Chap, v.] Geography, 47 



rat, Thunberg, Forrest, and le Poivre ; and Ceylon 

 by Thunberg ; beside the numberless details re- 

 ceived concerning less important islands, and by 

 less conspicuous travellers, at different periods of 

 the century. 



At the commencement of the period under re- 

 view, the interior of /IJrica was even less known 

 than the Asiatic continent. In fact, little more 

 had been done than to survey the coasts, and to 

 mark the capes and harbours of this quarter of the 

 ^lobe. But since that time, by the exertions of a 

 number of intelligent and persevering travellers, 

 our knowledge of that extensive country has rapidly 

 increased , and there seems to be a fair prospect of 

 our curiosity being, at no great distance of time, 

 much more fully gratified. Early in the century, 

 the travels of Dr. Shaw into Barbary, of Pococke 

 and Norden into Egypt, and of Kolben to the Cape 

 of Good-Hope and the parts adjacent, furnished the 

 civilised world with much valuable information con- 

 cerning those countries. At later periods Egypt 

 has been explored upon a more satisfactory and 

 philosophical plan by Niebuhr, a commissioner of 

 the king of Denmark for this purpose; and by 

 Savary, Volney, and Sonnini, distinguished travel- 

 lers of France. To which may be added the in- 

 teresting communications respecting the geography 

 and natural history of that country, by the learned 

 men lately sent thither, in connexion with the far- 



to cover the whole body with a thick cotton cloth. If a person 

 approach it bare-headed, it causes tlie hair to fall off j and a drop 

 of the fresh juice, appli{;id on the skin, if it do not produce im- 

 mediate death, will cause an ulcer very difficult to be cured.^ — rSe<- 

 Pinkerton's Geography, vol, i; p. 517- 



