Miscellaneous Intelligence. 205 



Courage: burning- deserts, inaccessible mountains, forests infested by wild 

 bea-sts, barbarous languages, savage population, destructive climates— all 

 have failed in damping the spirit of the successors of those noble victims of 

 science, Lenoir du Roule, Ledyard, Browne, Hornemann, Houghton, Mun- 

 go Park, Tuckey, Peddie, Campbell, Burckhardt, Ritchie, Rouzee, Roent- 

 gen, Belzoni, Bowdich, and several others, and lastly, the young Tool and 

 the unfortunate Dr. Oudney, who have sunk under their fatigues in the 

 course of this year* It would be well, at least, before any new efforts be 

 tried, to pause for a moment, to profit by experience, and to proportion the 

 means to the difficulties : for the enterprising spirit of civilized Europe will 

 never be satisfied until the veil which conceals these remote countries from 

 her view be entirely removed, until the immense and unknown tribes which 

 inhabit tbem are enabled to participate in the advantages of her enlighten- 

 ed genius, and in the goods and evils of her civilization. 



In order to draw an exact sketch of the progress and the present state of 

 the discoveries in Africa, we shall iu the first place remove from our con- 

 sideration all those parts which form the skirts of that continent, as they 

 are tolerably well known, even to a very considerable distance into the in- 

 terior, particularly on the north-east and on the north. In the second place, 

 we shall pay little attention to the recitals of the Arabs, and to the relations 

 of the natives: our sole object is to ascertain the traces left by the feet of 

 Europeans, determined by perfect instruments, and enlightened by the 

 torch of science. If we extend our researches beyond the narrow border 

 which we have mentioned, our knowledge is confined to a few isolated lines 

 and detached points scattered over an immense surface. Egypt, it is true, 

 and even Abyssinia and Nubia, have been explored in a manner sufficiently 

 complete to satisfy the demands of curiosity, and in part those of science: 

 on this side, the border known to us is of greater extent than in any other 

 part, particularly since the entire of the Oasis and the interval that lay be- 

 tween the line of country visited by Brown, and the banks of the Blue Nile, 

 have been explored by M. Frederic Cailliaud. Thus, on the north side, 

 from the 10th parallel of latitude, and from the 25th to the 40th degree of 

 west longitude, we possess exact notions of the geography of Africa ; but 

 what a space still remains unknown between Dar-four and the course of the 

 White Nile, to the east as well as to the south; and in how great uncertain- 

 ty are we placed as to that course itself, an object of so much importance 

 to physical geography, without mentioning either the interior of the island 

 of Meroe, or the complete description of the Alps of Abyssinia, or even the 

 western shores of the Arabic Gulf. If the above-mentioned region of Inte- 

 rior Africa is the least imperfectly known, we are indebted for it to the 

 united efforts of the English, the French, and the Portuguese travellers, 

 Bruce, Salt, Poncet, Benevento, Burckhardt, and their predecessors, fathers 

 Lobo, Paez, Tellez, &c. 



The English nation has the glory of having made attempts upon every 

 point ; repulsed on one side, it has directed its efforts to another, and, since 

 the year 1792, it has never allowed three successive years to elapse without 

 returning into the career of discovery. From the Nile the British Travel- 

 lers passed to the Gambia, from the Gambia to the Gariep, from the Gariep 

 to the Zair, and from the Zair to the Niger. Failing in their expedition on 

 the side of the Congo, they turn to the part of the continent washed by the 

 Mediterranean : they conceive the idea, and never desist until they have 

 executed it, of traversing Africa in a right line from north to south • and, 

 in the present day, Africa (to use a familiar form of expression) after having 

 been for a long time hemmed in by travellers, has at length been pierced 

 through the very centre. 



Holland, during her peaceable possession for a great number of years of 

 the southern extremity of Africa, had scarcely caused the courses of the 

 principal rivers to be ascertained.-^ Since the end of the eighteenth century, 



. the list we may now add, Lieut.-Col. Denham, Capt. Clapperton 

 and Messrs. Cowie & Green.— Eds. ' 



f We cannot pass over this observation of evidently a most fair, liberal 

 and candid writer, without regretting that he should not have had the 

 means of ascertaining fully what the Dutch had done towards exploring the 

 South of Afi ica. From the manuscript diaries of journies made into the 

 interior at early periods, with which we are acquainted, and which >ve hope 



