AFRICA. 



53 



Schools, however, are still maintained by the Mo- 

 hammedans in the cities of Barbary, by the Mara- 

 boots, in the countries where they have settled, and, 

 here and there, by the Copts and Monophysites in 

 Tigre and Amhara. The arts are exercised only on 

 the northern coasts, where the Moors manufacture 

 much silk, cotton, leather, and linen ; an active com- 

 merce is carried on by them with the maritime na- 

 tions of Europe, and, by means of caravans, a traffic, 

 full as important, with the interior, to which they 

 convey^ their own products and those of Europe. 

 Some of the most important routes pursued by the 

 caravans are the following: 1. From Mourzouk, 

 the capital of Fezzan, to Cairo, thirty days' journey, 

 by way of the market-places and encampments Siwah, 

 Augila, and Temissa. 2. From Mourzouk toBornou, 

 .fifty days' journey, by way of the deserts of Bilma 

 and Tibesti ; the market-places and encampments 

 are Temissa, Domboo, and Kanem. 3. From Mour- 

 zouk to Cashna or Cassina, sixty days' journey, by 

 way of Hiatts, Ganatt, and Agadez. 4. From Fez 

 to Timbuctoo, fifty-four days' ; but a halt of some time 

 is made at the encampments, e. g. at Akka or Tatta, 

 the general rendezvous, at Tegaza and Aroan, sixty- 

 five days ; so that this caravan is one hundred and 

 nineteen days in reaching its place of destination. 

 5. Another route along the sea coast leads through 

 Wady, cape Bodajor, and Gualata. 6 and 7. The 

 caravans from Sennaar and Darfur to Egypt do not 

 travel regularly every year, but once every two or 

 three years ; such a caravan comprises from 500 to 

 2000 camels. It goes about three miles an hour, 

 and rarely travels more than seven or eight hours a 

 day. The blacks stand on the verge of absolute bar- 

 barism, even where they are united into states. Their 

 wants are exceedingly simple, and every article used 

 by them is prepared by themselves ; the cloth which 

 surrounds their loins, the hut which protects them 

 from the weather, the bow and arrow necessary for 

 the hunt and self-defence, as well as all their house- 

 hold furniture, are manufactured by themselves ; the 

 gold which they collect from the surface of the earth, 

 is wrought by them into ornaments, and iron into 

 arms. Commerce, however, with Europeans has 

 taught them many wants, and increased their list of 

 necessaries ; among which may now be reckoned 

 fire-arms, powder, brandy, tobacco, different kinds 

 of cloth, glass, beads, coral, &c. ; for which they bar- 

 ter slaves, ivory, gold, and gums, the staples of Africa. 

 The slave trade is yet of such importance, that, al- 

 though most of the European and American nations 

 have agreed to prohibit it, nearly 50,000 negroes 

 are yearly torn from the interior by the Mussulman, 

 Portuguese, French, American, and even British 

 dealers. Formerly, 105,000 slaves were annually in- 

 troduced into the West Indies, besides those who 

 were transported into Asia by the Kermanians, and 

 by the North Americans into the southern states of 

 the Union. The exports of ivory, gold dust, and 

 gums, are also important ; those of ostrich feathers, 

 tigers skins, hides, and other natural productions, are 

 of less consequence. Of all the states of Africa, 

 Barbary alone uses coin ; in the rest, not frequented 

 by Europeans, money rarely serves as the medium 

 of exchange ; in some, on the western coast, cowries 

 are made to answer the purposes of coin ; in others, 

 pieces of salt. The tropic of Cancer and the equator 

 divide Africa into three principal parts : 1. Northern 

 Africa, comprising Egypt, the piratical states of Tri- 

 poli (including the coast of Barca), Tunis, and Algiers, 

 the empire of Morocco, Fezzan, and the northern 

 part of Soodan or the Sahara, with the Azores, Ca- 

 nary, and Madeira islands. 2. Central Africa, com- 

 prising, on the eastern coast, Nubia, Tigre, Amhara, 

 Efiit, Add, Ajan, the southern part of Soodan, with 



Darfur and the countries of the Gallas ; and, on the 

 western coasts, Benin, Owhere, Senegambia, ar.cl 

 Guinea, besides the Cape Verd islands, those near 

 Guinea, the sixteen Bissao islands, Socotora, &c. 

 3. Southern Africa, with all the south-east and south- 

 western coasts and interior, the cape of Good Hope, 

 and the island of Madagascar, the Comoro islands, 

 with those of Mascarenhas, Amirante, Tristan 

 d'Acunha, St Helena, and Ascension. In an histori- 

 cal view, also, Africa is deserving of the minutest 

 investigation, as one of the richest arcluves of former 

 times and the ancient world. It guards, couched in 

 mysterious characters, innumerable annals of the his- 

 tory of man's progress from the earliest times down 

 to the overthrow of the Roman empire in the East, 

 In A. the enterprising European is discovering new 

 sources of industry and commerce. Great Britain 

 has already flourishing colonies established on its 

 coasts ; on which the Portuguese colonies, planted 

 four centuries since, laid the foundation of the colo- 

 nial system of Europe. It is with reason, therefore, 

 that Africa, has, in our days, engaged the attention of 

 geographers, as in the period of Herodotus, and 400 

 years since, in the time of Henry the Navigator. 

 The French expedition to Egypt (q. v.) first opened 

 this country to modern investigation, and roused even 

 the Turks from their sluggish apathy. British per- 

 severance has created for the nations of the Cape new 

 sources of prosperity, and established a colony there, 

 to receive the superfluity of our population ; while 

 the colony previously established (1793) at Sierra 

 Leone has been labouring, not without success, for 

 the civilization of the negroes. At the same tune, 

 adventurous travellers, British, German, French, 

 Italian, and American, have penetrated into A. from 

 all sides. But we must regard as erroneous the idea 

 that the eastern coasts of A. were visited, in the re- 

 motest antiquity, by the Jewish and Tyrian mer- 

 chants, who, according to Hebrew accounts, sailed 

 to Tarshish and Ophir, said to be situated on those 

 coasts, and carried thence great riches to kings David 

 and Solomon. For a history of the voyages of dis- 

 covery in Africa, since the time when the Phoeni- 

 cians, under Necho, king of Egypt, sailed from the 

 Red sea, round Africa, and back through the pillars 

 of Hercules (600 years before the Christian era), 

 down to the enterprises of the latest times we refer 

 the reader to the complete history of voyages and 

 discoveries in Africa, from the most distant times 

 down to the present, by Dr Leyden and Mr Hugh 

 Murray, Edinburgh, 1817 ; translated from the Eng- 

 lish into' French, with additions, Paris, 1821, 4 vols ; 

 and the ff. Geogr. Ephem., 1824. Among the most 

 important travels of our own time are the mission of 

 Bowdich, an Englishman, to Ashantee, in 1818, 

 which has made us acquainted with a powerful and 

 warlike nation near the western coast ; and the 

 journeys undertaken by Burckhardt to Nubia, which 

 have made known to us the active commerce of the 

 Nubian nations. It is principally by means of these 

 that the " African Association," incorporated in 1787, 

 in London, as well as-4iie British consulate (e. g. 

 Salt, in Egypt), and the British Bible and Mission 

 ary societies, have been enabled to raise the veil 

 which hung over this continent. The bold Mungo 

 Park, Hornemann and Rontgen, of Neuwied, had 

 previously penetrated into the interior. The last was 

 murdered on the road to Timbuctoo, not far from 

 Mogadore. Besides these mentioned above, we ought 

 to cite Leod's Voyage to Africa, London, 1821, be- 

 cause it gives a more minute description of the peo- 

 ple of Dahomy (q. v.), who inhabit the most fertile 

 part of Guinea, with which we were only superficially 

 acquainted from the accounts of Norris, and Captain 

 Lyon's Narrative of Travels, 1818-20, in Northern 



