On a passage of Giovanni Leoni, commonly called Leo Africanus, 

 mentioning a successful attack upon the coast of Africa, by a 

 powerful British Fleet, in the tenth century. By John Dunn, 

 Esq., M. R. I. A. 



Read April 17, 1826. 



Among the extraordinary persons who appeared at the court of 

 Leo X., was one in the character of an African, who had been 

 captured by a band of Christian corsairs, in one of their predatory 

 cruises against the infidels, and was by his captors presented to the 

 Pope, as a slave not unworthy of his acceptance, on account of his 

 literary acquirements. This stranger, being apprised of his des- 

 tination previous to his being presented, brought with him his since 

 highly valued book on the Geography of Africa, which he presented 

 to Leo. His history, as related by John Baptist Ramusio, in the 

 first volume of his Navigationi etViaggi (I cite the third edition of 

 his Navigation at Viaggi, printed by the Giunti in the year 1563), 

 is shortly this: — He was of Mauritanian descent, himself a Moor, 

 and born in Grenada, previous to the expulsion of the Moors by 

 Ferdinand and Isabella ; and was, with the rest of his countrymen, 

 banished to Africa, where he continued at liberty until his capture 

 by the corsairs. There he resided for some time at Fez, then a seat 

 of civilization and science, where he applied himself to Arabian 

 literature, and wrote several historical works in that language. His 

 African Geography was the fruit of his extensive travels through 

 that country. This he afterwards translated, from the original 



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