limits oblige us to refer to the work itself.

Such of our readers as wish to know how much of the interior of Africa was comprehended within the limits of ancient geography, will find the subject very ably discussed by Mr Murray in his second volume, where he gives a historical view of the different geographical systems which have been formed relating to that mysterious continent. In this introductory chapter, his plan is rather to mark the steps by which discovery had advanced. He adverts, accordingly, to the celebrated journey of the five Nasamonian youths, who, setting out from a district of Northern Africa, which forms part of the modern Tripoli, penetrated many days' journey westward into the great desert, when they were surprised and seized by a body of men, black, and small in stature, and carried through extensive lakes or marshes to a city inhabited by people of a similar appearance. This city was traversed by a great river flowing from west to east, which Major Rennell supposes to have been the Niger. The frantic and disastrous expeditions of Cambyses to the south and west of Egypt, and the scarcely less disastrous march of Alexander to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, seem to have been the only attempts made for several ages to penetrate these terrific regions. The extensive knowledge of the geographers of the first and second centuries, proves that the spirit of inquiry had, during that long interval, been actively directed to that quarter; but of the progressive steps which led to that knowledge, no satisfactory record is now to be found.

On the rise of the Mahometan power, the Arabians, among whom science, banished from every other region, had found her only asylum, were impelled at once, by their migratory disposition, their spirit of commercial enterprise, and their zeal in pursuit of geographical information, to penetrate into the unknown countries of interior Africa. The habits acquired in their native deserts rendered the dangers of the Sahara less appalling to the Arabians than to other adventurers; while the camel, formed by nature for traversing such dreary tracts, enabled them not merely to effect a single journey of discovery, but to establish a regular and constant communication between the

countries separated by that wide and dismal barrier. Their first route was probably the same that is still followed by the Cassina caravan from Fezzan to Agades, where the immense breadth of the desert is broken by these large oases, and by others of smaller magnitude. The beauty and fertility of the regions which they found on the southern borders of the Sahara, were greatly heightened, of course, to their imagination, by the desolation of the tract through which they approached them; and their favourable report of these countries, and particularly the gold with which they described them as abounding, soon attracted many other adventurers. During the convulsions which afterwards shook the caliphate, thousands of its subjects sought refuge in these concealed and delightful regions; and before the close of the eleventh century, the banks of the Niger were covered with Mahometan kingdoms. Of these by far the most splendid was Ghana, situated on the eastern part of the Niger, which the Arabian writers called the Nile of the Negroes. To this kingdom was subject Wangara, or the Land of Gold, a kind of island formed by branches of the Niger, by which, during the rainy season, it is almost completely inundated. When the inundation subsides, the inhabitants are said to rush out, and eagerly to dig up the earth, in every part of which they find a greater or less quantity of gold. This gold they give in exchange for various commodities to the merchants who arrive, immediately after, from every part of Africa.

The celebrated description of Africa by Leo Africanus, forms the link between the narrative of Arabian geographers and the discoveries of modern travellers.

We are particularly indebted to Mr Murray for the entertaining detail with which he has favoured us of the exertions made by the Portuguese to penetrate into the interior of Africa, with the view of discovering the empire of Prester John. This detail may be considered as almost entirely new to the English reader; for though something was known of the progress of these enterprising adventurers, the account of their transactions had been either "locked up in the writings of the Portuguese authors, or had been

reported elsewhere in a very mutilated and imperfect state." We shall transcribe, in Mr Murray's own words, the account which he has given of the whimsical object which the Portuguese kept in view in all these attempts to explore the interior.

"The encouragement afforded by the royal family, and the general excitement throughout the nation, gave a sufficient impulse to the career into which the Portuguese nation had entered. Yet, into the most splendid of human enterprises, there usually enters some odd and capricious mixture. The glory of the Portuguese name, the discovery of new worlds, even the opening of the sources of golden wealth, were all considered as subordinate to the higher aim of discovering the abode of a person, who was known in Europe under the uncouth appellation of Prester John. The origin of this mysterious name, which formed the guiding star to the Portuguese in their career of discovery, is somewhat difficult to trace. It attached itself originally to the centre of Asia, where it was reported by the early travellers, particularly by Rubruquis, that a Christian monarch of that name actually resided. The report probably arose from a confused rumour of the Grand Lama, or Priest Sovereign of Thibet. The search, accordingly, in that direction, proved altogether fruitless. At length it was rumoured very confidently, that on the eastern coast of Africa there did exist a Christian sovereign, whose dominions stretched far into the interior. Thence forth it appeared no longer doubtful, that this was the real Prester John, and that the search had hitherto been made in a wrong direction. The maps of Ptolemy, then the sole guide of geographical inquirers, were spread out; and on viewing in them the general aspect of the continent, it was inferred, incorrectly indeed, yet not unplausibly, that an empire which stretched so far inward from the eastern coast, must approximate to the western; and that by penetrating deep on that side, they could scarcely fail at length to reach its frontier. For this reason, whenever an expedition was sent out to any part of the coast, the first instruction given, was to inquire diligently, if the inhabitants knew any thing of the monarch in question. Every opportunity was also to be embraced of penetrating into the interior; and on hearing the name of any sovereign, an embassy was to be sent to ascertain, if he either was Prester John, or could throw any light as to where that personage might be found."

In search of this imaginary monarch, the Portuguese advanced a considerable way inward from the western coast, and formed considerable settlements

along the borders of the Senegal and Gambia. Even in the language of Bambouk, the French found a mixture of Portuguese words, and were informed by the natives that their country had once been invaded and conquered by Portugal. It was owing their missionaries, and their ill-judgentirely to the mad bigotry of some of ed interference in the public concerns of some of the native states, that they were prevented from penetrating still farther eastward, and forming, as they advanced, more permanent settlements. The simple negroes seldom shewed any aversion to adopt the name of Christians, and as a certain portion of salt, there a highly prized commodity, was administered at baptism, they submitted very willingly to that sacred rite. They could not always be so easily convinced, however, of the necessity of relinquishing all their former superstitions; and the arguments of the Portuguese divines were generally more overpowering than persuasive. The following specimen of the mode of conversion which they occasionally practised may serve to account for the ultimate failure of their missions:

"Meeting with one of the queens," (in the rocky district of Maopongo,) "who with a numerous train was giving the air to an idol, and singing its praise, the missionary stopped her, and began a long discourse to shew the vanity of this worship. Seeing, however, that his arguments were of no avail, he determined to employ a sharper instrument, the whip. Such was the awe of the missionaries, that not one of the attendants attempted to defend their mistress in this extremity. The father, therefore, immediately directed his two attendants to begin the work of flagellation. In proportion as the blows descended on the sacred person of her majesty, her understanding, it is said, was gradually opened; so that, when a due number had been applied, she declared herself wholly unable to withstand such sensible proofs of the excellence of their doctrine. The fair convert, however, this mode of delivering her from the errors is not said to have expressed gratitude for of paganism; nor would it appear as if she reported the occurrence very favourably to the king. That monarch shewed, ever after, the most marked coldness to the missionaries, and was evidently deterred only by the dread of the Portuguese power from banishing them instantly out of his dominions."

The details of this chapter are in no small degree interesting, and exhi

bit an apparently faithful account of the manners and condition of states, not only in the course of the great rivers in the west of Africa, but of the Congo and other streams in Lower Guinea, which no other Europeans have had an opportunity of visiting.

It was not till the reign of Lewis XIV. that the French began to direct their views towards Africa. Under the auspices of that monarch, an association was established, under the title of the West India Company, with the exclusive privilege of trading to Africa, and the West Indian colonies. The visionary schemes of that company soon terminated in ruin; and it was followed by several others equally sanguine and equally unsuccessful. Their agents, however, had the glory of penetrating farther into Africa, and of obtaining more information respecting the most interesting portion of its interior, than any European nation, prior to the spirited exertions of the African Association. Of these adventurers, the most celebrated were Jannequin, who was the first Frenchman who penetrated into the interior of Africa, and who ascended seventy leagues up the Senegal; and De Brue, who, in repeated excursions, reached the falls of Felû, and procured much valuable knowledge respecting the soil, climate, and productions of these formerly unknown countries, and the manners, customs, and condition of the natives. In this career of discovery he was followed by Compagnon, who first entered Bambouk, and succeeded in carrying off some specimens of its golden earth. This kingdom, SO attractive from its gold, to the cupidity of European merchants, was afterwards visited by Messieurs Le vons, Pelays, and Legrand, and by M. David, who surveyed some of its most interesting districts. Some years after, (1749-50,) the banks of the Senegal were visited by Adanson, the celebrated naturalist, whose narrative is rendered extremely interesting by the variety of curious information which he collected. The last Frenchman who ventured in this hazardous tract was Saugnier, who, viewing every thing through the medium of discontent, has given a distorted representation of the country and its inhabitants, with whom his ill humour in volved him in perpetual quarrels.

The exploratory adventures of the English in this quarter, previous to the establishment of the African Association, were neither numerous nor very important. So early as the year 1588, a patent was granted by Queen Elizabeth to certain rich merchants, to carry on the trade of the Senegal and Gambia. In 1618, a company was formed for the purpose of penetrating to the country of gold, and to Tombuctoo. Thompson, a Barbary merchant, was the first emissary of this company. He advanced as far as Tenda, far beyond the former limits of European discovery; but unfortunately fell a victim to the resentment of the natives, with whom he is said to have quarrelled. Jobson, who followed him in the same career, penetrated with much toil and difficulty beyond the falls of Baraconda, to Tenda, which was ceded to him in perpetual right for a few bottles of brandy. He did not long retain, however, his new possession, but took an early opportunity of sailing down the Gambia and returning to Europe. This tract was again pursued in the years 1723-4, by Captain Stibbs, who reached the same spot which had arrested the progress of Jobson. telligence was some time after obtained about the interior of Africa, through a very remarkable channel. A young prince, named Job, had been sent by his father, the king of Bunda, to carry on some traffic on the Gambia, with strict injunctions not to cross the river, the opposite bank of which was occupied by the Mandingoes, the deadly enemies of Foota. Curiosity, however, impelled the young prince to transgress the boundary prescribed to him. The evil, of which he had been forewarned, overtook him. He was seized by the Mandingoes, and brought to Joar, where he was sold to an English captain, who was then taking in slaves for America. The miseries which he experienced in his state of servitude in Maryland, to which he had been conveyed, made him resolve to attempt an escape. He had fled across the woods to the county of Kent, in Delaware, where he was apprehended by virtue of the act against fugitive negroes. His situation attracted attention. An old Jaloff, who understood his language, having met him accidentally, explained his whole history; and he was ransomed and

In

brought to England with the view of restoring him to his native country. Such was the ardour of this young chieftain's curiosity, that he regarded as fortunate that captivity which had been the means of bringing him to England, where he had an opportunity of acquiring many branches of knowledge, of which he must otherwise have remained ignorant. For the information which he communicated concerning Bunda, apparently the Bondou of Park, we must refer our readers to Mr Murray's work. The last Englishman who explored this part of Africa about that period was Moore, whose long residence in that country, and intimate acquaintance with the natives, render his narrative more important than that of any other traveller before the time of Park.

The four next chapters, containing an account of travels in the Sahara, of the African Association, of Mr Park's first journey, and of Mr Browne's journey, are taken from Leyden's original work; and, as they have been long known to the public, we forbear to say any thing of them at present. For a similar reason, we must pass over the account of Mr Hornemann's travels. Of Nicholls and Roentgen, we can only say, that they fell almost immediate victims to their generous wish to promote the object of the Association. It is with feelings of no ordinary regret that wenumber among these victims the intrepid and illustrious Park, whom science will ever regret as one of the most magnanimous and deserving of her martyrs.

The narrative of Adams, an American sailor, who had been several years captive in the heart of Africa, and had lived six months in Tombuctoo, has considerably lowered our ideas of the magnificence of that city. Mr Murray is inclined to give credit, likewise, to the narrative of Riley; but to us, we own, the circumstances in which that narrative has been presented to the public, appear extremely suspicious. We do not mean to attach any blame to the respectable gentlemen who have borne testimony to Riley's veracity; but every one knows how easily the unsuspecting candour of a gentleman may be imposed upon by the seeming honesty of

an adventurer, and with what reluctance any good-natured man, when appealed to for the character of one whom he has had no reason to dislike, would be induced to return an unfavourable answer. We regard this very appeal as not the least suspicious circumstance with which the narrative is attended; and a person so fond of the marvellous as Mr Riley shews himself throughout his work, violently shakes our confidence in his good faith.

Within these few days, accounts have been received of the ultimate failure of the last expedition to this fatal continent. It seems now quite ascertained, that no expeditions on so small a scale can ever hope to succeed; and it is even questionable whether the object in view can warrant the waste of so many lives as must still be lost in the pursuit, while Europeans are the adventurers. Might not some of the negroes, who abound in Britain, be educated for the express purpose of becoming the missionaries of the Association? Their appearance would protect them from the barbarous jealousy of their countrymen, while their constitution would be adapted to all the horrors of the climate.

In the account of Abyssinia, with which the second volume commences, Mr Murray adverts to the journeys of Lord Valentia and Mr Salt, which confirm, in every thing essential, the narrative of Bruce. The description of Egypt, from the pen of Dr Leyden, is distinguished by his characteristic strength of judgment and animation of style. For the rest of the volume (except the account of the western coast by Leyden, and the excellent view of the natural History of Africa by Professor Jameson) we are indebted to Mr Murray.-The great length to which this article has already extended, prevents us from entering into any further detail of its contents; but we cannot conclude without expressing, in the most decided terms, our very high opinion of the industry, judgment, and the candour, with which he has executed his very laborious task; and which entitle his work to be classed with the most valuable of our geographical documents.