RELATING TO AFRICA. 
393 
by Abyssinia, that they had not space in which to 
exaggerate. The river Congo, in particular, by be- 
ing derived from this much misplaced site of the 
Dembea, had a course assigned to it, totally ina- 
dequate to their own magnificent descriptions of its 
magnitude. 
In regard to the modern geography of Western 
Africa, as it hinges almost entirely upon the course 
of the Niger, which forms the subject of the fol- 
lowing chapter, it will be more convenient to re- 
serve, till then, our observations upon that subject. 
The first half of the eighteenth century was the 
era of a signal improvement in the science of geo- 
graphy. For this we are mainly indebted to 
France, and to the very liberal patronage which its 
administration extended to the cultivation of this , 
science. No one who compares the maps of De- 
lisle and D'Anville, with the materials then pub- 
lished, can doubt the excellent means of informa- 
tion with which they must have been supplied, both 
by government and by private individuals. Under 
their hands, the geography of Africa, in particular, 
assumed an entirely new aspect. 
Delisle began his labours with the commencement 
of the century. In 1700, he published his map of 
the world, stated to be drawn up from observa- 
tions made by the members of the Academy of Scien- 
ces. It exhibits a signal reform in African geography > 
