( 47 ) 
I 
CHAPTER III. 
African Explorers of the Eighteenth Century. 
An Englishman named Thomas Shaw, a chaplain in 
Algeria, had profited by his twelve years’ stay in Bar¬ 
bary to gather together a rich collection of natural 
curiosities, medals, inscriptions, and various objects of 
interest. Although he himself never visited the southern 
portion of Algeria, he availed himself of the facts he 
was able to obtain from well-informed travellers, who 
imparted to him a mass of information concerning the 
little-known and scarcely-visited country. He published 
a book in two large quarto volumes, which embraced 
the whole of ancient Numidia. 
It was rather the work of a learned man than the 
account of a traveller, and it must be admitted that the 
learning is occasionally ill-directed. But in spite of its 
shortcomings as a geographical history, it had a large 
value at the time of its publication, and no one could 
have been better situated than Shaw for collecting such 
an enormous mass of material. 
The following extract may give an idea of the style 
of the work :— 
“ The chief manufacture of the Kabyles and Arabs is 
the making ‘ liykes,’ as they call their blankets. The 
women alone are employed in this work ; like Andro¬ 
mache and Penelope of old, they do not use the shuttle, 
but weave every thread of the woof with their fingers. 
The usual size of a hyke is six yards long and five or 
six feet broad, serving the Kabyle and Arab as a com¬ 
plete dress during the day, and as a covering for the 
bed at night. It is a loose but troublesome garment, as 
it is often disarranged and slips down, so that the person 
