214 
GEOGRAPHICAL 
of fuch formidable extent, as to threaten thofe who traverfe 
them, with the moll horrible of all deaths, that ariling from 
thirft ! Placed in fuch clrcumftances, can we be furprifed either 
at our ignorance of its Interior Parts, or of the tardy progrefs 
of civilization in it ? Poffibly, the difficulty of conveying mer- 
chandize to the coafts, under the above circumftances, may have 
given rife to the traffic in me;?, a commodity that can tranfport 
itfelf! But laying this out of the queftion, as an abftraft fpe- 
culation, there can be little doubt but that the progrefs of civi- 
lization amongft the Africans has been as How as can be con-^ 
ceived, in any iituation: and it has alfo happened, of courfe, that 
the deftined Inftruments of their civilization have remained in a 
proportional degree of ignorance concerning the nature of the 
country. 
Nothing can evince the low (late of the African Geography, 
more than M. D'Anville's having had recourfe to the Works of 
Ptolomy and Edrisi, to compofe the Interior Part of his Map 
of Africa (1749,) It is well known, that thofe Authors wrote 
in the fecond and in the twelfth centuries of our sera. Mofl: of 
the portions in the Inland Part of the great body of Africa are 
derived from Edrisi ; and it is wonderful how nearly fome of 
the pofitions agree with thofe furniHied by the prefent materials. 
Such 
