SKETCH OP AFRICAN DISCOVERY. 435 



After doubling the Cape, he pursued his course along the 

 eastern coast of Africa, and then stretched across the ocean 

 to India. The Portuguese had now ascertained the general 

 outline of Africa and the position of many of the principal 

 rivers and headlands. With the exception of a portion of 

 the coast from the Straits of Bab el Mandeb to Mukdeesha, 

 situated in 3° north latitude, the whole of the coast had 

 been traced by the Portuguese, and their zeal and enthu- 

 siasm, which had at one period been treated with ridicule, 

 were at length triumphantly rewarded, about four years 

 before Columbus had achieved his great discovery, which, 

 with that of Yasco de Gama, amply repaid a century of 

 speculative enterprise. This interesting combination of 

 events had a sensible effect upon the general mind of 

 Europe. The Portuguese soon formed settlements in 

 Africa, and began to acquire a knowledge of the interior 

 of the country. They were followed by the French, and 

 afterward by the English and the Dutch. 



It is chiefly within the last fifty years that discoveries 

 in the interior of Africa have been perseveringly and sys- 

 tematically prosecuted. In 1788, a society was established 

 in London with the design of encouraging men of enter- 

 prise to explore the African continent. John Ledyard, 

 an American, was the first person selected by the African 

 Association for this task; and he set out in 1788 with the 

 intention of traversing the widest part of the continent 

 from east to west, in the supposed latitude of the river 

 Niger. Unfortunately, he was seized at Cairo with a 

 fever, of which he died. He possessed few scientific ac- 

 quirements ; but his vigor and powers of endurance, mental 

 and bodily, his indifference to pain, hardship, and fatigue, 

 would have rendered him an admirable geographical pio- 

 neer. " I have known," he said, shortly before leaving 

 England for the last time, "hunger and nakedness to tho 

 utmost extremity of human suffering : I have known what 

 it is to have food given as charity to a madman, and have 

 at times been obliged to shelter myself under the miseries 



