RELATING TO AFRICA. 
curs to prove the inadequate idea which he enter* 
tamed of the breadth of the desert which they 
must have traversed. Such marches must evident- 
ly have carried them far beyond the limits of Li- 
bya Interior, placed as it was by him almost in 
contact with Northern Africa. He, therefore, 
places his Ethiopia Interior much farther south, 
beyond the equator, nearly in the latitude of Rap* 
turn ; although there is no reason to suppose that 
the expeditions in question could have passed the 
Niger, if they even arrived on its shores, 
The decline of the Roman empire was fol- 
lowed by the irruption of a new power, which 
changed entirely the aspect of this continent. The 
descendants of Mahomet spread their empire as 
far as the ocean, and established one of its grand 
seats in Northern Africa. This remarkable people, 
accustomed in their native seats to all the modes 
of carrying on trade over-land, and through de- 
serts, were well calculated to overcome the ob- 
stacles, which nature here presented, on a still greater 
scale. Their caravans soon formed routes across 
the wide expanse of the African desert ; the banks 
of the Niger were not only explored, but colo- 
nized, and the whole tract of central Africa, so 
far as known, became subject to Mahometan mas- 
ters. The geographers, therefore, who arose du- 
ring the flourishing era of Arabian science, had 
VOL. II. b b 
