40^ 
GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS. 
the following chapter, it will be more convenient 
to reserve, 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 
geography. 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 
Delisle and D'Anville, with, the materials then 
published, can doubt the excellent means of in- 
formation with which they must have been sup- 
plied, both by government and by private indi- 
viduals. Under their hands, the geography of 
Africa, in particular, assumed an entirely new 
aspect. 
Delisle began his labours with the commence- 
ment of the century. In I7OO he published his 
map of the world, stated to be drawn up from 
observations made by the members of the Acade- 
my of Sciences. It exhibits a signal reform in 
African geography. The frontier of Abyssinia 
was brought from ten degrees south of the line, 
to ten degrees north ; and this immense change 
placed it at once in its true position. The source 
of the Bahr-el-Azrek, and all the details of its 
early course, are given with very great precision. 
This river, however, is still represented as the Nile, 
