48 Geography. [Chap. V^ 



fanied and extraordinary expedition by the French 

 government. 



The interior of Souther ji Africa has, within a few 

 years past, been explored and made known to us 

 by de la Caille, Thunberg, Sparmann, Vaillant *, 

 Patterson, and Barrow ; while the Northern parts 

 have been visited and examined by Poiret, Lem- 

 priere, 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 coun- 

 tries. 



Prior to the year I768 little had been heard or 

 known of the great kingdom of Ahyssinia, 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 extensive 

 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 

 tlie countries that he visited, present a very 

 amusing and instructive spectacle to the inquiring 

 mind, notwithstanding the occasional errours into 

 which he falls, and the inordinate vanity which ap- 

 pears in every page of his narration. It has been 

 said, that to this ardent and intrepid man we are 

 indebted for more important and more accurate in- 

 Ibrniation concerning;' the interior of Africa, and 



* Bolli Sparmaim and Vaillant, especially the latter, have been 

 charged with being deficient in that iirst of all reijuisites in a 

 travellt^r, fidelity. 



