APR ANIUS AFRICA. 



covered his throne in 1814, he persecuted with equal 

 cruelty, the liberates, or adherents of the cortes, who 

 had wrought the downfall of the French system, and 

 the Josefinos. A gazette of Madrid, the Atalaya. 

 (Sentinel), demanded their destruction in the follow- 

 ing terms : " Is it possible, sire, tliatthe liberates and 

 Josefinos still exist among us? Why have not a 

 hundred scaffolds, a hundred pyres, been erected in 

 every city and in every village of Spain, to do justice 

 on the wretches?" May 30, 1814, a decree was is- 

 sued, prohibiting the return of all emigrant Afran- 

 cesados, more especially those who had received 

 from the invading government, any ratification of 

 their former offices, or any new appointment, title, 

 rank, order, &c. In the same decree were included 

 all generals and officers who had fought under the 

 banners of Napoleon or Joseph, and aU females who 

 had accompanied their husbands in their emigra- 

 tion. The number of emigrant liberates who lived in 

 France was estimated at l6',000 ; among whom were 

 many distinguished literary characters, and excellent 

 civil and military officers. They published, in Lon- 

 don, a journal (El Espanol Constitutional), in which 

 they laboured to convince their countrymen, that the 

 only remedy for the misfortunes of Spain was the 

 adoption of a liberal constitution. All others were 

 allowed to return, but were compelled to live 50 

 miles from the capital, under the supervision of the 

 police. The decree of amnesty, published Sept. 29, 

 1816 (suspended again in 1817), was so constructed, 

 that it did not ameliorate the condition of the ban- 

 ished Josefinos. Even the soldiers and officers, re- 

 turning home after Napoleon's fall, from their capti- 

 vity in France, were remanded to the frontier, 

 through fear that they might have imbibed liberal or 

 revolutionary principles in France. The continual at- 

 tempts at rebellion in Spain were, at the same time, 

 the consequence and the cause of the continuance of 

 these severe regulations. When Ferdinand VII. 

 accepted the constitution of the cortes, he proclaim- 

 ed a general amnesty, March 8, 1820, and after- 

 wards allowed all Josefinos to reside in any part of 

 Spain, Madrid excepted. The cortes, Sept. 21, 

 1820, determined that they should be restored to the 

 enjoyment of their rights and possession of their pro- 

 perty, but not to their dignities, offices, and pensions. 

 They proceeded on the principle, tliat most of them 

 had been brought by accidental circumstances under 

 the power ot the " usurper " (intruso), but Jiad, 

 nevertheless, with honest intentions, prepared, in 

 Hayonne, reforms beneficial to their country, and had 

 exerted themselves with spirit to promote its wel- 

 fare ; and that afterwards, becoming involved in in- 

 extricable difficulties, they had remained faithful to 

 f heir oath, king Joseph, and the constitution. The 

 Afrancesados have always shown great moderation, 

 ajul are, for this reason, even now, liated by the ab- 

 solutists. See Mexico. 



AFRANIUS, Lucius, a Roman comic poet, flourished 

 in the first half of the 2d century B. C. He was 

 pre-eminently the creator of the Roman national 

 drama, or \\wfabula togata; and his delineations of 

 the life and manners of his countrymen comprehend- 

 < (1 even the lowest classes, whence arose the/abula 

 tabernaria. From the Greeks he borrowed only the 

 outward form of their comedy, and adapted it to the 

 Roman manners, which gave rise to the saying, that 

 the toga of A. perfectly fitted Menander. His coarse 

 expressions, and licentiousness have been censured 

 l>y some critics, but his wit and vivacity are acknow- 

 ledged by all. He wrote much, but of his many 

 pieces only a few fragments remain. 



AFRICA, one of the five divisions of the globe, 

 mentioned in history thousands of years ago, is still 

 to us what it was to the ancients the land of mys- 



tery. Only a small extent of sea separates Afri.-a 

 from Europe ; its coasts lie in sight of the most ci- 

 vilized countries ; and yet we know nothing more 

 than its outlines: into the interior the foot of a 

 European has lately, for the first time, penetrated. 

 Under the same name which it now beirs, the valley 

 of the Nile was, in the earliest ages of history, the 

 cradle of commerce, the arts and sciences. But 

 even in the period of Egypt's greatest prosperity, 

 deep night seems to have enveloped the surrounding 

 countries, which were called Negroland. Subse- 

 quently, the Greeks (see the very minute accounts 

 of Herodotus) and Romans became better acquainted 

 with the Mediterranean coast of Africa, and pene- 

 trated into the interior perhaps as far as the river 

 Joliba ; but their knowledge never reached beyond 

 the confines of Numidia, and they were totally igno- 

 rant of the southern part of A. How vague was the 

 conception which Ptolemy himself formed of this 

 portion of the earth, though it appeared to him a 

 large peninsula ! Its outlines were not determined 

 till the 15th century. Henry, the navigator, sailed 

 round the formidable cape Non (non plus ultra), 

 Diaz and Vasco de Gama discovered the cape of 

 Good Hope, and both the western and eastern coasts 

 were examined by European navigators. Africa is 

 a vast peninsula, forming a triangle, with its vertex 

 towards the south, containing 12,250,000 (according 

 to Gniberg, 11,031,400) square miles; situated be- 

 tween 18 W. and 51 E. Ion., and from 34 S. to 

 37 30* N. lat. ; bounded on the north by the Medi- 

 terranean, on the east by Asia, the Red sea, and In- 

 dian ocean, and on the south and west by the South- 

 ern and Atlantic oceans. It has a great breadth, 

 from east to west. The northern portion is much 

 larger than the southern ; the greatest breadth, 

 from west to east, from cape Negro to cape Guarda- 

 fui, is 69 r . Under the equator, the breadth is 4500 

 geographical miles. The internal structure of Africa 

 is marked by many peculiarities. It possesses im- 

 mense chains of mountains, extending, perhaps, from 

 the cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, in 

 many parallel ranges. Such are the Atlas moun- 

 tains, the mountains of the Moon, of Kong, and Lu- 

 pata ; those of the Cape, 5000 feet high, and covered 

 with continual snows ; but, on the whole, it is more 

 level than any other quarter of the globe. In none 

 other do we find such boundless deserts; and the 

 Cobi, in the centre of Asia, is not to be compared 

 with the Sahara. These deserts appear like oceans 

 of sand, by no means destitute of fertile islands. 

 These islands are the Oases, peculiar to Africa. 

 (See Oases.) Among the mighty streams of A. we 

 can now follow the Egyptian Nile to its sources. The 

 courses of the other great rivers have not yet been 

 satisfactorily explored. We know, indeed, where the 

 Congo or Zaire, Coanza, and Cuama or Zambese 

 terminate, but not where they rise. The Joliba (the 

 Niger of Herodotus), Mungo Park has informed us, 

 flows from west to east. The Senegal, the Gambia, 

 and the Orange are also important rivers. A. con- 

 tains several large lakes, such as the Dembea, Wan- 

 gara, Maravi, Tschad, and Aquilunda. The climate 

 is various, but in general extremely hot In the life- 

 less atmosphere of the tropics, which have but two 

 seasons, the wet and the dry, the heat of the sun is 

 terrible ; and Adanson tells of eggs being roasted in 

 the sands of Guinea, and the naked feet of the negroes 

 blistered. On the coasts, the heat is mitigated by 

 the breezes from the sea and the mountains, and by 

 incessant rains ; but the atmosphere is not so healthy 

 and pure as in the interior, which has a higher eleva- 

 tion. The whole tract of Barbary is warmer than 

 the more southerly regions, and all A., compared 

 with Europe, is a hot country. Of its winds, the 



