RELATING TO AFRICA. 
395 
prefixed to Labat's Ethiopie Occidental, he boldly- 
exposed to the world the vast extent of that Terra 
Incognita, which occupies the whole interior of 
this part of Africa. The public having recognised 
the correctness and fairness of this proceeding, geo- 
graphers were no longer afraid to leave void those 
spaces which science afforded no materials for fill- 
ing. In Abyssinia also, although his predecessor 
had done much, D'Anville found some important 
additions to make. On a diligent comparison of 
ancient and modern materials, he ascertained, that 
the river, which all modern geographers had consi- 
dered as the Nile, was not the Nile of the ancients ; 
that it was merely the tributary to a larger stream, 
which alone had been, and ought to be, regarded as 
the river of Egypt. Subsequent observation has 
fully confirmed this discovery. 
In Western Africa, the reform effected by these 
two great geographers was equally important ; but 
for reasons already assigned, it will be more conve- 
nient to reserve the consideration of them till the 
following chapter. 
From this time, the investigation of African geo- 
graphy was conducted upon sound principles, and 
proceeded in a regular train. There remained 
only the inevitable evil of imperfect knowledge ; 
but this was no longer combined with systematic 
error ; it was not that hopeless ignorance which 
is unconscious of itself. It has prompted to vast 
