342 Geography, 



Cape of Good-Hope and the parts adjacent, fur- 

 nished the civilized world with much valuable in- 

 formation concerning those countries. At later 

 periods Egypt has been explored upon a more satis- 

 factory and philosophical plan, by Niebuhr, a 

 commissioner of the King of Denmark for this pur- 

 pose; andbySAVARY, Volney, and Sonnini, dis- 

 tinguished travellers of France. To which may be 

 added the interesting communications respecting 

 the geography and natural history of that country, 

 by the learned men lately sent thither, in connec- 

 tion with the far-famed and extraordinary expedi- 

 tion by the French government. 



The interior of Southern Africa has, within a 

 few years past, been explored and made known to 

 us by De la Caille, Thunberg, Sparman, Vail- 

 XANT,*^ Patterson, and Barrow; while i\\Q Nor- 

 thern parts have been visited and examined by 

 PoiRET, Lempriere, Chenier, Hoest, Agrell, 

 and others; from whose travels a great mass of 

 new and curious facts may be derived, respecting 

 the natural, civil, and moral condition of those 

 barbarous countries. 



Prior to the year 1768 little had been heard or 

 known of the great kingdom of Abyssinia, from 

 the time of the Jesuit Lobo, until that period. It 

 was in the above mentioned year that Mr. Bruce, 

 a Scottish gentleman, well known in the annals of 

 modern travel, undertook to explore that exten- 

 sive territory, with a particular view to ascertain 

 the source of the Nile. The dangers which he en- 

 countered in this enterprise, the difficulties which 

 he overcame, and the views which he exhibits of 

 the countries which he visited, present a very 



y Both Sparman and Vaillant, especially the latter, have been 

 charged with being deficient in that first of all requisites in a traveller, 

 fidelity. But allowing for a mixture of fiction in their statements, they 

 have certainly given us much curious and valuable information. 



