42 DISCOVERIES DURING 
through Barbary, they opened always new routes 
across the desert ; and when Morocco became the 
seat of their principal power, Segelmessa was in 
consequence the emporium of the commerce of Ni- 
gritia. Another territory called Vareclan, situated 
apparently to the south of Morocco, carried on a 
very extensive trade ; and its merchants went as 
far as Wangara in search of gold. The only parts 
of the interior on which the Arabs made no im- 
pression were Nubia and Abyssinia. These coun- 
tries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries conti- 
nued still Christian, and were, therefore, in a state 
of habitual enmity with the Saracen powers. Only, 
the necessities of trade produced a species of truce 
on the frontiers of Egypt and Nubia. The mer- 
chants of the respective nations met near the cata- 
racts of Syene, and made an exchange of their re- 
spective commodities, without entering each other's 
territories. * 
Between the narrative of the Arabian geogra- 
phers, and the discoveries of modern travellers and 
navigators, the link is formed by a celebrated de- 
scription of Africa, written by a person bearing the 
appellation of Leo Africanus. He was born at 
* Geographia Nubiensis. — Hartmann's Edrisi. Ibn-al- 
Vardi, et Bakui in Notices des Manuscrits du Roi de France. 
