117 



AFRICA. 



AFRICA. 



113 



to Mombaz on a bearing of about S.E. The information collected 

 respecting the Nyassi line indicates many powerful kingdoms, densely 

 peopled, intersected by numerous rivers, very fertile, and abounding 

 in forests. * * * * From a small map which I have constructed 

 for the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, the extent of 

 their explorations and discoveries may be seen at a glance. The 

 routes already performed amount, at a rough estimate, to 3700 

 geographical miles, and the itineraries sent home by Dr. Barth 

 form a network which covers the greater portion of Northern Africa. 

 Nor would it be right to measure their investigations by mere distances ; 

 for it must be borne in mind that up to this time except within the 

 countries in the vicinity of the sea-shore the entire continent of 

 Africa between Tripoli and the Cape Colony, and between the basin 

 of the Nile and the lower course of the Kawara, does not present a 

 single point, the position of which had been determined with any 

 degree of accuracy. [To this, however, the astronomical observations 

 of Mr. Gallon, in South Africa, form an exception.] Our maps of the 

 moon are, in fact, more correct and complete than those of the ulterior 

 of Africa. The positions of Lyon, Denham, and Clapperton are 

 merely approximations to the truth, particularly their determinations 

 of longitudes. With respect to the astronomical observations, Barth 

 and Overweg were well supplied with instruments, and were practically 

 instructed by Professor Encke, of the Royal Observatory at Berlin, in 

 their use. Dr. Overweg [who died in September, 1852], was also the 

 first geologist who visited those regions. Within only three or four 

 n after their arrival at Kuka, the travellers had already 

 successfully navigated Lake Tchad, and penetrated 350 miles to the 

 south; while Denham, during his stay of 17 months at that place, 

 failed in accomplishing either of these desiderata." 



In January, 1853, accounts were received by the Royal Geographical 

 Society of London, which were subsequently confirmed in April, of 

 the successful issue of a commercial journey across the continent of 

 Africa by a Moorish caravan, trading for ivory and slaves. It had 

 started from Zanzibar on the east coast (5 S. lat., 39 E. long.), and 

 had reached Benguela on the west coast (12 8. lat., 15" E. long.). 

 The journey occupied six months ; a day and a night were occupied 

 in crossing the great lake of Tanganna, also called Nyassi, Zewa, and 

 Maravi. In one part of the journey no inhabitants were seen for 

 fifteen days. This affords a confirmation of Dr. Earth's conjecture as 

 to the practicability of the route, but not so as to the density of the 

 ition. 



With no region of tho world have we been till very lately so ill- 

 acquainted as Africa. But now the light is dawning quickly upon us 

 from all sides. Whilst our knowledge respecting the central parts of 

 the continent has been but slowly advanced, indeed in some parts 

 we may say scarcely increased since Ptolemaeus, ?'. e. within the last 

 170 human generations, this unknown region ia now being explored 

 by determined and well-fitted travellers ; and at no previous period 

 in the history of African inland discovery could expectations of an 

 enlarged knowledge of its unknown interior have been more justified 

 than at the present. 



III. The extent of the African coast, and the portions surveyed by 

 each navigator, will be seen from the following tabular view : 



MUCH. 

 From El Arl.b, 3S 55' E. ^ m haj ^ no ^^ of ^ 



I?"' f th ** c "p tain auti ' r f th 



fSt r 7 m r, ly sai !h d alon f and dctcr - 



8 J mmcd a few points on the coast. 



} Surveyed by Cap, W.H. Smyth, K.N. 



) Partly surveyed by Cpt. W. H. Smyth, 

 and the coast of Algiers by the French. 



( This part of the coast is but imperfectly 

 known. The English and Spaniards hare 

 occasionally surveyed detached portions of it. 

 Cape Bojador to Cape Blanco was sur- 

 veyed by Capt. Ealdy, B.N. ; and from 

 Cape Blanco to Cape Mirik, the outer edge 

 of the Dank of Arguin only, was surveyed 

 by Baron UouMJn ; the line of coast not 

 being visible. 



"ejed by Baron Rou.,in of the French 



By Captain Boteler. 

 By Capt. Belcher, B.N. 



_ _ 



By Capt. W. F. W. Owen. 



By Mr. Anthony do Mayne, Master, B.N. 



Tf La 



to Alexandria 



3 j 8 



From the Frattlli Rocks to 

 Cape Spartcl . . . 



Cape Spartcl to Cape Bojador 





Cape Mlrlk to Cape Vcrdc . 



Capo Verde to Cape Roxo . 



Cape Boxo to Tumbn Point . 



Tumba Pohlt to the south 



id. of Ubtrboro Island . 



From the Cape Formota to 

 the Cape of Good Hope . 



From the Cape of Good Hope 

 to Cape Guardafui . . 



Cape OuardcCai to Ras Bir . 



Has Bir to Salaka . . 



Salaka to Sac* . . . 



toio 



By Capt. W. F. \V. Owen, K.N. 



COO J By the East India Company's Marine. 



' ''" } 



16,048 



The Hydrographer of the Admiralty, in a parliamentary paper of 

 1848, thus sums up the surveys of the coasts of Africa; the coasts 

 of Egypt, and as much of the northern shore of Africa as would meet 

 the French survey in Barbary, are yet to be surveyed : " From the 

 Strait of Gibraltar the western coast of Africa has been sufficiently 

 surveyed and published, as far as Oape Formosa in the Bight of Benin ; 

 but as there is much legitimate traffic in the eastern part of that great 

 bight, as well as farther to the southward, both it and many of the 

 ports and anchorages on this side of the Cape of Good Hope, require 

 a more careful and connected examination. The charts of the whole 

 of the Cape Colony are exceedingly defective, as the numerous wrecks 

 there amply testify, and from thence to the Portuguese settlements 

 of Delagoa we know scarcely anything. From Delagoa to the Red 

 Sea, and the whole contour of Madagascar, are sufficiently represeuted 

 on our charts for the general purposes of navigation, though many 

 further researches along the former coast might still be profitably 

 made." 



IV. Africa is an enormous peninsula attached to the Asiatic mass 

 by the Isthmus of Suez ; but at two other points, the Strait of Bab- 

 el-Mandeb and that of Gibraltar, it approaches close to the respective 

 continents of Asia and Europe.. The equator cuts it into two masses 

 of unequal magnitude ; though the extreme southern and northern 

 coasts are, on an average, pretty nearly removed the same distance 

 from the equinoctial line. The latitude of Ras-el-Krun, near Bizerta, 

 is 37 20' N., and that of Cape das Agulhas (Cape Needles), the most 

 southern part of the continent, is about 34 60' S. The distance 

 between these two points is about 5000 miles. The most remarkable 

 projection of the African coast is that which terminates in the bold 

 headland, called by the Portuguese Cape Guardafui (Jerdaffoon), 

 11" 50' N. lat., 61 22' E. long. ; this is the most eastern point of 

 Africa. Its extreme western point is Cape Verde, 14 45' N. lat., 

 17 82' W. long. ; the distance between these two capes, in a direct 

 line, is not much less than 5000 miles. 



The geographical position and coast-line of Africa are characterised 

 by lying for the most part within the tropics, and by the comparatively 

 few deep indentations of the coast. Its northern shores are washed 

 by the Mediterranean, and are the most irregular part of the African 

 coast, presenting the indentations of the Arabs Gulf, the large Gulf 

 of Sidra, and that of Cubes. Many parts of this shore, especially 

 about the Sidra Gulf, are low, but neither so sandy nor barren as 

 some writers represent them ; while the Cyrenaic regions, and a large 

 part of the coast west of the Sidra, as far as the strait, is considerably 

 elevated, and, perhaps, with the regions of Marocco, form the most 

 favourable part of the whole African coast for the habitation of man. 

 Only one river of any considerable magnitude, the Nile, flows from 

 the African continent into the Mediterranean, but this is one of the 

 most singular streams in the world, whose course the traveller may 

 follow from the coast into the interior for above 1200 miles, without 

 meeting with one single current that adds its waters to those of this 

 mysterious river. The streams of tho Atlaa regions that enter the 

 Atlantic, though numerous, are inconsiderable as to the volume of 

 water : the chief are the Mejerdah, the ancient Mngradas or Bagradas, 

 which flows into the sea near Tunis, and is subject to periodical 

 inundations in the lower part of its course ; and the perhaps larger 

 river Molooyah, which belongs to the empire of Marocco. The Atlantic 

 washes the western coast of Africa, which, within the dominions of 

 Marocco, presents a coast generally low, succeeded in the interior by 

 fertile plains of immense extent. Numerous streams, some with a 

 considerable length of course, suchs the Wad Seboo, Oom er Begh, 

 &c., flow from the Atlas into the Atlantic Ocean within the limits of 

 the empire of Marocco. South of this region the arid character of 

 the Sahara is found extending even to the shores of the ocean, and 

 hardly disappearing before we arrive at the Senegal. From the Senegal 

 to the Cape of Good Hope the coast is now pretty well known, but the 

 same minuteness of survey and of observation has not been applied 

 to all parts of it. The great characteristic in its outline is the Gulf 

 of Guinea, the northern shores of which have a general direction east 

 and west through 20 degrees of longitude. With the numerous rivers 

 that flow into the Atlantic between the Senegal and Cape Negro (16 S. 

 lat.), we are still imperfectly acquainted ; and the numerous openings 

 that are observed on many parts of this coast indicate outlets of rivers, 

 or channels formed by islands, which yet remain to be explored. The 

 Senegal, Gambia, and Rio Grande, are the three largest rivers north 

 of Sierra Leone, though the precise nature of the lower channels of 

 the last-mentioned is not yet ascertained. Captain Belcher suspects 

 the existence of an archipelago of islands between the Rio Grande 

 and the Nunez. The expedition of the Landers determined the long 

 doubtful question of the outlet of the Quorra in the Bight of Benin ; 

 and the river Nun is now ascertained to be one of the several channels 

 by which the Quorra-discharges its waters into the Atlantic. 



The great African river south of the equator is the Zaire or Congo, 

 which is found, on ascending its stream, to show a less volume of 

 water than would be inferred from its appearance at the mouth ; but 

 this is the case with other large African rivers, and leads to no safe 

 conclusion as to its course being comparatively short. Between the 

 Congo and Cape Negro there are numerous streams, such as the great 

 Coanza, and others which are of minor importance when compared 

 with the Congo and Coanza, which appear to be tho great rivers of 



