(derived according to Bochart from a Punic word signifying ears of corn), was represented by the ancients as one of the three great divisions or continents of which they believed the world to consist. —By them it was called Libya. Since the discovery of America, it has been considered by the moderns as one of the four quarters of the globe.

Excepting at its north-east corner, called the Isthmus of Suez, which is a neck of land, about sixty miles over, that unites it to Asia, Africa is entirely surrounded by water. On the north it is bounded by the Mediterranean sea, which divides it from Europe. Its whole western coast is washed by the waters of the Atlantic ocean, by which it is divided from America; and on the east, the Red sea and the Indian ocean separate it from Asia. From the Mediterranean sea on the north, to the Cape of Good Hope, which constitutes its southern extremity, is no less than 4300 miles. Its broadest part, from Cape Verd, in the Atlantic ocean, to Cape Guarda-fui, near the straits of Babel-Mandel, at the mouth of the Red sea, is 3500 miles from west to east. In shape it somewhat resembles a triangle, of which the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic ocean form two sides, while the third side consists of the Red sea and the Indian ocean.

The greater part of this vast peninsula has in all ages remained unknown to the other inhabitants of the world. The general aspect however of its situation, represents it as well situated for maintaining a commercial intercourse with the other quarters of the globe. It stands as it were in the centre between Europe, Asia, and America; and therefore has a much nearer communication with each of them than they can have with one another. It is opposite to Europe, on its northern boundary, the Mediterranean sea, for almost 1000 miles in a line from east to west; the distance seldom 100 miles, never 100 leagues. It is opposite to Asia the whole length of the Red sea; the distance sometimes only 15 miles, seldom 50 leagues. Its coast, for about 2000 miles, lies opposite to America, at the distance of from 500 to 700 leagues, including the islands; whereas America is nowhere nearer Europe than 1000 leagues, and excepting at its northwest corner, where it is yet little known, is not nearer to Asia than 2500 leagues.

The knowledge of the ancients concerning Africa seems to have been, in a great degree, limited to the countries adjoining to the Mediterranean or to the Red sea. The ideas, however, which Herodotus entertained of this great continent are by no means incorrect upon the whole: and it has been reserved for our own times to verify a part of the description which he has given of the interior of Africa. Previous to his time, the whole sea coast of this continent had been explored by the conductors of an expedition fitted out by Necho, one of the kings of Egypt. It is to be observed that this Necho took Sidon, and reduced Phoenicia and Palestine. He must therefore have possessed considerable maritime power: Nor was he less powerful by land; for he marched through Palestine and Syria to attack the Assyrians near the Euphrates, and, in his way, defeated and slew Josiah the king of Judah, who opposed his march at Megiddo (2 Kings xxiii. 29.) Having defeated the Assyrians (or Babylonians) he placed a strong garrison in Carchemish, a fortified city on the Euphrates which he had taken; and, in his return, he took possession of Jerusalem, called Cadytis by Herodotus. This enterprising prince employed a body of Phoenician mariners to circumnavigate Africa, an undertaking which they accomplished with success. The following is the short narrative given by Herodotus of this remarkable transaction:

"Except in that particular part which is contiguous to Herodotus Asia, the whole of Africa is surrounded by the sea." The first person who has proved this, was, as far as we are able to judge, Necho king of Egypt. When he had desisted from his attempt to join by a canal the Nile with the Arabian gulf, he dispatched some vessels, under the conduct of Phoenicians, with directions to pass by the Columns of Hercules, and, after penetrating the Northern ocean, to return to Egypt. These Phoenicians, taking their course from the Red sea, entered into NORTHERN & CENTRAL AFRICA

Published by A.McCown & co. into the Southern ocean. On the approach of autumn they landed at Libya, and planted some corn in the place where they happened to find themselves: when this was ripe, and they had cut it down, they again departed. Having thus consumed two years; in the third they passed the Columns of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. The relation may obtain attention from others, but to me it seems incredible; for they affirmed that, having sailed round Africa, they had the sun on their right hand. Thus was Africa for the first time known."

Many of the most eminent of the ancient historians and geographers regarded this account of the circumnavigation of Africa as altogether fabulous, chiefly in consequence of the story concerning the appearance assumed by the great celestial bodies in the course of the voyage, which was then unintelligible, from the imperfect state of the science of astronomy. But the very circumstances which, among the ancients, excited a doubt about the existence or success of such a voyage, must now be regarded as affording the most satisfactory internal evidence of the veracity of the ancient Phoenician navigators.

The Carthaginians were the rivals of the Egyptians in commerce, and must undoubtedly have explored a great part of the coast of Africa; but, according to the usual cautious and monopolizing spirit of commercial states, it is probable that they concealed their discoveries from other nations. As almost no monuments of their literature now exist, we are deprived of the means of investigating the full extent of their geographical knowledge. One important document has, however, reached our times, which demonstrates the enterprising spirit of that people. This is, an apparently abridged journal of a voyage to the western coast of Africa, undertaken by Hanno the Carthaginian, about 30 or 40 years after the expedition above mentioned under Necho king of Egypt. Herodotus does not seem to have been informed of this undertaking of Hanno; nor does Pliny appear to have seen the journal of the voyage, though he is no stranger to its contents.

Hanno is said to have deposited, at his return, the journal of his voyage in the temple of Saturn, which may perhaps account for the means of its preservation. It begins by stating, that "it was decreed by the Carthaginians that Hanno should undertake a voyage beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and found Liby-phenician cities. He sailed, accordingly, with 60 ships of 50 oars each, and a body of men and women to the number of 30,000, and provisions and other necessaries." From the extent of this plan of colonization, or rather of establishing permanent garrisons, upon the western coasts of Africa, it is evident that these coasts must, in some measure, have been previously examined. Major Rennel, who has investigated the subject with great accuracy, with a reference to the journal of the voyage, is of opinion that the Carthaginian or Libyphenician cities founded by Hanno, were all situated to the south of the strait of Gibraltar, and to the northward of the river Senegal; and that all of them, excepting one at Cernè, now called Arguin, were placed to the north of Cape Bodayor. To the southward of Cernè, Hanno during his voyage made two expeditions; but it does not appear that he made any attempt to fix an establishment beyond the limits now mentioned. On his first expedition, he seems to have sailed into the river Sene-

gal, as may be supposed from the description given; for it is said to be "large and broad, and full of crocodiles and river horses." During the same voyage, Hanno made a second expedition southward, apparently for the sake of discovery. He appears to have doubled Cape Verd, and to have sailed across the mouth of the Gambia. His voyage is said to have terminated at a place which he calls the Southern Horn, supposed to be either at Sierra Leona, or, at a little distance to the south of it, at Sherbro. It is evident, from the general style of the journal, that the Carthaginians, at the time of this voyage, were altogether unacquainted with the interior state of the country on the western quarter of Africa. Excepting the mere description of the coast, and its windings and bays, every thing is marvellous, and apparently fabulous. They talk of having caught two women covered with hair, whose skins they brought to Carthage, meaning, in all probability, two monkeys of some of the unknown species which abound in the country of the Negroes. They also talk of streams of fire, and of rivers of fire which seemed to be running into the sea. At one place, during the night, they saw a country which was on fire: and afterwards they saw another country full of fires; in the middle of which was a lofty fire, larger than the others, which seemed to touch the stars. When day came, they discovered this elevated fire to be a large hill, which they called the chariot of the gods. These wonders have been explained to us by later travellers; who remark that it is the custom, at certain seasons of the year, in the country of the Negroes, to set fire to the dry grass; and that on those occasions, during the night, the whole territory seems to be a sheet of flame.

With regard to Africa in general, Herodotus describes it in this summary way: "All that part of Africa by Libya towards the northern sea (Mediterranean), from Egypt to the promontory of Solois (now Cape Cantin on the coast of Morocco) which terminates the third division of the earth, is inhabited by the different nations of the Libyans; that district alone excepted in possession of the Greeks and Phoenicians. The remoter parts of Libya beyond the sea coast, and the people who inhabit its borders, are infested by various beasts of prey.—The country yet more distant is a parched and immeasurable desert." Here this ancient historian clearly distinguishes three belts or regions parallel to the Mediterranean, the northernmost of which we must conceive to have been that which extended along the sea coast, and was bounded on the south by Mount Atlas, and other ridges. The middle one is now called the Country of Dates, because the inhabitants chiefly live on that fruit; and the third is the great African desert. Beyond these, however, Herodotus had heard of a fourth region, belonging to the negroes; for, in another place he divides the inhabitants of Africa generally into two races (with the exception of strangers, viz. the Phoenicians and the Greeks). The natives (says he) are the Africans and Ethiopians, one of which possesses the northern, and the other the southern part of Africa."—By these nations are evidently intended the Moors and the Negroes, which two classes are as distinct at the present day as they were in ancient times.

This author, whose account of the ancient nations will always be a matter of much curiosity, because he has justly been called the Father of History, as being the earliest authentic historian whose writings have been transmitted to us, gives a detailed account of the tribes that in his time inhabited the northern coast of Africa, upon the borders of the Mediterranean; beginning with Egypt and proceeding westward to the lesser Syrtis, mentioning only in general terms, the rest of the country to the promontory of Soleis, (Cape Cautin), which was erroneously regarded by him as the most westerly point of the coast of Africa. The people of this coast he represents generally as Nomades, from Egypt westward to the lake Tritonis, by which he means the lesser Syrtis, or gulf of Kabes; and the country, he says justly, is low and sandy. The country farther to the west, called Africa Proper, or Numidia, by the Romans, including the present states of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis, he describes as mountainous and interspersed with wood, and infested by wild beasts and serpents of an enormous size. Within this tract, however, he represents the inhabitants as husbandmen who cultivate the ground and live in houses. Mount Atlas is mentioned by him in the same magnificent terms in which all the ancient writers speak of it. "At every approach it appears round and steep, and so lofty that its summit can never be distinguished by reason of the clouds that envelope it."

Egypt was, in the days of Herodotus, a rich and populous state, from which the Greeks had derived a great part of their arts and of their religion. Beginning from Egypt and proceeding westward, he enumerates the Africans in the following manner. The first are the Adyrmachide, whose manners were in every respect Egyptian, that is to say, civilized. He imputes to them, however, a barbarous custom, that their king possessed the privilege of sleeping the first night with every new married woman. They inhabited the coast between Egypt and the port of Pleunos, adjoining to what is now called the desert of Barca. Next to the Adyrmachide were the Gilligamme, who occupied the coast as far as the island of Aphrodisias, supposed to be near Derna. The Asbystae were a small inland tribe, situated between the Gilligamme on the east, and the Auschicæ on the west, having no communication with the sea. They were accounted remarkable beyond all the Africans for the use of chariots drawn by four horses; and, it is to be observed, that Herodotus says the Greeks borrowed from Africa the custom of harnessing four horses to a chariot. The Auschicæ, who bordered on the west of the Asbystae, extended from above Barca to the neighbourhood of the Hesperides on the sea coast. The Cabales, an inconsiderable tribe, occupied the coast opposite to the centre of the Auschicæ, and extended themselves along the coast near Tauchira, a town belonging to Barca.

The province of Cyrenaica, (now Kairoan or Kurin), was situated within the tract of the Nomades. It was the most elevated part of it, and wonderfully fertile. It contained the first Grecian colony, and was also named Libya Pentapolis, from its having five towns of note in it, Cyrene, Barce, Ptolemais, Berenice, and Tauchira; all of which not only still exist as towns or villages, but it is remarkable that their names are scarcely altered, being called Kurin, Baron, Tollamata, Bernic, and Taukera. The celebrated gardens of the Hesperides were situated upon this coast on the western border of the desert of Barca.

The Nasamones, according to Herodotus, were the most powerful of the Nomadic tribes upon this coast. They bordered upon the greater Syrtis, now called the gulf of Sort. He says, that during the summer season they leave their cattle on the coast, and go up into the country to gather dates at a place called Angelas, which will be afterwards noticed. The Nasamones are said to have seized upon the territories of the Psylli. These were a people who possessed the reputation of being able to charm serpents, and to cure the wounds occasioned by their stings. Cato is said by Plutarch to have carried some of the Psylli with him for that purpose, in his memorable march round the greater Syrtis. It is certain, that in modern times, in Egypt, Abyssinia, and India, certain persons are believed to possess the power of completely subduing serpents of the most venomous kinds, so as to have them entirely under their command. They are said to seize on them with their naked hands, without apprehension of mischief, and this not only on serpents they have already been accustomed to, but on such as they never saw before.

Beyond the Nasamones to the southward, Herodotus mentions the Garamanics, whom he represents as a numerous nation, situated ten journeys from Angelas, between the Nasamones and the Maceæ. The Maceæ appear to have been the next tribe upon the coast after the Nasamones. The present towns of Mesurata and Lebida are situated within the territory that belonged to them. The Gindanes, Lotophagi, and Machylæs, in the order here mentioned, occupied the remainder of the space between the Maceæ and the lake Tritonis, or gulf of Kabes; for Herodotus appears to have understood by the lake Tritonis, either the gulf alone, or the gulf and an adjoining lake collectively, which in his time very probably had a communication, though they are now separated by a neck of land, and the lake receives the name of Loudeah. It is to be observed, that the Lotophagi derived their name from the fruit of a tree or shrub called the lotus, upon which they subsisted, supposed to be the rhamnus lotus of Linnaeus. It is not only found in this territory, but also upon the whole northern coast of Africa, and on many spots of the desert, and even in the country of the Negroes. To the westward of the lake Tritonis, Herodotus mentions the Auses, the Maryes, the Zaveces, and the Zygantes; which last appear to have been the inhabitants of the province that contained the city of Carthage: of the territories of this last state Herodotus gives no description, though he says, that he is able to name all the nations that inhabit the country as far as the Atlantes, beyond which he knows nothing. Some other positions in the north of Africa that were known in the times of Herodotus, will be afterwards mentioned.

With regard to the interior of Africa, the knowledge of Herodotus was very indistinct. He mentions Ethiopia in a way that in some measure corresponds with Nubia, and Abyssinia: "Ethiopia, (says he), 'which is the extremity of the habitable world, is contiguous to Arabia on the south-west. In produces gold in great quantities, elephants with their prodigious teeth, trees and shrubs of every kind, as well as ebony. Its inhabitants are also remarkable for their size, their beauty, and their length of life.'" To Ethiopia, however, he gives a wide extent, so as to include clude the whole region inhabited by men of a black complexion, as he calls it, the "extremity of the habitable world." The remotest source of the Nile was unknown in his days; and after all the efforts that have been made for its discovery, it may be regarded as having hitherto been visited by no European. He supposes, however, that the course of the Nile, "without reckoning that part of it which flows through Egypt, was known to the extent of four months journey, partly by land, partly by water;" but beyond this its course was unknown, though he says "it is certain that the Nile rises in the west." The most remarkable fact, however, mentioned by Herodotus concerning the investigation of the interior of Africa, consists of the adventures of certain Nasamones who came from the neighbourhood of Cyrene, now called Kurin. He says that they made an expedition into the interior of Africa, with a view to extend their discoveries beyond all preceding adventurers. No attempt is made to state the distance to which they penetrated; but it must have been very great: "first proceeding through the region which was inhabited, they next came to that which was infested by wild beasts; leaving which, they directed their course westward through the desert, and were finally taken prisoners by black men of a diminutive stature, and carried to a city washed by a great river, which flowed from west to east, and abounded in crocodiles." Of this great river nothing farther was ever discovered by the ancients. Herodotus thought that it was probably the Nile, and Pliny calls it the river Niger, or the river of the blacks or Ethiopians.

The Romans were not a commercial people, and troubled themselves little about the discoveries of the Egyptians and Carthaginians whom they vanquished. The fertile districts, however, in the north of Africa adjoining to the shore of the Mediterranean, formed the chief granary of the empire during its most prosperous period. Beyond these districts they pushed their conquests only so far as was necessary to secure their possessions against the barbarians of the desert. Both Augustus and Nero, however, sent persons to attempt to discover the source of the Nile, but without success; and the Romans were never remarkable for investigating the state of foreign countries when they had no scheme of conquest in view. In the decline of the Roman empire A. D. 426. Bonifacius, the governor of Africa, revolted, and called in the aid of Genseric the chief of a horde of barbarians called Vandals, who had penetrated from the north of Europe into Spain. These barbarians crossed the straits of Gibraltar, and soon became masters of the country. About a century thereafter, their descendants, in a fertile and enervating climate, having lost their military character, were vanquished by the celebrated Belisarius under Justinian, then at the head of the eastern division of the Roman empire. At a later period, when Mahomet had roused his countryman to war and conquest, under the influence of a furious fanaticism, Egypt and the rest of the north of Africa were overrun by the Arabs, or, as they are called, the Saracens, A. D. 647. In a few centuries thereafter, the empire of the Saracens in Africa, where they were called Moors, was gradually divided into a variety of petty states called the States of Barbary, which acknowledged rather a nominal than a real dependence upon the Turkish empire.

The rest of Africa was forgotten till the fifteenth century, when the discovery of the mariners compass enabled the Europeans to extend their maritime enterprises to all the quarters of the globe, with a facility that was formerly unknown. In these enterprises the Discoveries Portuguese took the lead. They had never sailed along the western coast of Africa, beyond Cape Non, in 27° north latitude, till A. D. 1412, when they ventured 160 miles farther, to Cape Bojador, whose rocky cliffs stretching out to a considerable distance into the Atlantic ocean, intimidated them from advancing farther. In 1419, when attempting to double this cape, they discovered the Madeira isles. Afterwards in 1433, they passed Cape Bojador, penetrated between the tropics, and discovered the river Senegal and the Cape de Verd isles situated between 14° and 18° north latitude. In 1471, they crossed the equator, and were astonished to find that the torrid zone contained fertile and populous regions, instead of being burnt up by perpetual heat as had been formerly believed. In 1484, the Portuguese navigators, now become ambitious of the reputation of discoverers of new countries, penetrated 1500 miles beyond the equator; and two years thereafter Bartholomew de Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope. In 1497, this cape, being the southern extremity of Africa, was passed by Vasquez de Gama.

At this time the European nations were fast emerging from barbarism. The feudal aristocracies, by which they had been kept in a state of perpetual anarchy, were gradually subdued by different princes, and a few powerful states or monarchies were raised upon their ruins. These states enjoying greater domestic tranquillity, were become capable of directing the energy and superior intelligence, which began to prevail in the European character, to enterprises requiring united and successive efforts. The discoveries of the Portuguese, by pointing out a very fertile region in the centre of Africa, in which gold and ivory could be obtained in exchange for the manufactures of Europe, and in which settlements could be easily formed, would in all probability have directed to this quarter the whole activity of the most enterprising of the European states, had not other events diverted them to different quarters. The events now alluded to, where the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, and the easy communication with the East Indies, opened up by the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, have interrupted the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope. Hence it has happened, that during these three centuries Africa has been much neglected; and, in the most enterprising period of the history of the world, the European nations, though the most enterprising of mankind, have left in a great measure unexplored this immense continent, though situated in their vicinity, and abounding in valuable productions. A few factories for the purpose of procuring slaves have been established by the English, French, and Spaniards, upon the western coast, to the north of the equator. From thence to the tropic of Capricorn, the Portuguese have a few settlements, upon the east and the west coast, for the same purpose; and the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, Hope, is the only establishment at all worthy of the name of an European colony, retaining the language and somewhat of the manners of the parent state.

What is known of the interior of Africa is chiefly the result of the efforts of particular travellers, who have penetrated into different quarters of that great continent, impelled by the ambition of extending the limits of human knowledge; or it is the fruit of the exertions of a private society of persons of rank in England, instituted in 1788, bearing the name of the African Association, who have employed at their expense, various individuals to enter Africa at different points, and to proceed by such routes as have been thought most likely to lead to important discoveries.

We shall now give a concise account of the great continent of Africa, as far as a knowledge of it has been obtained from these different sources. In the statement now to be given, however, we shall avoid taking any farther notice of that fertile stripe of territory on the north of Africa, which borders upon the Mediterranean sea, or upon the Atlantic ocean, southward to the mountains of Atlas, constituting the states of Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Fez, and Morocco. Neither shall we take any notice of the country of Abyssinia at the head of the Nile, or of the Dutch settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, as each of these will be separately discussed under their proper names.

Africa, to the south of the states on the Mediterranean and of Morocco, consists of two great divisions, the Sahara, or great desert, which is the country of the Moors or Arabs; and Nigritia, Negroland, or the country of the negroes or Ethiopians. The limits of these two divisions, though not in all cases accurately defined, depend on the soil and climate, and appear to have remained permanent from the days of Herodotus.

The Sahara, or great desert, extends from the south of Morocco, and of the states on the Mediterranean, commonly called the Barbary States, to the rivers Senegal and Niger, or to a line drawn across the continent of Africa, from Cape Verd to the Red sea. Beyond the Sahara or desert, to the southward, is the country of the Negroes.

The Sahara presents a surface equal in extent to nearly one half of Europe. It is upwards of 800 miles in breadth from north to south, and more than double that extent in length, from the Atlantic ocean on the west, to the frontiers of Abyssinia on the east. Its general description is that of a vast wilderness of lifeless sand, parched by the intolerable heat of an almost vertical sun. Its chief varieties consist of immense plains covered with naked pebbles, or of barren rocks towering towards an unclouded and burning sky. The sterility of the soil is rather marked than alleviated by some scattered plants, and by the verdure of a few valleys in which water either stagnates or springs up.

The general description, however, of the great African wilderness, is by no means to be understood as universal or without exception. The desert is here and there interspersed with spots of astonishing fertility, which are crowded with inhabitants. Every thing in the climate of Africa is in extremes. No cold is indeed experienced in that vast continent; but barrenness and fertility of soil border upon each other with a degree of suddenness, of which, in the temperate climes of Europe, we have no conception. The traveller passes in an instant from burning sands to a rich landscape, in which flocks and herds, and towns and villages abound. The same vicinity of a tropical sun which renders the wilderness intolerable, rears up all vegetable productions in the utmost luxuriance and perfection, in every spot in which water and a tolerable depth of soil are to be found. These sequestered situations in this great desert were called Oases, or Islands, by the ancients. Under the Roman empire it was not unusual to banish state criminals to an island in the great Libyan desert. The continent of Africa, like that of South America, is highest on its western side, and its greater rivers the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Niger, rise in a chain of mountains situated nearer to the Atlantic than the Indian ocean. As the Sahara extends towards the east and also towards the shores of the Mediterranean on the north, its islands abound most in these regions. But the lesser islands are not always permanent. A furious wind from the desert, bringing along with it an immense quantity of sand, sometimes overwhelms a whole fertile district, and reduces it to barrenness. We shall here take notice, however, of such of the sequestered islands of this desert as are now known to be most important.

The ancients mention very particularly under the name of Oasis three situations, called the Greater Oasis, the Lesser Oasis, and the Oasis of Ammon. Of these, the Greater Oasis is at present the best known to the Egyptians and the Arabs, because the caravans from Cairo to Darfur pass along it. It is named Al Wah, or the Oasis, by way of excellence. It appears to consist of a number of detached fertile spots or islands, extending in a line parallel to the course of the Nile, and of the mountains that border the valley of Upper Egypt. The islands of the Greater Oasis are separated from each other by deserts of from two to 14 hours travelling. The whole extent of the chain is about 100 English miles, but by far the greatest part of it is desert. The whole Oasis is subject to Egypt, and has ever been reckoned an appendage to it, being distant from it about 90 miles. This Oasis contains abundance of date trees, and plenty of good water. The principal village in it is called Chagré, and is situated in 26° 25' N. Lat. and 29° 40' E. Long.

The Lesser Oasis does not lie in any of the tracks of the caravans, and is therefore little known. It is understood, however, to begin at the distance of about 40 miles to the northward of the Greater Oasis, and to proceed to a considerable distance in a direction towards the north. It is called by the neighbouring Arabs Al Wah-el-Gherbi, which appears to mark poverty or inferiority, perhaps, in comparison with the other. It consists, like the Greater Oasis, of a chain of narrow islands running parallel to the Nile.

The third Oasis contained the celebrated temple and oracle of Jupiter Ammon, which was visited by Jupiter Alexander the Great. Though in its dimensions it is Ammon perhaps less than the two former Oases, it is undoubtedly the greatest so far as historical importance is concerned. In the time of Herodotus, the state or kingdom of Ammon occupied a considerable space between Egypt on the east and the desert of Barca on the west, and between the Nomadic tribes along the coast of the Mediterranean on the north, and the great Libyan desert on the south.—As the ancient Persians worshipped one supreme deity whom they represented by the sun, and as they had a regular and well disciplined priesthood, they were taught to regard with indignation the idolatry of the Greeks. Hence the Persian monarch Cambyses sent an army against the Ammonians, with orders to burn the temple from whence the oracles of Jupiter were delivered. The expedition was unsuccessful, the army having been overwhelmed with sand, or left by their guides to perish in the desert; so that no remnant of them ever returned.—The position of the Oasis of Ammon has lately been ascertained by our countryman Mr Brown, who travelled into that quarter with a view to its discovery. It appears to correspond with the modern Siwah, in 29° 12' N. Lat. and 26° 18' E. Long. As a building of such antiquity must be an object of great curiosity, we shall transcribe Mr Brown's description of the small part of the temple that remains, the rest having been destroyed by the modern inhabitants of the country to build their houses and garden walls.

"It is a single apartment," says Mr Brown, "built of many stones of the same kind as those of which the pyramids consist, and covered originally with six large and solid blocks that reach from one wall to the other. The length I found 32 feet in the clear, the height about 18, the width 15. A gate situated at one extremity forms the principal entrance, and two doors also near that extremity open opposite to each other. The other end is quite ruinous; but, judging from circumstances, it may be imagined that the building has never been much larger than it now is. There is no appearance of any other edifice having been attached to it, and the less so, as there are remains of sculpture on the exterior of the walls. In the interior are three rows of emblematical figures, apparently designed to represent a procession; and the space between them is filled with hieroglyphic characters, properly so called. The soffit is also adorned in the same manner; but one of the stones which formed it is fallen within, and breaks the connection. The other five remain entire. The sculpture is sufficiently distinguishable; and even the colours in some places remain."

Mr Horneman, a native of Germany, a traveller employed by the African Association, has still more recently visited Siwah, on his way from Cairo to Fezzan along with a caravan, in which he travelled under the character of a Mahometan merchant. He seems to think, that the total circumference of the ruins of the ancient temple of Jupiter Ammon may be several hundred yards, though in many places the outward wall has been entirely carried away. He seems to have measured the outside of the same building whose inside appears to have been measured by Mr Brown, and accordingly describes the length as from 30 to 36 feet, the width 24, and the height 27; but he was interrupted in taking his measurements by the jealousy of the natives. He also describes the ceiling as formed of vast blocks of stone of four feet in breadth, and three feet in depth, which extend across the whole building; and this roof seems to have preserved this part of the fabric entire, as the present barbarous inhabitants dare not attempt to demolish the walls, lest they themselves should be overwhelmed by the fall of the stones which form the roof. One of these stones of the roof has fallen in, and is broken; "but the people (says Mr Horneman) have not been able to remove the large fragments fallen from the roof, which their ancestors were enabled to bring from the quarry, and to raise entire to the summit of the edifice: such are the vicissitudes of art, of knowledge, and of human powers and means, as well as of human happiness and fortunes."

The fertile part of the territory of Siwah appears State of to be about 18 miles in circumference, containing several small villages besides Siwah the capital. It is an independent state, acknowledging the Grand Seignior as lord paramount, but paying no tribute. It affords abundance of vegetable productions, with corn and oil; and is copiously supplied with water from springs and small streams, but none of them flow beyond its territory. They are either evaporated on approaching the surrounding desert, or, if they reach it, are lost in the sterile sand. Its government is vested in about 32 wealthy citizens, who assume the title of sheikhs, ment. Justice is administered according to ancient usage and general notions of equity. Fines, which are paid in dates, constitute the punishment. The dress of the men consists of a white cotton shirt and breeches, and a large piece of calico cloth striped white and blue, manufacutred at Cairo, which is thrown over the left shoulder, and is called melaye. On their heads they wear a cap of red worsted or cotton, which is the distinction of a Mussulman, no Jew or Christian being permitted to use it. The women of Siwah wear wide blue shifts, usually of cotton, which reach to the ankles, and a melaye, above described, which they wrap round their head, and which falls over the body like a cloak. They plait their hair into three tresses one above the other, and fasten little bells to the lowest. They wear ear-rings and necklaces of glass beads. Those of the higher class wear round their necks a solid ring of silver thicker than the collar usually worn by criminals in some parts of the continent of Europe. There are many catacombs in the neighbourhood of Siwah, which formed the burying places of the ancient inhabitants, which show great labour and neatness of work.

The same traveller, Mr Horneman, on his way towards Fezzan, passed through Augila, an island or oasis in the desert, that was well known in the days of Herodotus. It is situated in 33° 3' N. Lat. and 22° 46' E. Long. The territory contains three towns, Augila the capital, Mojabra, and Meledilla. Many of the inhabitants engage in the caravan trade. Those who do so, very frequently have three houses, one at Cairo, one in the territory of Augila, and a third in Fezzan, with a wife and family establishment at each. The country is level, and the soil sandy, but being well watered it is tolerably fertile. After a march of 16 days from Augila, Mr Horneman reached Temissa, in the territory of the important oasis Fezzan, of which we shall now give some account upon the authority of the journal which he has very recently transmitted to Europe.

Fezzan, the country of the ancient Garamantes of Herodotus, called by Pliny Phasania Regio, is upwards of 1000 miles west from Grand Cairo, and consists of an extensive plain amidst a surrounding wilderness of sand and of naked rocks.

The greatest length of the cultivated part of Fezzan Africa. is about 300 English miles from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east to west is 200 miles. It contains 101 towns and villages, of which Mourzouk is the capital, situated according to Rennel, in 27° 48' N. Lat. and 15° 3' E. Long. The principal towns to the northward of the capital are Sochina, Sibha, Hun, and Wadon; Gatron to the south; and Quila to the east. The climate is never temperate. During summer the heat is intense, and the south wind is scarcely supportable even by the natives. A penetrating north wind prevails during winter, which drives to the fire even the natives of a northern country. Tempests of wind are frequent, which whirl up the sand and dust so as to give a tinge of yellow to the atmosphere. Rain falls seldom, and in small quantities. There is no river, nor even a rivulet deserving notice, throughout the whole country. The soil is what in Europe would be called a light sand, covering calcareous rock or earth, and sometimes a bottom of clay.

Dates are the staple produce of Fezzan, and in the western parts some corn of a good quality is cultivated. Pot herbs are plentiful. Wheat and barley are suited to the soil and to the climate: but from the indolence of the people, and the oppression of the government, enough is not raised for the supply of the inhabitants, and they rely for a part of their subsistence on importations from the north. Horned cattle are only found in the most fertile districts. They are employed in drawing water from the wells, and are only slaughtered in cases of extreme necessity. The goat is the ordinary domestic animal, though sheep are bred in the southern parts. The wool is manufactured into coarse cloths, and along with the meat the skin is roasted and eaten. Horses are few. Asses are the beasts of general use, whether for draught or burden. Camels are excessively dear, and only kept by the chief people.

There are no other tradesmen in Fezzan than shoemakers and smiths, the latter of whom work every metal; and the same man forges shoes for the sultan's horses, and makes rings for his princesses. The value of the woollen cloth, which is manufactured by the women, may be estimated from this circumstance, that the weavers shuttle is unknown, and that the woof is inserted into the warp thread by thread, and the whole worked solely by the hand. Hence it happens, that though the commerce of Fezzan is considerable, it consists merely of foreign merchandise, brought by caravans from various quarters, which are here disposed of as at a centrical market. Cairo sends silks, calicoes, woollen cloths, glass, imitations of coral, beads, and East India goods. From Tripoli, a caravan brings paper, false corals, fire-arms, sabres, knives, cloths called abbés, and red worsted caps. From Bournov, on the south-east, copper is imported in great quantities, and the caravans from the south or west bring slaves of both sexes, ostrich feathers, zibette, tigers skins, and gold, partly in dust, partly in native grains, to be manufactured into ornaments for the people of interior Africa. The smaller caravans of the tribes of the desert import oil, butter, fat, and corn, and those from the more southern districts bring senna, ostrich feathers, and camels for the slaughter-house.

Fezzan is governed by a sultan, descended from the family of the sheerefs; but he pays 4000 dollars annually, as a tribute to the basha of Tripoli; and in his correspondence with that basha, he assumes only the title of cheik, instead of sultan. The throne is hereditary, but the eldest prince of the family succeeds, though a brother or a nephew, to the exclusion of the children of the last sultan, if they are younger. This law gives rise to many civil wars between the sons of their sultans and the collateral branches of the family.

The sultan's house or palace is within the fortress Palace of Mourzouk. He has no other inmates than eunuchs, harem. His harem is contiguous. It consists of about 40 slaves, who are often sold and replaced by others if they have no children, and of a sultana, who must be of the family of the sheerefs of Wadan or Zuila. The sultan never enters the harem, but any female whom he wishes to see is conducted to his apartment.

The sultan gives audience three times a-day, in a Ceremo particular apartment, seated on an old-fashioned elbow chair, raised some steps, which forms his throne. Persons introduced kiss the hand of the sultan, then raise it so as touch their foreheads, and then kneel before him. The sultan goes on Fridays to the great mosque on horseback, and on other days of solemnity he rides on a plain near the town, attended by his courtiers, who exhibit their skill in equestrian exercises and in shooting. His official attendants consist of two ministers, and of a number of black and a few white slaves, termed Mamelukes. All the interest and power rest with these Mamelukes, who are mostly Europeans, or their immediate descendants. The apparel of the sultan, on days of ceremony, consists of the Tripolitan dress, over which he wears a large white embroidered shirt, made after the fashion of the Negroes. His turban extends a full yard from the front to the hinder part, and is two-thirds of a yard in breadth. His revenues consist of assessments on all cultivated lands, and of arbitrary requisitions, which are collected by his slaves in an oppressive manner, if they are not bribed. He also derives an income from duties on foreign trade, from certain territorial domains, and from salt pools and natron lakes. The present sultan has added to his treasures by predatory expeditions against the weaker tribes in the neighbourhood of his country. The chief booty upon these occasions consists of men and women, who are sold as slaves. The princes of the royal family are supported from certain territories allotted to them, together with a weekly distribution of corn from the sultan's stores, and occasional exactions from the people.

The clergy and the cadi or chief judge, are supported by the produce of certain woods and gardens; and they possess great authority with the people. The dignity of cadi is hereditary in a certain family; but the sultan, upon every vacancy, appoints to the office that individual of the family who can best read and write, accomplishments which here seem to be somewhat unusual, and therefore much valued.

The population of Fezzan amounts to about 70,000 or Popula 75,000 souls. In the southern districts they have mixed with the natives of the desert, whom they resemble; but the original Fezzanians are a people of ordinary stature, of a deep brown complexion, with short black hair and regular features. They possess little energy Charac either of mind or body. Almost their only food consists of dates, or of a kind of farinaceous pap, with no bucher's meat. The men who can afford it are much addicted addicted to drunkenness. They use a very intoxicating liquor prepared from dates. The women have a great fondness for dancing, which they practise publicly, not only in the day time but after sunset. The amusement is thus described by Mr Horneman: "Two or three men stand together with their tambourins; the women immediately form a circle round the men, beat a tune, and those in the circle accompany it with singing and clapping of hands. A girl then advances dancing towards the drummers; the men as she approaches near them, join in the dance, and press towards her, on which she makes some steps backwards, and then falls on her back with her body and limbs stiff and perfectly straight; when the women behind catch her in the fall, a few spans from the ground, and toss her in the air, whence she descends on her feet. The men then resume their station in the centre, and a second female dancer repeats the sport, which is successively engaged in by each brisk damsel of the circle."

In Fezzan there are a great number of loose women, and also of singing girls whose song is Sudanic, that is derived from the country of the Negros. Their musical instrument is called rhababe; it is an excavated hemisphere, made from a shell of the gourd kind, and covered with leather; to this a long handle is fixed, on which is stretched a string of horse hairs longitudinally, closed and compact as one cord, about the thickness of a quill. This is played with a bow.

Various sorts of venereal disorders prevail in Fezzan; but it is worthy of remark, that, for the cure of all the species, they only use salts and the fruit handal (cocolynth) as powerful cathartics; the sores, if any, are at the same time washed with a solution of soda: and these remedies seldom fail. Other maladies prevalent there are the ague and hemorrhoids, for neither of which have they any other remedy than amulets, consisting of certain sentences of the Koran written on a slip of paper, which the patient wears about his neck, and in bad cases is made to swallow. It is said, however, that their knowledge of surgery is sufficient to enable them to cure a simple fracture.

South from Fezzan a variety of other islands are scattered, which have been united by conquest under one chief, and receive the name of the empire of Cassina or Kasseena. The territories of this empire, therefore, consist of a considerable quantity of land of amazing fertility, interspersed with arid wastes, where the rays of the sun, reflected from the sand or the rocks, produce the most intense and suffocating heat. Cassina, the capital, is situated in N. Lat. 16° 29'. W. Long. 11° 45'. Agadez, which is an island, or province as it may be called, of the empire of Cassina, sends annually a caravan of 1000 camels to certain salt lakes in the desert, at a place called Dombou; and the salt is distributed among the other islands or provinces of this empire.

A similar empire, as travellers are pleased to call it, consisting of a number of fertile spots of this immense desert, is called Bornou. Mathan, the capital, is situated in N. Lat. 24° 32'. E. Long. 22° 57'. It is surrounded by a ditch, and a wall 14 feet in height. The king is said to be more powerful than the emperor of Morocco. His dominions extend beyond the desert into the fertile country of the Negroes, of which he possesses a large portion. He is elected by three of the principal chiefs; but the choice is restricted to the royal family. The military force of the state consists of cavalry armed with the sabre, the pike, and the bow. Fire arms are not unknown, but they are too difficult to be procured.

Besides these, there is a variety of other districts in this desert, of which some slight intelligence has been obtained; such as Gadamis, north-west from Fezzan, about N. Lat. 32°; south-east from which is another island, called Tuat, at the distance of about 400 miles. On the south-east of Fezzan is Tibesti, at the distance of 200 miles: eastward of which, and 500 miles from the Nile, is Bardoa. Zegzeg and Kur are in the same vicinity. Farther to the south is Bergoo and Darfour. This last lies to the southward of the general latitude of the great desert. It has of late years been made known by Mr Brown, the first discoverer of the Oasis of Ammon. He penetrated into Darfour in 1792, and remained there a considerable time. Its chief town, Cobbé, is situated in 14° 11' N. Lat. and 28° 8' E. Long. and the country contains about 200,000 inhabitants, consisting of native tribes of a deep black complexion and woolly hair, though with features different from those of the Negroes, and of Arabs of various tribes. The wild animals are, the lion, the leopard, the hyena, the wolf, and the wild buffalo. The domestic animals are, the camel, the sheep, the goat, and horned cattle. Considerable quantities of grain of different sorts are reared, and, as the country is within the tropics, after the periodical rains the fertility is very sudden and great. The people are very barbarous. The practice of polygamy is not only established, but the intercourse of the sexes is totally destitute of delicacy or decency. The most severe labours of the field are left to the women; and the houses, which are of clay covered with thin boards, are chiefly built by them. Salt is the general medium of commerce at Darfour, as gold dust is in many other places of Africa. This territory is governed by a chief, who calls himself sultan, and assumes the most extravagant titles. He appears in public on a splendid throne, while an officer proclaims, "See the buffalo, the offspring of a buffalo, the bull of bulls, the elephant of superlative strength, the powerful Sultan Abd-el-rachman-el-rashid. May God preserve thy life! O master, may God assist, and render thee victorious!"

These islands of the African desert are too little known to render valuable any attempt at a more minute description of them. They all resemble each other in the fertility of their soil and the barbarous state of their inhabitants, who are Mahometans, unless where they approach the country of the Negroes. Though they maintain towards each other the maxims of apparent hospitality, yet a Christian is everywhere odious; and they account it meritorious to persecute or enslave him. Their language is chiefly a dialect of the Arabic, and their literature is in a great measure confined to reading the Koran. Their only intercourse with other nations is carried on by the caravans which periodically traverse these immense deserts: and the smaller islands, that are neglected by the caravans, are sometimes absolutely forgotten by the rest of the world for many years; and their inhabitants, left to themselves and to their native ignorance, at last imagine, gine, that, except their own little territory, the whole earth resembles the great desert which they see around them.

It is to be observed, that the Sahara, or great wilderness, does not on its western boundary all at once attain its utmost degree of barrenness. Immediately to the south of Morocco and of the mountains called Mount Atlas, is a considerable extent of territory inhabited by a tribe called the Monselemines. In their manners, they differ considerably from the Moors on the coasts of the Mediterranean, and also from the Moors or Arabs of the desert. Their civil government is republican, as they choose new chiefs every year, who are accountable to the aged men of the community. It is probable, however, that order is preserved among them chiefly by the influence of their priests, who are greatly respected; and the influence of the high priest amounts almost to despotic power. The people are chiefly engaged in a sort of pastoral life, to which agriculture is occasionally united. They have also villages in which various tradesmen reside, chiefly weavers, shoemakers, smiths, and potters, who have no cattle: But some opulent persons residing in the towns have flocks and herds of cows, horses, camels, sheep, and goats, besides poultry, kept by slaves at a distance in the country. The soil possesses considerable fertility, and produces the necessaries of life with little cultivation. The plains abound with date, fig, and almond trees; and grapes are cultivated. Oil, wax, and tobacco, are also produced, and sold in the villages. Their agriculture is very rude. The chiefs of families, or small tribes, choose the ground most fit for cultivation. Its surface is slightly turned over with a kind of paddle, for the plough is unknown; and then the seed is sown upon it. The spot is then deserted by the inhabitants, who wander in all directions with their cattle, and do not return till harvest, when the corn is cut down and threshed. Magazines are then formed, consisting of holes in the earth, into which the corn is put. Planks are laid over it, which are covered with a layer of earth, made level with the soil, to prevent its being discovered by enemies. These magazines belong to every chief of a family or tribe, in proportion to the number of men he employed in the common labour.

The Monselemines are almost constantly engaged in war against the emperor of Morocco. They are extremely jealous of their independence and freedom; and their country is the retreat of all the discontented Moors. No sooner does the emperor of Morocco take the field against them, than the whole inhabitants of the country districts mount their horses; and, while a part of them escort the women and slaves, and cattle, to places of safety, or even into the desert if they are close pressed, the rest of them occupy the passes of the mountains, and meet the enemy. During peace, parties of them often undertake to escort caravans, by which means there is preserved among them a considerable military spirit. In other respects they bear a great resemblance to the ancient Arabs. They permit polygamy, but their women are not so much secluded from society as among the Moors on the sea-coast. Their children are brought up with care; and are not considered as men till they exhibit some proofs of their courage. Jews are permitted to live among them in their villages, but they are not allowed to cultivate the earth, or to carry arms. Christians are much hated; but a Christian slave is better treated than among the other Arabs, because the avarice of the Monselemines is greater than their fanaticism. As their slaves constitute their riches, they treat them tolerably well from a principle of prudence.

To the south of the country of the Monselemines, upon the coast of the Atlantic, is the wandering tribe of Wadelims; to the south of whom are the Labdessebas: And next to these are the Trasarts, who border with the country of the Negros. Eastward along the northern frontier of the Negros lie the Moorish states of Jaffino, Ludamar, and others. With the exception of these small states, it is to be observed, that the great desert, or Sahara, reaching from the Atlantic ocean to the frontiers of Abyssinia, and from the vicinity of the Mediterranean to the country of the Negros, is possessed by two great Moorish nations called the Tuarick and the Tibbo. Of these the Tuarick Tuarick is the most powerful: It consists of the whole desert and Tib westward from the meridian of Fezzan. The desert, of Sahara, eastward from the same meridian, belongs to the Tibbo. The manners and character of the whole of these tribes, whether great or small, is nearly or altogether similar. The desert which they inhabit is parched and uncultivated. Many places of it have the appearance of being capable of cultivation, as shrubs grow in various situations; and palms, or dates, rise at distant intervals. But the flying sand is the great obstacle to cultivation, by rendering the result of it uncertain. The sand drifts with every gale, and is at times accumulated into high mountains, which disappear as the winds blow. Thus it is shifted about with every change of the blast, excepting when the air is entirely stagnant. When the sand shower becomes formidable, the Moors are obliged to load their camels, turn their backs to the gale, and hasten away, to avoid being buried alive.

As water is very scarce in the desert, the Arabs or Moors form large holes for reservoirs to collect the rain water, which, though it soon becomes putrid and disgusting, is the only drink of man or beast. From the scarcity of water, they have few horned cattle; and their flocks consist chiefly of sheep, goats, and camels, animals which are patient of thirst. None but the wealthiest Arabs, who possess numerous herds, are able to maintain horses, as it is often necessary to give them milk to drink instead of water. The urine of the camels is carefully preserved to wash the vessels used to contain food; and the Arabs are frequently under the necessity of drinking it, mixed with milk, for the purpose of allaying their thirst. As their riches consist of their herds and flocks, they attend them with the greatest care. If a beast be sick, it is attended with more anxiety than a man; but if it seem likely to die, they kill and eat it. If it die before its blood be shed, it is accounted unclean, and is never eaten.

The Sahara, or desert, abounds in antelopes, wild boars, leopards, apes, and serpents. The Arabs or the Moors are expert hunters, and, as the leopard's skin is an article of commerce, that animal, from being frequently attacked, learns to keep at a distance from their habitations. Hunting the ostrich is a favourite amusement. It is undertaken by about twenty horsemen who advance in a line against the wind, at the interval of a quarter of a league behind each other. As soon as the foremost perceives an ostrich, he rushes upon it. The ostrich cannot fly; but with the assistance of its wings, it runs in the direction of the wind, and though it may avoid a few of the Arabs successively, cannot escape the whole number. In their hordes, the Moors or Arabs lodge by families in tents covered with a cloth of camels hair, which the women spin and weave. The furniture of the tent consists of two large sacks of leather, in which they keep their clothes and pieces of old iron, a few goat skins for holding milk and water, two large stones for grinding their barley, a mattress of osier which serves for a bed, a carpet for a covering, a small kettle and some wooden dishes, with pack saddles for their camels. They often associate to convey salt, which abounds in the desert, into the country of the Negroes; for which, in return, they bring back provisions and blue cotton cloth and slaves. They also associate for war and for hunting; and in most cases, where the property acquired consists of goods which can be packed up into parcels, they divide it into shares, which they cover up, and fix upon a woman, a child, or a stranger, who knows nothing of the contents of the various parcels, to distribute them by hazard to the different associates of the enterprise.

The only artificers among the Moors of the desert, are smiths, or a kind of tinkers, who go among them from the country of the Monselemines to mend their broken vessels, or repair their arms, and are paid in skins, goats and camels hair, or ostrich feathers, according to agreement. All of them are more attentive to their arms than to their dress; the latter of which often consists only of a long blanket which they wrap round them, with a cloak of camels hair, and more frequently of goats skins. They wear loose frocks or shirts, however, of blue cotton cloth, if they can procure them from the Negroes, by whom this cloth is manufactured. Their arms consist of daggers and clubs, with sabres and muskets if they can obtain them. To this general description of poverty, however, some of the Moors of the great inland nation or tribe of Tuarick form an exception, in that part of the desert which borders upon Fezzan, where they have an opportunity of acquiring wealth by engaging in the caravan trade. Mr Horneman saw at Fezzan many individuals of the Hagara, one of the tribes of the Tuarick, and describes them thus: "The Hagara are yellowish, like the Arabs; near Soudan, there are tribes entirely black. The clothing of this nation consists of wide dark blue breeches, a short narrow shirt of the same colour, with wide sleeves, which they bring together and tie on the back of their neck, so that their arms are at liberty. They wind a black cloth round their head in such a manner, that at a distance it appears like a helmet, for their eyes only are seen. Being Mahometans, they cut off their hair, but leave some on the top of the head, round which those who wear no cap contrive to fold their black cloth, so that it appears like a tuft on their helmet. Round their waist they wear a girdle of a dark colour. From several cords which fall from their shoulders hangs a Koran in a leather pouch, and a row of small leather bags containing amulets. They always carry in their hands a small lance neatly worked, about five feet long. Above the left elbow, on the upper part of the arm, they wear their national badge, a thick black or dark-coloured ring of horn or stone. Their upper dress is a Soudanian (Negro) shirt, over which a long sword hangs from the shoulder. The travelling merchants of this nation carry fire arms, though others use only the sword, the lance, and the knife, which they carry on their left arm; but the handle is finely worked; for they have the art of giving to copper as bright a colour as the English artists, and this art they keep very secret. They carry on a commerce between Sudan, (i.e. Nigritia), Fezzan and Gadamis. Their caravans give life to Mourzouk, which without them is a desert; for they, like the Soudanians (Negroes) love company, song, and music. The Tuarick are not all Mahometans. In the neighbourhood of Soudan and Tombuctoo live the Tagana, who are white, and of the Pagan religion."

Hospitality is the most remarkable virtue of the Moors, or Arabs of the desert. The chief of a horde is by custom bound or entitled to entertain all strangers; but every tent contributes to his stock of provisions. When a stranger reaches an Arab horde, the first person who perceives him points out the tent of the chief. If the master is not present, the wife or the slave comes forth to meet him, and brings him milk to drink. His camels are then unloaded, and his effects ranged around him. His arms are deposited near those of the master of the tent. The Arab, who in the field is a rapacious plunderer, in his tent is generous and hospitable; and the person of an enemy is inviolable, though he should have killed the near kinsman of its master. All this, however, is chiefly to be applied to persons of their own religion; for towards Christians and Jews, their fanaticism renders them extremely intolerant. A Jew, more especially, if discovered, can scarcely escape alive from among them.

Polygamy is allowed among the Arabs of the desert, as among other Mahometans; but it is very effectually restrained by the poverty of the people. Divorce is permitted at the will of either party; but if a male child is born, the marriage becomes indissoluble. In the education of children force is never employed. The priests, who are the teachers, instruct them to read the Arabic characters and sentences of the Koran; but if the child become weary of the school, he quits or returns to it at pleasure, without being reproached.

Property descends by inheritance in equal shares to the male children; but the females have no share, and are obliged to reside with their eldest brother. The chief of the horde becomes the guardian of the children who are left orphans. Property is ill secured by their customs. If a thief is caught in the fact he may be punished; but if he escape with his booty, it cannot afterwards be claimed.

The abstinence and hardships which the Moors of the desert are frequently under the necessity of enduring, and their habits of predatory war against passing caravans, or hostile tribes, bestow upon them an evident superiority over the more peaceful tribes of Negroes who inhabit the fertile regions of the south. They possess also the knowledge of writing, and of the Arabic language, which inspires them with no small confidence of the importance of their own character and accomplishments. Hence, they assume a haughtiness of gait, and a ferocity of aspect, which distinguishes them no less than their complexion from the Negroes in their neighbourhood. Such is the presumption resulting from these sentiments, that though a small party of Negroes would never risk themselves in the desert, one or two Moors will travel with impunity through all Africa, and plunder the Negroes by whom they have been entertained.

As the equator passes almost through the centre of Africa, by far the largest portion of that great continent is situated within the torrid zone, and is possessed by the Ethiopians and Negroes, who are called by the Arabs Biled al Soudan, or Biled al Abiad, the land of blacks, or the land of slaves. In all countries within the tropics, excessive rains fall twice every year about the time of the vernal and of the autumnal equinoxes. At these periods every river is swelled into a mighty flood, and if the country be level it is completely inundated. From this circumstance, along with the heat of the climate, arises the extreme fertility of the middle regions of the globe.

Though the Sahara, or great African desert, extends a few degrees beyond the tropic of Cancer, yet its boundaries begin to be ill defined; fertile spots become more frequent: and at last, in the latitude of the Cape de Verde isles, and in the neighbourhood of the first rivers, the Senegal and the Niger, the gum forests mark the commencement of the land of the Negroes. About 600 miles from the western coast, in the mountains of Kong, the river Senegal takes its rise, and flows westward into the Atlantic ocean. The same mountains are the source of the great river of the Ethiopians, the Niger, the knowledge of which, from the time of Herodotus, seems to have been lost by the European nations, and has only been recently restored in consequence of the intrepid and persevering exertions of our countryman Mungo Park, who had been employed by the African Association to endeavour to discover whether its existence ought to be regarded as a reality or as an error of the ancient geographers. It runs eastward; but its termination, as will be afterwards noticed, is still unknown.

To the south of these rivers, all Africa belongs to various nations of Negroes, among whom considerable varieties of appearance and of character exist. In general, however, they are distinguished by short woolly hair, flat noses, thick lips, and black complexion, while their intellectual powers have been supposed by some to be inferior to those of the civilized European or Asiatic nations. Some modern writers, however, such as Bruce and Velney, are of opinion, that the elements of the arts and sciences came originally from Upper Egypt and Abyssinia, and the ancients appear to have ascribed to the Ethiopians the commencement of civilization among mankind. "The Thebans (says Diodorus) consider themselves as the most ancient people on the earth; and assert that with them originated philosophy and the science of the stars." Their situation, it is true, is infinitely favourable to astronomical observation, and they have a more accurate division of time into months and years than other nations." The same opinion he attributes to the Ethiopians. "The Ethiopians conceive themselves to be of greater antiquity than any other nation; and it is probable that, born under the sun's path, its warmth may have ripened them sooner than other men. They suppose themselves also to be the inventors of divine worship, of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and every other religious practice. They affirm that the Egyptians are one of their colonies; and that the Delta, which was formerly sea, became land by the conglomeration of the earth of the higher country, which was washed down by the Nile. They have, like the Egyptians, two species of letters, hieroglyphics and the alphabet; but among the Egyptians, the first was known only to the priests, and by them transmitted from father to son, whereas both species are common among the Ethiopians." "The Ethiopians (says Lucian) were the first who invented the science of the stars, and gave names to the planets, not at random and without meaning, but descriptive of the qualities which they conceived them to possess; and it was from them that this art passed in an imperfect state to the Egyptians."

But though the antiquity of the civilization of Egypt cannot be disputed, there is little reason to believe that the middle regions of Africa ever exhibited the human character in a higher state of cultivation than it now possesses there. In all ages its inhabitants were engaged in the barbarous practice of selling each other into slavery to distant nations. No remains of ancient magnificence are to be found in their country, nor any instruments of art which mark the genius of an improved people. Even the plough is still unknown, and the ingenuity of man is only exerted to supply his most simple wants.

A great part of the country of the Negroes receives among Europeans the name of Guinea, a term as old name, as the time of Ptolemy, who applies it to the maritime districts, though this name is said to be utterly unknown to the natives of the country themselves, excepting where they have learned it from European traders. It would appear, however, to have originated from one of the central states or empires of Africa, upon the banks of the Niger, which though once possessed of great power, has now fallen into decay, and is lost in the empire of Tombuctoo, and some neighbouring states.

The middle regions of Africa bring to maturity all Product the tropical productions or fruits in their utmost perfection and abundance. With the slightest cultivation, rice, maize, millet, sugar, cotton, indigo, &c. are raised, along with some fruits peculiar to itself, among which may be mentioned the shea-tree, from which the vegetable butter is prepared, which forms a principal article of commerce in all the interior districts. The shea-tree is said to resemble the American oak; the butter is prepared from the kernel of the fruit. This Vegeta kernel resembles a Spanish olive, and is enclosed in a sweet pulp under a thin green rind. It is dried in the sun, and then boiled in water. Travellers tell us that the butter produced from it is white, firm, and better flavoured than that of milk. If this account of it be correct, which we have no reason to doubt, measures ought certainly to be taken for conveying this tree to the European settlements in the West Indies, and for cultivating it there, as it would undoubtedly be very valuable when reared in the vicinity of the bread-fruit tree, which has lately been brought from Otaheite. Various species of wild beasts inhabit this country, as lions, leopards, hyenas, elephants, buffaloes, wild boars, rhinoceroses, with great variety of the species of deer, and various kinds of monkeys. Innumerable species of snakes are also to be found here; one of the most remarkable of which, called the singacki, is of a pale green colour with black spots, about a foot in length, and as thick as a man's finger. It possesses the power of ejecting a subtle vapour into the eyes of any animal that approaches within the distance of two or three feet, so as to occasion extreme pain for several days, and even incurable blindness. Another species of snake, said to be found also in Ceylon, grows here to the enormous size of 50 feet in length; the colour of the back is dark gray, with lines of a dusky yellow: part of the belly is of a lighter colour and spotted: it lurks, in moist situations, wreathed into curls, which include a space of about five feet diameter, and give it at a distance some resemblance to the mouth of a well. Over these curls or rings it rears its head and part of its body, and remains immovable till some animal approach within its reach, when it darts upon it; and, if the animal is large, twists its body round it, and with an immense force crushes all its bones; and having lubricated it with saliva, swallows it entire. After having devoured in this manner a large animal, the snake remains as if lifeless for many days during the process of digestion, and in this situation may be easily destroyed. The cameleon is also found in this country, along with an immense variety of reptiles. Of these, ants are the most formidable and destructive to man. They differ in size, from an inch in length to a minuteness that is almost imperceptible to the naked eye. They sometimes burst from their nests in such innumerable myriads as to destroy every thing on the surface of the earth, and to oblige the natives to desert their habitations. They often extinguish fires by their numbers, and form bridges of their own dead bodies over shallow waters which impede their progress.—One species forms swarms like bees, and erects round pyramids of clay which becomes extremely hard. These pyramids are usually eight or ten feet high. Their interior consists of galleries suited to the size of the animal, interwoven like a labyrinth, having a small opening as a door or entry to the dwelling.

Monstrous spiders also exist in this country, a single thread of whose web, it is said, will support a weight of several ounces.

The natives of this country have too little art or industry to take much advantage of the metals with which the earth is supposed in many places to abound. In some situations, however, they produce iron of a tolerable quality; but gold is the chief object of their search. It does not appear, however, that they have ever wrought the mines of it which they have discovered to any depth, and it is chiefly procured from the sands of the rivers or of torrents after violent rains. It is then collected in some districts in considerable quantities, and forms an important article of commerce. Women chiefly engage in this employment, and an individual may collect in general during the dry season, as much as is equal to the value of two slaves. The gold obtained is either used in commerce or wrought into ornaments for the women. The standard of value is called menkalli, which is equal in value to about 10s.

In general, however, it may be remarked, with regard to all the natural productions of this continent, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, that they still remain in great obscurity, and present a vast field for the investigation of the natural historian.

The general character of the Negroes, who are the inhabitants of these fertile regions, is that of extreme of the Neglect. It is said, that they will dance for almost 24 hours together; and they do not suffer their gaiety to be disturbed by events, which, in other countries, are productive of much unhappiness. They do not appear to want the feelings of humanity, nor are they more destitute of sagacity than other men and women of an equal degree of education; but the general fertility of their country, which supplies them with food in consequence of the exertion of a very slight degree of industry, and the little occasion they have for clothing amidst the heat of their climate, produces an indolent and general habit of seeking present pleasure, and of banishing from their minds all care for the future.

The kind of government that exists among the Negro nations is by no means uniform. In many districts the country is governed by an immense multitude of independent petty chiefs, who are engaged in frequent wars with each other. In other places the talents of individual chieftains have been able to reduce considerable tracts of territory under their dominion. In such cases, in consequence of the internal tranquillity produced by the extension of the prince's power, flourishing towns have grown up. Thus upon the Niger stands the town of Sego the capital of Bambara, Town of which was visited by Mungo Park, and which lies in Sego. N. Lat. 14° 10', and W. Long. 2° 26', containing about 35,000 inhabitants. Two hundred miles below this upon the same river stands Tombuctoo, the great centre of the commerce of Fezzan, Cairo, and the countries on the north of Africa, with the land of the Negroes. Further down the same river stands Houssa, Houssa, which is understood to be a city of still greater extent. Many of the Negro towns are fortified with ditches and walls, built like the houses of the natives of clay and stone. The trenches are sometimes flanked with square towers like a regular fortification, and the walls are very high.

Domestic slavery prevails in a very great degree among all the Negro states. As the tropical rains sometimes fail or are deficient in quantity, the scorching heat of the sun burns up the face of the country, and produces a most frightful barrenness. On these occasions it is not uncommon for parents to sell their children, and even themselves, for bread. A freeman may also lose his liberty by being taken prisoner in war, or on account of the real or supposed crimes of murder and sorcery. He also forfeits it in consequence of insolvency. From these causes domestic slavery prevails to such a degree, that in many places three-fourths of the natives are slaves. These slaves, however, form in some measure a part of the community; and, by the custom of the country, the master cannot sell one who is born his slave, without accusing him of a crime, a circumstance, which, in consequence of the slave trade, at times gives rise to much dissension, and to wars which resemble, in some measure, the sanguinary contests which existed in various countries in Europe, during the feudal times, between the villains and their lords. Thus, in 1785, a general insurrection took place in many districts on the western coast: the slaves attacked their masters, massacred great numbers of them, set fire to the ripe rice, blockaded the towns, and obliged them to sue for peace.

Few arts have been brought to much perfection by the Negroes, because the division of labour has been little known among them. The same individual spins, weaves, sews, hunts, fishes; forms baskets, fishing-tackle, instruments of agriculture; makes soap, dyes cloth with indigo, and makes canoes. In all these, the neatness of the work excites the astonishment of strangers who know the diversity of occupations in which the same individuals engage, and the imperfection of the tools with which they labour. They are no strangers, however, to that ordinary division of labour, to which nature herself seems to have given rise in consequence of the distinction of the sexes. The women spin, and the men weave the cotton cloth of which their dresses are composed. The cotton is prepared for spinning by rolling it with an iron spindle upon a smooth stone or board. The thread is well twisted though coarse, but the loom is so narrow that the web is only about four inches broad. The women dye this cloth with the leaves of indigo, pounded fresh, and mixed with a strong alkaline ley, formed by the lixiviation of wood ashes. The colour thus produced is a rich and durable blue with a purple gloss.

The workers in metals, and the manufacturers of leather, appear to be almost the only instances of what may be called a separate profession existing among the Negroes. The manufacturers of leather separate the hair by steeping the hides in a mixture of wood ashes and water, and use the pounded leaves of a tree called goo, as we do the oak bark, for the purpose of tanning. They dye the skins of sheep and goats red with powdered millet stalks, and yellow with a root which abounds in their country. The manufacturers of iron smelt that metal in some of the interior districts; but it is generally hard and brittle. They form their weapons and tools of it, however, with considerable ingenuity. In smelting gold they use fixed alkaline salt, obtained by washing with water the ashes of burned corn stalks, and evaporating the ley to dryness. It must also be remarked, that, in the interior of the country, Mungo Park found a negro who manufactured gunpowder from nitre collected from the reservoirs of water frequented by the cattle, and sulphur supplied by the Moors, who obtain it from the Mediterranean. He pounded the ingredients in a wooden mortar, and granulated it; but the grains were unequal, and the strength of the gunpowder was very inferior to that of Europe.

The only necessary of life in which the country of the Negroes appears to be extremely deficient is salt, which is the more wanted among them in consequence of their subsisting chiefly upon vegetable food. A child cries for a piece of salt as for a great delicacy; and it is a proverbial expression of a man's riches, to say, that he eats salt to his food. This important article they receive from the great desert by caravans of trading Moors. They also receive arms, hardware, glasses, and trinkets of all sorts, on the western coast from the Europeans, and, in the interior, from the caravans of Cairo, Fezzan, and Morocco. For these they give in return, gold, ivory and slaves. With regard to the ivory, the Negroes cannot comprehend for what reason it is so much valued by strangers. It is in vain to tell them that ships are built, and long voyages undertaken, to procure it to make handles for knives. They are satisfied that a piece of wood might serve the purpose as well, and imagine that it is applied to some important use which is concealed from the Negroes, lest they should raise the price of it. The trade of the Negroes is conducted by barter; and to Medium adjust the value of their different articles of commerce, they appeal to a nominal standard, consisting of a certain quantity of any commodity for which there is a great demand. Thus on the Gambia, that quantity of ivory or of gold-dust which is estimated as equal in value to a bar of iron, is denominated a bar of ivory, or a bar of gold-dust.

A marvelous story has, in all ages, been told of a strange mode of conducting commerce that exists among certain African tribes who live in the wildest mountainous districts: they are said to engage annually in trade, but at the same time to seclude themselves from all personal intercourse with the traders who visit them: They traffic chiefly in gold-dust, which they bring to particular places, and there leave it upon the approach of the traders, who deposit quantities of goods which they are willing to give for the gold-dust, and thereafter retire. The natives then approach, and carry off the goods, or the gold dust, according as they think fit to accept or reject the bargain. From the days of Herodotus down to our own times, this story has been repeated by various writers, and in particular by Wadstrom, upon the authority of the chevalier de la Touch, vice-governor of Goree, in 1788, who is said to have visited the districts inhabited by these invisible traders.

The knowledge of the Negroes with regard to all speculative subjects, is extremely limited. Their notions of geography and astronomy, like those of other rude nations, are altogether puerile. They regard the earth as a vast plain, the boundaries of which are covered with clouds and darkness. The sea is a great river of salt water; beyond which is the land of the white people; and at a still greater distance, is the land to which the slaves are carried, which is inhabited by giants, who are cannibals. Eclipses are ascribed to enchantment, or to the interposition of a great cat, which puts its paw between the moon and the earth. They divide the year by moons, and calculate the years by the number of rainy seasons. They seem to believe in one God, who has power over all things; but their religious opinions are extremely undefined, so that it is in vain to expect to find among them any system of belief that is either universally received, or even consistently adhered to by the same individuals. They in general seem to think, that the god of the blacks or Negroes is different from the god of the whites: When they are pleased with their own condition and their country, they represent the black deity as a good being, and the white deity as a kind of devil, who sends the white people to make slaves of the Negroes: But when they are in ill humour, they complain of their black deity as mischievous and cruel; while they say that the white deity gives his people the Europeans brandy and fine clothes, and other good things which are denied to the Negroes. Their notions of a future state are of the same fluctuating nature. They have a confused idea that the existence of the human mind does not terminate with this life; and they seem to venerate the spirits of the dead, regarding them as protectors, and placing victuals at the graves of their ancestors upon stated occasions. In general, however, they regard death with great horror; and in Whidah it was a law, that no person, on pain of death, should mention it in presence of the king. Some of them have a notion of a future state as connected with rewards and punishments of their conduct in this life. They imagine that the deceased are conveyed to a mighty river in the interior regions of Africa, where God judges of their past lives, and particularly of the regularity with which they have celebrated the new moons, which among the Negroes are kept as festivals; and of the fidelity with which they have adhered to their oaths. If the judgment is in their favour, they are gently wafted over the great river to a happy country, resembling in description the paradise of Mahomet, where they enjoy plenty of all those things which they were accustomed to value in this world: But if the judgment is unfavourable, they are plunged into the river, and never heard of more. They also believe, like the vulgar of most other countries, that the ghosts of persons who have been guilty of great and unexpiated crimes, find no rest after death, but haunt or wander about those places in which their crimes were committed. The Asiatic doctrine of the transmigration of the souls of men after death into the bodies of other animals, is also entertained by some of them.

The opinions of the Negroes concerning the creation of man are not more fixed or definite than their ideas of his future existence. In general, they ascribe his original creation to the deity; but some of them pretend that he emerged, they know not how, from the caves and holes of the earth, or was produced by a monstrous spider. A curious fiction upon this subject is also said to prevail in some of the Negro states:—That God originally created both black men and white men; that he meant to bestow one gift upon each of them, gold or wisdom; that he gave the black men their choice, and that they preferred gold, and left wisdom or ingenuity to the whites; that God was offended with them on account of this improper choice, and ordained them to be slaves for ever to the white men.

They also believe in a divine providence, which sends rain to give fertility to the earth and the trees, and to wash down gold from the mountains. Accordingly, they pray fervently to God to give them those things upon which they set the greatest value, such as rice and yams, and gold, and slaves, and health, and activity. At the same time, from their inaccuracy of thinking upon this subject, they readily say, when conversed with, that it is not God but the earth that gives them rice; that their cattle produce young without the assistance of God; and that, if they did not labour for themselves, they might starve before God would help them.

From this loose and inaccurate mode of reasoning, the religion of the Negroes sits very light upon them. They seem to have a sort of priests, who perform some ceremonies at the new moons, and on certain occasions, such as, at marriages, or on giving names to young children; but these priests having no settled system of doctrine, and not being united into a disciplined body, possess very little influence. Hence it is extremely easy to induce the Negroes to adopt the religion of any more intelligent people. Accordingly, the Moors have made many converts among them; and some of the most considerable Negro states upon the northern frontier, that is, upon the Senegal and the Niger, are Mahomtan.

But though the Negroes have little speculative religious superstition, they have much superstition, as appears from the great use which they make of what are called fetiches, or charms termed obi by the Africans in our West-India islands. The fetiche consists of any natural object, which chances to catch hold of the fancy of a Negro. One selects the tooth of a dog, of a tiger, or of a cat, or the bone of a bird; while another fixes on the head of a goat, a monkey, or parrot, or even upon a piece of red or yellow wood, or a thorn branch. The fetiche, thus chosen, becomes to its owner a kind of divinity, which he worships, and from which he expects assistance on all occasions. In honour of his fetiche, it is common for a Negro to deprive himself of some pleasure, by abstaining from a particular kind of meat or drink. Thus one man eats no goats' flesh, another tastes no beef, and a third no brandy or palm wine. By a continual attention to his fetiche, a Negro so far imposes upon himself, as to represent it to his imagination as an intelligent being, or ruling power, inspecting his actions, rewarding his virtues, and punishing his crimes. Hence he covers it up carefully whenever he performs any action that he accounts improper. The importance or value of a fetiche is always estimated according to the success of its owner, and the remarkable prosperity of an individual brings his fetiche so much into fashion, as to induce others to adopt it. On the contrary, when a Negro suffers any great misfortune, he infallibly attributes it to the weakness of his fetiche, which he relinquishes, and adopts another that he hopes will prove more powerful. A fortunate fetiche is usually adopted by the whole family of its possessor, to which it becomes an object of reverence, or a guardian like the household gods, dii lares and penates, of the ancient Romans. Sometimes a whole tribe or a large district has its fetiche, which is regarded as a kind of palladium upon which the safety of their country depends. Thus at Aera the national fetiche was a lake, which the people accounted sacred. This lake was converted into a salt pit by the Portuguese, and the natives regarded this profanation as the cause of the conquest of their country by a neighbouring tribe called the Aquamboans. Thus also at Whidah, although the people believe in one supreme god, they worship as their national fetiche a kind of serpent of monstrous size, which they call the grandfather of the snakes. They say that it formerly deserted some other country, on account of its wickedness, and came to them, bringing good fortune and prosperity along with it. From this account of the fetiches of the Negroes, the intelligent reader will naturally remark, that even idolatry itself remains in an imperfect imperfect state among the people; and he will observe the difference between the polished superstition of ancient Greece and Rome, and the vulgar and unadorned credulity of these rude and artless tribes. In the vicinity of their settlements, the Moors have prevailed with the illiterate Negroes, to adopt as fetishes or charms, certain sentences of the Koran, which they write out and sell to them under the name of saphies. Mngo Park, when travelling among them, sometimes sold saphies, which usually consisted of the Lord's prayer.

Among the Negroes some singular customs prevail, which are not unworthy of notice, on account of their having some similarity to certain practices that have subsisted among other nations. Persons accused of any crime, more especially of poisoning, are frequently required to prove their innocence, by drinking what is called the red water. This is a poisonous liquor formed from the roots of certain plants, and the barks of trees, of a very narcotic quality. The accused is placed on a high chair, and stripit of his clothes, having only a quantity of plantain leaves wrapt round his waist. He then, in presence of the whole village, eats a little rice, and drinks about an English gallon of the red water, which is extremely apt to find the accused person guilty. If he escape unhurt, however, and without vomiting, he is judged innocent. Much dancing and singing takes place on account of his escape, and he is allowed to demand that some punishment be inflicted on his accusers on account of the defamation. Among the superstitious customs of the Negroes, may be mentioned the practice of circumcision, which is universal among them. It is not regarded as a religious rite, but as a kind of charm for preventing barrenness. It is not performed till the age of puberty.

In several Negro states certain secret societies or fraternities exist, which possess great political influence, and in some places absolute power. One of these societies, called the society of the Belli, is appropriated to men, to the exclusion of women. It supports itself by the use of mystical symbols, a pretence to the knowledge of important secrets, and by subjection to an imaginary being, called the Belli, who is said to be capable of changing his form at pleasure. This society monopolizes all public offices, to the exclusion of the uninitiated. The young men are introduced into it by a noviciate which lasts some years. A space is marked out of eight or nine miles in circumference in a fertile spot, in which huts are built, and provisions raised. The young men resort thither, and are taught by instructors pitched upon by the society, to fight, to fish, to hunt, and to sing certain songs peculiar to the fraternity; they also receive new names as a mark of their new birth, and certain scars are imprinted on their bodies, with heated instruments of iron, to point them out as belonging to the fraternity. On returning home after their initiation, they are received with great ceremony by their relations, as persons now introduced into public life.

There is a kind of counterpart of this association, though of less political importance, called the society of the Nessage or Sandi, which is confined to females. In a remote wood, which men are prohibited to approach, a number of huts are constructed, and the young marriageable girls are conducted thither during the night. They remain in this solitude, under the care of certain matrons, during four months, and are taught a variety of religious customs and superstitions. When their noviciate is expired, they return by night to their villages, where they are received by all the women both old and young quite naked, who parade about with them, playing upon some rude musical instruments till daybreak. If any man should approach this procession, he would suffer death, or be compelled to redeem himself by a very heavy fine.

There is a third kind of society, which is much more universal than those now mentioned, and seems to exist in all the Negro states. This society does not appear to have any special name, but it conducts the mysteries of a strange imaginary being, called Mambo Jumbo. As the practice of polygamy exists very universally among the Negroes, they often find great difficulty in preserving the peace of their families amidst a variety of rival wives. When the husband finds his authority altogether contemned, he has recourse to the assistance of Mambo Jumbo. The dress of this strange minister of justice usually hangs upon a tree in a forest in the neighbourhood of every Negro village. It is made of bark, and forms a figure of about eight or nine feet high, with a tuft of straw on his head. When Mambo is about to appear, he announces his approach in the evening by dismal screams from the adjacent woods, and as soon as it is dark he enters the village, and proceeds immediately to the public place, where all the inhabitants both male and female are obliged to assemble at his call; for this phantom has absolute power. Nobody must appear covered in its presence, and every person is bound implicitly to execute its commands. As the women know that the visit is intended against some of them, they can have no great relish for the solemnity, but they dare not refuse to attend. The ceremony commences with songs and dances. These continue till midnight, when Mumbo Jumbo fixes upon the individual on whose account he comes. She is immediately seized by his command, stripped naked, tied to a post, and scourged with Mumbo's rod, to the great entertainment of the whole assembly, and especially of the rest of the women, who are always loudest in their derision and censure of the culprit. The society that conducts the appearance of this mysterious personage make use of a peculiar or cant language, which is not understood by the uninitiated. They pretend that Mambo Jumbo is a wild man, or some strange being that knows every body's thoughts. They bind themselves by oaths never to reveal their secrets to a woman or boy. The fraternity is so powerful, that when one of the Negro kings was weak enough to reveal the secret of Mambo Jumbo's character to a favourite wife, who communicated it to the other females of the household, he and his whole family were immediately assassinated, in the presence, and by the command of Mambo Jumbo; and nobody dared to dispute the propriety of their punishment.

Like all rude nations, the different tribes of Negroes are implicit believers in witchcraft and magic, sorcery, and in the existence of various kinds of sorcerers. These sorcerers they regard with the utmost terror and abhorrence. They believe that some of them have power to control the seasons, and to prevent the rice from arriving at maturity. Others of them are supposed to suck the blood of men and beasts, and to occasion all kinds of diseases. When they suspect a person to have died in consequence of sorcery, they interrogate the corpse, which they believe gives answers in the affirmative, by forcibly impelling forward the persons who bear it, and in the negative by a rolling motion. If an answer is given in the affirmative, they inquire concerning the murderer, beginning with the relations of the deceased, and naming the suspected persons. When the guilty person is named, they say that the corpse impels the bearers forward; and upon the authority of this evidence, the person accused is seized and sold into slavery, and sometimes his whole family. It is evident that a trial of this kind may be so managed, as on all occasions to secure the condemnation of the accused person. Accordingly, in proportion to the demand for slaves, accusations of sorcery are more frequently brought forward against their subjects by the Negro chiefs. These accusations, however, are sometimes also brought against persons of importance, who cannot be sold on account of their rank, or against aged persons, whom nobody will purchase. In these cases, the person convicted is compelled to dig his own grave; and being placed at the foot of it, one from behind strikes him a violent blow upon the back of the head or neck, which causes him to fall upon his face into the grave. Some loose earth is then thrown upon him; a stake of hard wood is driven through his body, and the grave is filled up.

Of these and all their other customs, the Negroes are extremely tenacious; and this tenacity of their customs, down to the minutest trifles, forms the principal obstacle to their civilization or improvement. Thus it is the custom to cut the rice six or eight inches below the ear, by two or three stalks at a time, according as they can be grasped between the thumb of the right hand and a knife, which is held in the same hand. The stalks are leisurely transferred to the left hand, and when it is almost full, they are tied like a nosegay and put into a basket. A negro chief who had seen the English mode of reaping, said, that it would cost an African his life, should he attempt to introduce it into his country, as he would be accused of intending to overturn the ancient customs, and would be compelled to drink the red water. By means of their customs, also, property is rendered less valuable than in other countries, which operates as a discouragement to industry. Their agriculture is carried on in concert of the by the inhabitants of every district, who share in common the products of their harvest. Hence the idea of exclusive property is rendered very vague, while the unlimited exercise of the law or custom of hospitality, renders the possession of it uncertain; as the industrious are forced to share their wealth with the indolent. Begging is not reckoned disgraceful; and if a person has been negligent in providing the necessaries of life, he has only to discover where provisions are to be found, and he must obtain a share; for if he enter a house during a repast, the master, by custom, cannot avoid inviting him to partake. As domestic slavery, however, and the traffic in slaves, constitutes a most profitable branch of the African customs, it is not wonderful that their chiefs adhere to them with peculiar obstinacy.

With regard to the private or domestic economy of the Negroes, it may be observed, that their houses consist usually of a circular wall, built of mud, or of clay and stone, about four feet high, with a conical roof of bamboos, covered or thatched with hay. As houses of this structure cannot well be divided into separate apartments; where there is a plurality of wives, each has a hut appropriated to herself, and the whole huts belonging to a family are surrounded by a fence of bamboos formed into a kind of wicker work. A number of these enclosures, with intermediate passages or streets, which have no regular arrangement, form a town or village. The furniture of their houses usually consists of a bed, formed of a frame of canes, covered with a bullock's skin or with a mat, and of one or two wooden stools, and a few wooden dishes and pots for dressing food. The dress of both sexes is formed of cotton cloth; that of the men usually consists of a loose shirt or frock with wide sleeves, together with drawers or trousers, which reach to the middle of the leg. Some of the Negroes add to these a cap and sandals. The dress of the women consists of two pieces of cloth, each of which is about six feet long, and three feet broad. The one is wrapt round the waist and hangs down to the ankles, and the other is negligently thrown over the shoulders.

The state of the women, as among other barbarous nations, is by no means favourable. It is in general accounted altogether unnecessary for a lover to make proposals to his intended bride. She is considered as the property of her father, from whom he purchases her, and to whom he generally pays a price equal to the value of about two slaves. When he has agreed with the parents, therefore, with whom he eats a few nuts to ratify the contract, the proposed bride must give her consent, or remain for ever unmarried; for if she is given to another, the lover is entitled to seize her for a slave. On the day of marriage the bride is conducted with great ceremony to the house of the bridegroom, who must furnish abundance of liquor and refreshments to her attendants. On approaching the house, the bride is covered all over with a robe of white cotton, and is carried on the back of a woman to the house of her husband. She is then placed amidst a circle of matrons, who give her many instructions about her future life. The day is concluded with dances, songs, and feasting, and the validity of the marriage is confirmed by exhibiting tokens of virginity according to the Mosaic law.

A man is allowed to have as many wives as he can afford to purchase, and they are treated in a great measure as slaves, being in general compelled to take the whole charge of the agriculture abroad, as well as of the preparation of food for the family at home. When the husbands, however, are contented with one or two wives, instances of conjugal infidelity are uncommon; but when they have a greater number, they are often under the necessity of overlooking the accidental gallantries of their wives, in consequence of the impossibility of subjecting them to rigid confinement in the simple state of society in which they live. The Negro women suckle their children till they are able to walk, and sometimes till they are three years old, and during that period have no connection with their husbands.

After this account of the Negroes in general, we shall shall proceed to take notice of some of the more remarkable tribes into which they are divided, and with which we have been made acquainted by the latest travellers. Of these the tribe of Mandingoese is the most important. They derive their name from a district in the interior of Africa, called Manding. This territory is situated in the most elevated northern tract of the country of the Negroes, near the sources of the rivers Senegal and Gambia, which flow into the Atlantic on the west, and of the Niger, which proceeds towards the east. Kamaliah, which is one of its towns, and was visited by Mr Park, lies in 12° 46' N. Lat. Though Manding is in so high a level, and abounds in gold, it is not mountainous or barren. The tribe that has issued from it, and assumes the name of Mandingoese, forms by far the most numerous race of Negroes through the whole western quarter of the continent of Africa. Their territories intermingle in various situations with the possessions of other states, and they even form the bulk of the population where other tribes enjoy the sovereign power. Their language is by far the most universally understood of all the Negro tongues, and it appears to be more polished than any other. The Mandingoese are a tall slender race, of a colour moderately black. Their eyes are remarkably small, and they wear their beards. They are more industrious, and engage more extensively in commerce than the other Negroes, so that they are frequently employed as agents in making bargains by persons of other tribes. In the character of travelling merchants, and instructors of youth, they have insinuated themselves into all the Negro countries, where they are distinguished by wearing more regularly than others a red or white cotton cap, and sandals. Some of them who have learned to read and write Arabic, and who profess Mahometanism, erect schools in the Pagan villages, and instruct the youth gratis. They assume a great appearance of sanctity, abstain from strong liquors, and pretend to the power of counteracting magic. Thus they acquire a most extensive influence, and few affairs of importance are transacted without their advice. In almost every district, troops of Mandingo merchants are to be met with; and as their intellectual powers are more developed than those of the other Negroes, they have been able to extend their language, as a kind of learned tongue, second only to the Arabic, along the Senegal and the Niger.

In most of the Mandingo towns there are two public buildings; a mosque for public prayers, and what is called the bentang, which is a large stage formed of interwoven bamboos erected under a spreading tree. At the bentang all public affairs are transacted, and idle persons assemble to smoke tobacco, and hear news. In every village there is a magistrate, who preserves public order, levies the duties on merchants, and presides at the palavers or courts held by the old men, where justice is administered. At these courts civil questions between parties are debated. In the Pagan states the decisions are pronounced according to the customs of their fathers; but where Mahometanism is more generally received, which is usually the case among the Mandingoese, the Koran is the rule of judgement, or the Sharra, which contains a digest of Mahometan laws both civil and criminal. Certain Mahometan Negroes, who make the laws of the prophet and instructors of youth.

their particular study, are frequently retained in causes, as professional pleaders, and they are said to exhibit great dexterity in perplexing the judges.

The Pagan Mandingoese believe in one God, the creator of all things; but they consider him as of a nature too much exalted above human affairs, to give much attention to their prayers. They address him, however, at the new moons, and imagine every new moon to be a new creation. They fancy that certain subordinate spirits rule the world, and that these spirits are influenced by enchantments and fetiches. They believe in a future state, but most of them admit that they know nothing about it. Their funerals consist of a tumultuous procession, in which they make dismal howlings; and after burying the body beside some large tree, the solemnity terminates in a revel of drinking, and at last of dancing and singing.

Next to the Mandingoese, the Foulahs are the most Foulah. numerous race of Negroes on the western quarter of the continent of Africa. Their original country is called Fouladoo. It is a small state, situated near the sources of the Senegal and the Niger. From thence they have emigrated in powerful clans, and have acquired extensive territories, especially along these rivers, and along the Gambia. The Foulahs also possess the sovereignty of various insulated tracts southwards, towards Sierra Leone. Besides the fixed settlements in which they enjoy the sovereignty, they have introduced themselves in many places along the banks of the Gambia, and to the southward along what is called the gulf of Guinea, to a great distance, into the greater part of the Negro states, in the character of shepherds and cultivators of the ground. They obtain admission by paying a tax or rent to the chief of the territory for whatever lands they occupy, and emigrate at pleasure. In consequence of this mode of life, the sovereignty frequently fluctuates in the small states, between them and the Mandingoese, and other tribes, according to the proportion of the population, which often alters, from the emigrations of the Foulahs.

The features of the Foulahs are very different from those of the other Negroes. They have a Roman nose, a thin face, and small features, with long glossy soft hair, so as to resemble in a great degree the East Indian lascars. Their complexion is by no means of the permanent jetty colour of the other Negroes, but varies with the districts they inhabit, approaching to yellow in the vicinity of the Moors, and deepening into a moderate black towards the equator. Their stature is of the middle size, their form graceful, and their air insinuating. Their women are well shaped, and have regular features; but neither men nor women are so robust in their make as the other Negroes. Hence, they are accounted by the Negroes an intermediate race between themselves and the Moors; but the Foulahs consider themselves as superior to the Negroes, and class themselves among white nations. Their natural disposition is mild and humane, and they are extremely hospitable where the Mahometan religion has not taught them to treat infidels with reserve. They support with great care the aged and infirm of their own tribe, and frequently relieve the necessities of persons of other tribes. There are few instances of one Foulah being insulted by another, and they never sell their countrymen for slaves; on the contrary, if a Foulah have the misfortune to be enslaved, his whole clan or village contributes to pay his ransom.

The Foulahs engage more extensively than the other Negroes in the raising of corn, and the breeding of cattle, but especially in the latter occupation. Hence the Mandingoes frequently entrust their cattle to the care of the Foulahs. They render them tractable by familiarity; feed them by day in the woods and open meadows, and secure them by night in folds, which they fence very strongly. Not satisfied with this precaution, the herdsmen, whose huts are erected in the middle of the fold, keep fires during the night burning around the folds, for the protection of the cattle against wild beasts, and to show that they are in a state of preparation against robbers. From the necessity of guarding their cattle they become intrepid hunters, and kill lions, tigers, elephants, and other wild beasts, with poisoned arrows, or with muskets which they purchase from the whites upon the coast. To poison their arrows, they boil the leaves of a particular shrub in water, and dip in the black juice a cotton thread, which they fasten round the barbs of the arrow.

From the milk of their cattle the Foulahs make considerable quantities of butter; but like all the Negro nations, they are entirely ignorant of the art of preserving milk by making it into cheese. This art is probably prevented from being introduced by the heat of the climate, and by the extreme scarcity of salt, which can be obtained in no other way but by purchasing it from the sea coast, or from caravans of trading Arabs, who bring it on the backs of camels from the great desert. They entertain a singular superstition, that to boil the milk of a cow prevents her from having any more. Hence, they will sell no milk to any person whom they have once discovered to have boiled it.

Like the other Negro tribes, the Foulahs are excessively fond of dancing. They have also a strong passion for music, and their chiefs account a practical skill in it a most respectable accomplishment. Their national airs have a peculiar character, and are tender and pleasing.

Though the Foulahs do not enslave each other, they do not hesitate to make war upon the neighbouring tribes for the purpose of obtaining slaves, chiefly with a view of selling them to the Europeans upon the coast for fire-arms and gunpowder. Such at least is the account of the matter, which was obtained in 1794 by Messrs Watt and Winterburn, who visited Foota-jallo, an extensive Foulah kingdom in the interior of Sierra Leone. This kingdom extends about 300 miles from east to west, and 200 from north to south. Temboo, the capital, contains 7000 inhabitants. The power of their king is in a great measure arbitrary. On an emergency, he can bring to the field 16,000 cavalry. The markets and all kinds of trade are regulated by him and his officers. The soil is in many places extremely fertile, producing rice and maize, which are cultivated by the women, and carried to market by the men. In general, however, the ground is dry and stony, but affords pasture for all kinds of cattle. Their women dig a species of iron stone from mines of considerable depth. The ore is afterwards manufactured into a very malleable metal. In this kingdom of Foota-jallo there are schools in every town; and the majority of the people can read. The Mahometan religion is professed, but the mild character of the Foulahs prevents it from exhibiting that aspect of intolerance towards strangers which characterizes the professors of this religion in other countries.

On the western coast, a great part of the district between the rivers Senegal and Gambia, or, as it is often called, Senegambia, is inhabited by a nation called the Jaloofs, which differs considerably from the other tribes of the Negroes. Their stature is tall and robust, and, though their complexion is of the deepest black, their noses are not so much depressed, nor their lips so protuberant, as those of the Mandingoes. They excel their neighbours in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton cloth, which they form of a finer thread and a broader web. They use their toes with the same dexterity as their fingers in many operations. Hence when they perceive a pair of scissors, a knife, or a toy which they covet, they turn their backs upon it, and, having engaged the owner in conversation, they seize it artfully with their toes, and throw it into a pouch which they wear behind. In this way, strangers trading in their towns are amazed to find their goods vanishing before their eyes, while they cannot perceive the thief. The Jaloofs are very warlike, and equal the Moors in the management of horses; but, as they are divided into a number of petty states, which are continually engaged in war with each other, they have little power as a nation. In the succession to their leaders or chiefs, they follow the female line as the surest; and therefore, the eldest son of the eldest sister of the chief is preferred.

On the coast to the south of the river Gambia, there Feloops, exists a rude but industrious tribe, called the Feloops, who have little intercourse with their neighbours. They possess considerable energy of character, and have resisted successfully the attacks of the Mandingoes, even when assisted by the Portuguese. They are very faithful in friendship, and their enmity is equally permanent, as they transmit their family feuds from generation to generation. When a man is killed in a quarrel, his eldest son procures his sandals, which he wears on the anniversary of the murder of his father, till he can revenge his death. In those parts of their country in which the Europeans have committed any ravages, they give no quarter to a white man. They sell to the Europeans, however, rice, goats, poultry, wax, and honey.

Besides these, a variety of tribes inhabit the same coast, and are known to Europeans under the appellation of Naloes, Biafaras, Bissagoes, Balantes, Papels, and Banyins, of whom it is unnecessary to take particular notice, as they appear to be distinguished by no peculiarity from the other Negro tribes.

Proceeding eastward in the country between the Bambouk. Senegal and the Gambia is Bambouk, a region of considerable extent. The natives were originally termed Malinkups; but, by intermingling with the Mandingoes, they have gradually so much assimilated to that people, as to lose the character of a distinct tribe. The country is mountainous, but is unwholesome and full of minerals. It abounds in mines of gold, silver, Mines of copper, tin, and iron, but is neither well suited for gold, &c, agriculture nor for pasturage. The working of the mines is regulated by the caprice or the wants of the chiefs chiefs of the different districts. The miners are indolent and unskilful: They never penetrate beyond 10 feet in depth, though the quantity of gold increases with the depth of the mine. They regard gold as a capricious and malevolent being, who delights in deluding the miners; on which account they never attempt to recover a vein when it disappears. The government of Bamouk fluctuates, like that of many of the Negro states, between monarchy and aristocracy, and the power of the king or supreme chief is extremely limited.

The frontiers of the Negro kingdoms usually consist of a wild or desert tract. Thus the kingdom of Woolli, which is on the north-west of Banbouk, is separated on its eastern boundary, by a wilderness filled with wild beasts, from the kingdom of Bondou, which lies to the north of Banbouk. Fattecondi is the capital of Bondou, at which the king resides. The king caused Major Houghton, an English traveller employed by the African Association, to be plundered; and he begged from Mr Mungo Park his blue coat, which that traveller was under the necessity of giving him, to avoid bad usage. His revenues, however, are considerable. His authority is firmly established, and his power is formidable to his neighbours. He was so well pleased with obtaining Mr Park's blue coat, adorned as it was with yellow buttons, that, on the following day he presented to him somewhat more than half an ounce of gold, exempted his baggage from examination by the tax-gatherers, and allowed him to pay a visit to the women of his seraglio. The country at large is covered with wood, and, as it is in an elevated situation, and consequently somewhat less exposed than elsewhere to the burning heat of the climate, it is abundantly fertile. The frontier town of the kingdom eastward is called Joag. It contains 2000 inhabitants, is surrounded by a high wall with holes for muskets, and is in 14° 25' N. Lat. and 9° 12' W. Long.

To the north-east of Bondou is the Mandingo kingdom of Kasson, in which this peculiar custom or superstition prevails, that no woman is allowed to eat an egg. Kounikary, the capital, lies in N. Lat. 14° 31', about 59½ geographical miles to the east of Joag. To the south-east of Kasson is the kingdom of Kaarta, which is bordered on the east by Bambara, between which and Kaarta there are very frequent wars; a circumstance which renders travelling through these and other Negro states not a little difficult. The people are industrious: The cultivation of corn is carried on to a great extent, especially in Bambara. They are Mahometans, without the intolerant fanaticism of that religion; and accordingly they are hospitable to strangers, though of a different faith. The neighbourhood of the Moors, however, renders the country unsafe; and, to guard against their incursions, the Negroes, when employed in agriculture, are under the necessity of carrying their arms to the field.

Sego, the capital of Bambara, lies in N. Lat. 14° 10', and W. Long. 2° 26'; and contains about 30,000 inhabitants. It was here that Mungo Park at last beheld the long-sought majestic river Niger glittering to the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly from west to east. The river is here called the Joliba by the natives. From the times of the Nasamonian explorers prior to the days of Herodotus, during 2300 years, no certain intelligence concerning this river had been obtained by the European nations, and its very existence had been doubted by the most intelligent writers. Mr Park is the only European traveller who since that period can boast of having reached it. Sego consists of four distinct towns; two of which are on the north and two on the southern part of the Niger. They are surrounded by high mud walls. The houses are of a square form; they are built of clay, and have flat roofs. The streets are narrow; and, as the Moors form a considerable proportion of the inhabitants, their mosques appear in every quarter. The language, however, is a dialect of the Mandingo. The authority of the Negro king of Bambara is not a little restrained here by the influence of the Moors; and, to avoid giving offence to their intolerant spirit, he was under the necessity of sending Mr Park immediately out of the city to a village in the neighbourhood. The weather was stormy, but some negro women conducted him into a hut, gave him food, and thereafter began to their accustomed labour of spinning cotton. During their work they amused themselves with a song, composed upon the occasion, which one of them sung to a plaintive air. The translation of the song is in these terms: "The wind roared and the rains fell; the poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn. Chorus. Let us pity the white man, no mother has he," &c.

The current money of this place consists of cowries, a kind of shells (cypraea moneta Lin.) which are also employed in the same way in Bengal. A man and his horse can subsist during 24 hours upon the provisions that 100 of them will purchase. The king of Bambara presented Mr Park with 5000 cowries, and desired him to leave the neighbourhood of his capital, that he might not be destroyed by the Moors. This traveller persevered in advancing eastward down the river to another town called Silla, situated in N. Lat. 14° 48', Silla, and W. Long. 1° 24', about 1900 British miles east of Cape Verd. This formed the utmost limit to which he was able to advance, and therefore remains the boundary of our certain knowledge of the countries in that direction. He learned, however, that Silla stands within 200 miles of the city of Tombuctoo, which is upon the same river, and had long been an object of search of the Portuguese, the French, and English. He was informed, that the country is very populous in that direction. He was also told, that about two days journey below Silla, where he stopped, there is a larger town than Sego, called Jenné, which stands on a small island in the Niger; and that two days journey below Jenné, the river expands into a large lake called Dibbie, from which the water issues in two large branches, insulating a fertile and swampy country called Gimbalo; and that the two great branches of the river reunite at Kabra, which is one day's journey to the south of the city of Tombuctoo, of which it is the port. The government of Tombuctoo is said to be in the hands of the Moors; and that place is the principal emporium of the Moorish commerce in Africa. Below Tombuctoo, to the eastward, in the Negro city of Houssa, the capital of a great kingdom, and possessed of extensive commerce. The Niger passes to the south of Houssa at the distance of two days journey; but Mr Park could learn nothing further concerning its course, as the traders who arrive at Tombuctoo and Houssa from the coast can say nothing more of it, than that it runs towards the rising of the sun to the end of the world. Any farther intelligence that has hitherto been obtained, concerning Soudan or Nigritia to the eastward of the route of Mr Park, is extremely uncertain, being merely the result of inquiries made by Mr Horneman among the merchants of Fezzan during his residence there. In the present imperfect state of our knowledge, however, this information is entitled to attention. He observes, that "the Houssa are certainly Negroes, but not quite black; they are the most intelligent people in the interior of Africa; they are distinguished from their neighbours by an interesting countenance; their nose is small and not flattened; and their features are not so disagreeable as those of the Negroes, and they have an extraordinary inclination for pleasure, dancing, and singing. Their character is benevolent and mild. Industry and art, and the cultivation of the natural productions of the land, prevail in their country; and in this respect they excel the Fezzanians, who get the greatest part of their clothes and household implements from the Soudanians. They can dye in this country any colours but scarlet. The culture of their land is as perfect as that of the Europeans, although the same manner of doing it is very troublesome." In short, says Mr Horneman, we have very unjust ideas of this people, not only with respect to their cultivation and natural abilities, but also of their strength and the extent of their possessions, which are by no means so inconsiderable as they have been represented. Their music is imperfect, compared to the European; but the Houssanian women have skill enough to affect their husbands thereby even to weeping, and to inflame their courage to the greatest fury against their enemies. The public singers are called Kadanka."

The same traveller informs us, that to the eastward of Houssa are situated the dominions of the sultan of Bornou. The people are blacker than the Houssanians, and completely Negroes. They are strong, patient of labour, and phlegmatic. Their food is a paste made of flour and flesh, and their liquor is an intoxicating but nourishing kind of beer. Their best natural production is copper. The low country of Wangara is said to be subject to Bornou. It is periodically overflowed by the Niger; but the course of that river farther eastward is not known. Mr Horneman was informed that it had at least a periodical communication with the longer branch of the Nile, called the Bahr Abiad or White river, which rises in the mountains Al Komeri, or mountains of the Moon, about the seventh degree of N. Lat. To the eastward of Wangara, at the distance of about six degrees of longitude, is the country of Darfoo already mentioned; beyond which lies Kordofan, another barbarous state; and still farther to the castward is the country of Abyssinia, in which the shorter branch of the Nile, the Bahr Azrac or Blue river, takes its rise, which was visited and traced to its source by our countryman Mr Bruce. That traveller considered the Bahr Azrac as the Nile, whereas in truth it is only one of its tributary streams.

The belt or stripe of territory of which we have hitherto taken notice is situated between the 10th and 17th degrees of N. Lat. To the southward of this line the interior of Africa is still unknown, as it has hitherto been visited by no European traveller. We only know that it contains various nations or tribes of Negroes, of different characters and degrees of civilization. It may be observed, however, that to the south of Tombuctoo and Houssa lies the kingdom of Gago, near a ridge of mountains which run from west to east, and give rise to many streams that flow northward into the Niger. It produces much gold, and the people are warlike. Their armies are composed of cavalry; and no warrior is permitted to take an enemy prisoner before he has obtained, by the mutilation of persons whom he has slain, an hundred bloody trophies, similar to those which, in the Jewish history, David is said to have won from the Philistines and presented to King Saul as the price of his daughter Michal (1 Samuel xviii. 25.) In Gago, when the general takes the field he spreads a buffalo's hide upon the ground; and pitching a spear at each side, he causes the soldiers to march over it till a hole be worn through the hide, when the army is understood to be sufficiently numerous. The king is absolute; but, when they are offended with his conduct, his subjects sometimes rebel and send him a present of parrots eggs, with a message, importing that "his subjects, considering that he must be fatigued with the trouble of government, are of opinion that it is time for him to indulge in a little sleep." If the rebellion appear too formidable to be resisted, his majesty takes the hint, and desires his women to strangle him; upon which he is immediately succeeded by his son.

To the south of Gago, and near to the gulf of Guinea, is the kingdom of Dahomy. The capital, called Abomey, stands in N. Lat. 9° 57'. The country is fertile and cultivated, bearing every kind of grain, as well as indigo, cotton, and sugar. The character of the people is strongly marked, and some of their customs are singular. In their wars they are bold, and even ferocious; but towards strangers they are hospitable, without any mixture of rudeness. Their king possesses absolute power in the most complete sense of the word. All children, whether male or female, are considered as his property. They are early separated from their parents, and receive a sort of public education, with a view to destroy from their minds all family connections. The king's dwelling occupies a space about a mile square. It consists of a multitude of huts formed of mud walls with bamboo roofs; and the whole is enclosed by a mud wall of 20 feet in height. The entrance of the king's apartment is paved with human skulls, and the side walls are ornamented with the jaw bones of men. On the thatched roofs numerous human skulls are ranged on wooden stakes; and he declares war by announcing that his house wants thatch. He has commonly about 3000 females immured in this dwelling; and about 500 are appropriated to each of the principal officers. When a man wants a wife he must purchase her from the king or some of these officers. He must first lay down the price, which is 20,000 cowries; and must then be contented with the wife that is allotted to him. At his succession the king proclaims that he knows nobody, and is not inclined, to make any new acquaintance; that he will administer justice rigorously and impartially, but will listen to no representations against his will; and that he will receive no presents except from his officers, who approach him with the most abject submission. His whole subjects acknowledge themselves his slaves, and admit his right to the absolute disposal of their property and persons. Their character is nevertheless active and intrepid; and they sacrifice themselves in war without hesitation, in obedience to his commands. Thus the Dahomans appear to form a sort of exception to the general mildness of the Negro character.

In addition to what has been here stated concerning the black inhabitants of the southern regions of Africa, it may be remarked, that a French traveller, Vaillant, proceeding northward from the Cape of Good Hope, has made repeated efforts to investigate the character and state of the natives in that quarter. He has extended his researches into what is called the country of the Caffres, far beyond the limits that had been reached by any other traveller, and has given us the names of various African tribes, under the appellation of Gues- siquas, Nimiquas, Koraquas, Kahobiquas, and Houzouanas. These tribes differ considerably in their features and make of body from the general Negro race, which we have already described. In their moral and intellectual character, however, they are not a little inferior: Their wants are extremely few, and are supplied by their flocks and herds without the necessity of agriculture; and their lives pass away in a routine of listless inactivity, or of simple and uninteresting occupations, the detail of which would afford little amusement or instruction.

We have already mentioned, that the European nations, during these three last centuries, have established small settlements or garrisons upon different parts of the Negro coast, chiefly for the purpose of obtaining slaves by trading with the natives. The number of people that are annually exported from that country, in consequence of this trade, by Europeans or Moors, is very great. The Europeans have frequently carried from the west coast above 100,000 slaves a year; and the caravans of Egypt and Fezzan carry off about 20,000 annually. The very great extent to which this traffic is carried on the western coast undoubtedly gives rise to many abuses among the native states in that neighbourhood, and is productive of frequent wars among them. Unfortunately, the nations of Europe have hitherto made few efforts to compensate these evils by any attempts to introduce their arts, their civilization, or their science, among the natives. Till lately, the Portuguese were the only nation that attempted the improvement of the Negroes. They did not confine themselves to garrisons or trading factories, but formed considerable colonies on the coasts. They attempted to instruct the natives in the better cultivation of their soil; and introduced their own religion among them. It is even said, that in Loango, Congo, Angola, and Benguela, they have been so sedulous in the conversion of the Negroes, that they have made them better Christians than themselves. It is worthy of notice, as a fact of some importance in natural history, that such of the descendants of the Portuguese in these climates as have adopted the manners of the Negroes, and their modes of life, are hardly to be distinguished in colour from the darkest Negroes. From the weakness of the parent state, the Portuguese settlements, in many places, are greatly decayed; and their efforts for the civilization of the natives have not been sufficiently extensive or persevering: still, however, they are said to carry on the slave-trade with more mildness and humanity than other nations. The slaves are catechised and baptized before they are shipped; which tends to diminish the terrors attending transportation. The slave-ships of the Portuguese are never crowded, and they are chiefly navigated by black mariners.

In 1779, a Swedish society formed the project of settling a European colony on the western coast of Africa, with the view of disseminating the general principles of civilization. This project was, at a later period, eagerly pressed by Charles Berns Wadstrom, a native of that country, but without success. Afterwards the Danes established a small colony with the same view, near the mouth of the river Volta, under the superintendence of Doctor Iser. In the mean time, the university of Cambridge in England, in 1785, proposed, as the subject of a prize-essay, a question concerning the lawfulness of the slavery and commerce of the human species. The prize was won by Mr J. Clarkson; and the question began to attract public notice: Vast numbers of pamphlets were written; and in a few years the whole nation interested itself in the subject, and the slave-trade became an object of popular indignation. Some legislative attempts were made towards its abolition, which were probably frustrated by the convulsive state into which Europe was plunged by the French revolution. In the mean time, as early as 1783, Doctor H. Smeathman had proposed a specific plan for the colonization of Africa. This plan was not immediately attended to; but in the year 1787, after the subject had assumed a greater degree of importance, an attempt was made to carry it into execution, by sending about four hundred blacks and sixty whites, chiefly people of abandoned characters, collected about London, to Sierra Leone. In consequence of the kind of persons chosen as colonists, this first attempt did not succeed. But in July 1791, a Sierra Leone Company was incorporated by act of parliament under the name of the Sierra Leone Company. At the termination of the American war, many black loyalists had been conveyed to Nova Scotia, which they disliked, in consequence of the sterility of the lands allotted to them, and the severity of the climate. The new Sierra Leone Company made proposals to these blacks to form a settlement upon the coast of Africa, to which they were to be conveyed at the expense of the Company. The proposal was accepted by 1200 blacks, who arrived at Sierra Leone in March 1792. After experiencing considerable difficulties, the colony began to enjoy tolerable prosperity, and received ambassadors from the neighbouring Negro states; but on the 28th September 1794 a French squadron suddenly plundered and destroyed the colonial town. This squadron had been fitted out for the purpose of disturbing the trade of the English slave-factories on the coast, and is said to have been instigated by an American slave captain, who had taken some offence at the governor, to make the attack now mentioned. The damage was repaired. The settlement has since been visited by various missionaries from different religious sects in Britain, with the view of extending the Christian religion. The colony, however, still languishes. It has been engaged in some unfortunate contests with the natives; and it has lately been found necessary to assist the Company with the public money. It seems doubtful how far it is likely ever to fulfil the purpose for which it was instituted, chiefly in consequence of the difficulty of maintaining a very steady intercourse with the country which founded it, and from the unfavourable nature of the climate to the health of the natives of Europe.

See an account of the latest discoveries in Africa, and a view of the principal questions connected with the geography of that region, under the article AFRICA in the SUPPLEMENT.

AFRICAN COMPANY. See COMPANY in this work, and AFRICAN COMPANY in the SUPPLEMENT.