in a general description; and even of this there is no certain nor precise knowledge.

RIVERS. The chief river hitherto discovered is the Nile, which rises in the Gebel el Kumr, or mountains of the mpon, in a district called Donga, north latitude 8#. It was first known by the name of Bahr el Abiad, or the White River; and about latitude 16° is joined by the Bahr el Azrek, or the Blue River; the former tinged, the latter clear; circumstances which occur in the Maranon, and the Missouri, in which the chief stream is muddy. The Bahr el Azrek, or Blue River, was mistaken for the real Nile by the Portuguese writers, Alvarez, Tellez, &c. probably misled by the vain glory of the Abyssinians; though it was well known to the ancients as quite a distinct river, the Astapus flowing into the Nile from the Coloe Palus, now the lake of Dembea.* The comparative course of the Nile may be estimated at about two thousand British miles, thus nearly rivalling the longest Asiatic rivers: and it is at any rate only supposed to be exceeded by the Ob, Kian Ku, and Hoan Ho; as it is by the Maranon, and probably by the Missouri. The Nile forms some considerable cataracts, the chief being that of Geanadil in Nubia, before it gain the level of Egypt, after passing some rapids to the south of Syene. Its other features are intimately connected with the account of Egypt. The other chief rivers are the Nigir, and the Gir, already mentioned, the course of each being probably about 1000 British miles. That of Senegal is also considerable. In the southern parts the Zahiror Barhela of Congo, and the Zambezi of Mocaranga, are the most considerable yet known. It is not however wholly improbable that there may be some great rivers, descending from the central ridges of mountains, though their estuaries be so impeded by sand-banks, or divided by deltas, as to have escaped the notice of mariners.

Mountains.

The mountains of Atlas attracted the particular observation of the ancients, who fabled that they supported the firmament, and derived from them the celebrated appellations of the Atlantic ocean and the Atlantic islands. When D'Anville supposes that the greater Atlas of Ptolemy is Cape Bojador, he evinces that he himself erred by extending the ancient knowledge too far to the south. Views of the head lands and mountains visible from the sea would

"Mr. Bruce's vanity led him to adopt the same mistake; and it is said that af ter conversing with D'Anville at Paris, who shewed him the gross ignorance of his pretensions, our traveller, who has great merit in other respects, wisely resolved to strike out the White river from his map, though he acknowledges in his work, that it is the largest stream! Gosselin, Recherches, ii, 120. pro nounces Bruce the most credulous and enthusiastic of mankind; but, with greater justice, adds, that he has only repeated the discoveries which the Jesuits had made a century and a half before. Yet Gosselin's Ophir, which he finds in the obscure village of Doffir in Yemen, is a most ridiculous position. He forgets that the Phenicians, who directed the fleets of Solomon, had probably explored Britain before that period. It seems highly probable that Ophir was on the eastern coast of Africa; and perhaps Ophir was the original Phenician term for that continent. Equally ridiculous is Gosselin's idea, ii. 67, that Sera, the capital of tha Seres, was Serinagar on the Ganges!