INTERIOR OF AFRICA, 
It remains only to consider the attempts made 
to explore the interior of the African continent. 
This region, to the ancient world, inspired always 
emotions of wonder and curiosity, mingled with 
terror. It was the region of mystery, of poetry, 
of superstitious awe. The wild and strange aspect 
of man and nature, the immense tracts abandoned 
to wild beasts, the still more immeasurable deserts 
of sand beyond, and the destruction which had 
overwhelmed most of those who attempted to pe- 
netrate ; all these formed, as it were, a fearful and 
mysterious barrier, drawn round the narrow limits 
occupied by the civilized nations, of this conti- 
nent. Every object which appeared through the 
veil tended to heighten this impression — the hu- 
man race, under an aspect and hue nowhere else 
seen on the globe ; animals of strange form and 
magnitude ; forms of society altogether uncouth 
and peculiar. Imagination, kept always on the 
stretch, created wonders, even when nature ceas- 
ed to present them. No part of the interior was 
ever explored with such precision, as to deprive 
that active faculty of full scope for exertion ; and 
the whole region was in a manner given up to 
fable. This fable, however, had generally some 
basis of truth ; and it cannot be without interest 
to observe the glimpses which the ancients ob- 
tained, whenever, for a moment, they succeeded 
