2 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
but was sometimes also used among them in 
the same extensive application as that of Africa 
was by the Eomans. This word is supposed 
to be of Hebrew origin, denoting that the in- 
habitants (the LuMm of the Old Testament) 
were placed under a burning sky. 
The appellation by which we now distinguish 
this very extensive, and, in many respects, most 
highly interesting portion of our globe, is one, 
which, although we can thus trace it to an 
antiquated origin, seems to have been formed 
wholly irrespective of that portion of this 
continent, alluded to in the following pages as 
" Southern Africa." 
The true extent of geographical knowledge 
of the continent possessed by the ancients, is 
not now clearly to be ascertained. It is sup- 
posed to have extended on the Western shore 
to Cape Blanco, or Cape de Yerd : and on the 
Eastern side, to the island of Pembo. 
The valley of the Nile was certainly known, 
in early history, under the same name which it 
now bears ; but the neighbouring countries to 
it were veiled in darkness, and were compre- 
hended under the general title of Nigritia or 
Negroland. The Greeks, according to Hero- 
dotus, and, afterwards, the Eomans, having ac- 
quired a better knowledge of the coasts of the 
Mediterranean, may perchance have sailed up 
