RELATING TO AFRICA. 
391 
exhibits the manner in which central Africa is deli- 
neated by all geographers, from Ortelius to Sanson 
inclusive, and down to the time of Delisle and 
D'Anville. * Sanson's map of 1696 does not 
exhibit the smallest improvement over the earliest 
delineations. The exaggeration of half-known 
distances, and the annihilation of the unknown in- 
terval between distant objects, combined in lead- 
ing to these remarkable errors. Abyssinia, above 
all, was extended in the most extraordinary man- 
ner, being made to reach as far as the southern 
frontier of Congo and Monomopata. Here was 
placed the great lake Zaire or Zembre, from which 
was supposed to flow not only the Nile, but the 
Congo, and, according to some, though not uni- 
versally, the Cuama or Zambezi. That this lake 
was at bottom the Dembea, appears from the Abys- 
sinian provinces of Gojam, Damut, Bagamidri, 
(Begemder,) and the Cafates, (Efat,) being ran* 
ged around it. The name Zaire is evidently deriv- 
ed from the river of Congo ; and Zembre, which 
has no authentic origin, appears to be a transition- 
step from Zaire to Dembea, forming a sort of al- 
liance between two names which, in themselves, 
are perfectly dissimilar. In all the early delinea- 
* See the maps in Ortelius's Theatre of the World, — in 
Dapper's Description of Africa, — in Purchas, Vol. I. and II. 
— and all Sanson's maps. 
