a name which, as vaguely applied by the ancients, comprehended all Africa south of Egypt, and of the mountain range of Atlas, including Nubia and Abyssinia, but which is, in its more restricted and proper signification, applied to the country which was bounded on the north by Egypt, on the west by Libya Interior, on the east by the Red Sea, and on the south by a part of Africa unknown to the ancients. (See articles Abyssinia and Africa.) Although this vast tract of country must at different times have varied in extent, particularly on the side of Libya Interior, where it had no definite or ascertained boundary, yet it seems for many ages to have comprehended the kingdoms of Dongola, Sennar, and Abyssinia, with part of Adel or Zeila, to have extended seventeen degrees in longitude, and to have reached from the tropic of Cancer to within six degrees of the equator. In a still more limited sense, the term Ethiopia was applied to the island of Meroë, included between the main branch of the Nile and the Astaboras or Tacazze, the capital of which was also called Meroë; and it seems to have formed no part of the country which is now denominated Abyssinia. This region, which conquered Egypt, and which Cambyses, after having subdued that country, vainly sought to conquer, was long involved in mystery; and there is no record of its having ever been reached by any land expedition. Neither Petronius when sent by Augustus against Queen Candace, nor Probus in his expeditions against the Blemmyes, penetrated as far as Meroë; and, in fact, it is only in recent times that the dark cloud under which it was so long hid has been dispelled by the hardy enterprises of Burckhardt and Caillaud, particularly the latter. (See article Abyssinia, and Hecren's Historical Researches.) To Ethiopia proper the ancients gave various other names, an enumeration of which will be found in the seventh volume of the Universal History, part second, London, 1744, folio.