444 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



cessful. Leaving the Red Sea at Massoua, it 

 visited at first the country of the Bogos, and 

 its capital, Keren, situated on the confines of 

 Abyssinia and Nubia. Here the delegation sep- 

 arated, and Messrs, de Heuglin and Steudner 

 (who, as we have seen, subsequently joined 

 Madame Tinne), with Dr. Schubert, traversed 

 Abyssinia, visiting Adoa, Axum, and Gondar, 

 and finally reached Khartum by a long detour ; 

 while Messrs. Munzinger and Kinzelbach, going 

 directly to Khartum, proceeded thence to Kor- 

 dofan, and attempted to enter Darfiir, but 

 found that their lives would almost certainly 

 be sacrificed if they entered that savage region, 

 and prudently relinquished the attempt. M. 

 Munzinger returned to Massoua, and M. Kin- 

 zelbach went back to Germany. 



In Egypt, an Egyptian institute has been es- 

 tablished, which is busying itself with questions 

 of geography, history, agriculture, archaeology, 

 and medical science. It has already published 

 a large volume of transactions. The Egyptian 

 Government has commenced a topographical 

 survey of the country. Baron von Kremer, 

 Austrian consul at Cairo, has prepared a very 

 elaborate work on the Gipsies of Egypt. M. 

 Burgsch has communicated to the French 

 Geographical Society at Paris a dissertation 

 on Avaris and Tanis. 



Proceeding westward, \ve find that M. de 

 Beurmann, at the, commencement of 1863, tra- 

 versed Tripoli from Bengehazi to Audjelah, 

 intending to penetrate by that route into 

 Waday, in search of Dr. Vogel, but, finding ac- 

 cess to that kingdom, by the direct route, cut 

 off, he returned as far as Mourzouk, and thence 

 turned his course toward Bornou. His arrival 

 at Kuka, in the summer, has been ascertained. 

 M. Duveyrier, who spent the greater part of 

 the years 1861 and 1862 in southern Tunis and 

 the Country of the Tuaricks, has published a 

 very interesting monograph on the Tuaricks 

 and their country. He found a chain of moun- 

 tains (the Hoggar range) with an altitude of 

 about 6,750 feet, in a region which all maps 

 have hitherto represented as a vast plain. The 

 Tuaricks are remarkable among the natives 

 of Africa, and especially among Mohamme- 

 dan natives, for the liberty, influence, and 

 authority enjoyed by their women. In this re- 

 spect they stand in striking contrast to any 

 other people of Northern Africa. A delega- 

 tion from the Tuaricks visited France, in 1862, 

 and made a very favorable impression on the 

 nation and on the Government, by their digni- 

 ty and intelligence. An experiment has been 

 in progress for some years for the improvement 

 of the caravan route across the Sahara, by 

 means of artesian wells which should render 

 the regions around them fertile oases. Emi- 

 nent French engineers have been engaged in 

 it and it has proved successful. 



Turning to the western coast, Senegambia, 

 where the French have a colony of consider- 

 able extent, has been agitated by wars between 

 several of the native tribes. M. Braouezec, a 



French traveller who has spent some years in 

 Senegambia, and made many important discov- 

 eries there, has communicated, in 1863, to the 

 Bulletin of the French Geographical Society, 

 an account of an excursion made by him in 

 1861 into Djolof, to explore the country lying 

 between" Lake Ghier and the Gambia river. Of 

 Soudan there is little of interest to record. Dr. 

 Baiki'e*, whose exploration of the Niger has 

 been noticed in a previous volume, has com- 

 municated to the Royal Geographical Society 

 a paper on Nup6. The black Marabout, El 

 Haji Omar, who has been for years one of the 

 most bitter and bloodthirsty enemies of Euro- 

 peans in Africa, and who was defeated in his 

 repeated efforts to drive the French out of 

 Senegambia, from 1854 to 1859, has, by the 

 force of his character, attained to supreme 

 power in Western Soudan. 



Upper and Lower Guinea have been explor- 

 ed by individual travellers during the past year, 

 though by no large expedition. The British 

 Government have added the new and thriving 

 city of Abbeokuta, and the country adjacent, to 

 their African possessions, and Captain Burton, 

 the African traveller, now British consul at 

 Fernando Po, who visited it early in 1863, 

 and, in connection with Captain Bedingfield, 

 explored the river Ogun on which it is situa- 

 ted, states that it is fast becoming one of the 

 most powerful States of Upper Guinea. The Brit- 

 ish Government have also occupied "Whydah, 

 and are exercising a restraining influence upon 

 the inhuman barbarities of the King of Daho- 

 mey. MM. Guillevin and Repin, two French 

 travellers who have visited Dahomey, confirm 

 the previous accounts of his cruelties. The 

 kingdom of Yarriba, which, a few years since, 

 was an important and powerful State in the 

 Niger, had been entirely broken in pieces, and 

 considerable portions of it are now absorbed in 

 Abbeokuta. The region of the Gaboon and 

 the mountainous region about its headwaters, 

 where M. du Chaillu hunted the gorillas, 

 have been objects of special attention the past 

 year. MM. Braouezec and Touchard, French 

 naval officers, have ascended and surveyed the 

 river, and testify to the cannibalism of the 

 Fans (pronounced Fongs) and other tribes of 

 that region ; Captain Burton has spent some 

 time with this tribe, and contributed an inter- 

 esting paper on their habits, customs, etc., to 

 the Anthropological Review ; and, on another 

 occasion, ascended the Cameroons mountain, 

 a volcano near the Gulf of Biafra, which he re- 

 gards as the Qtuv Oxq/za of the ancient geog- 

 raphers. 



MM. du Bellay and Sreval, two French naval 

 officers, explored in the summer of 1862 the 

 river Ogo-Wai, which discharges its waters 

 into the Bight of Biafra. It is a mile and t, 

 half wide for a distance of about 180 miles, and 

 is formed by the junction of two large rivers, 

 the Okanda and N'Gounyai, the latter flowing 

 from the S. E., and the former believed to 

 have its source in Lake Tchad. The country 



