v*6 A F ft 
ried on the raft, for the purpofe of excluding the dream 
wherever its entrance is obferved. Tho depth of the ri¬ 
ver at the place of palfage, which is more than an hun¬ 
dred miles to thefouthof the city of Cafhna, the capital 
©f the empire of that name, is eftimated at twenty-three 
or twenty-four feet Englifh. Its width is fuch, that, even 
at the iiland of Gongoo, where the ferrymen refide, the 
found of the loudeft voice from the northern fhore is 
fcarcely heard; and, at Tombudlou, where the name of 
Gnezna, or black, is given to the dream, the width is def- 
cribed as being that of the Thames at Weftminder. In 
the rainy feafon it fwells above its banks, and not only 
floods the adjacent lands, but often fweeps before it the 
cattle and cottages of the fhort-fighted or too confident 
inhabitants. That the people who live in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the Niger Should refufe to profit by its naviga¬ 
tion, may juftly furprife the traveller; but much greater 
is his adonidnnent, when he finds that even the food which 
the bounty of the dream affords, is ufelefsly offered to 
their acceptance ; for fuch is the want of fkill, or fuch the 
fettled didike of the people to this fort of provifion, that 
the fifh, with which the river abounds, are left in undif- 
turbed poffeffion of its waters. 
Both thefe rivers annually overflow their banks, ferti¬ 
lizing by that means the countries through which they 
pals. The Gambia and Senegal rivers are only branches 
»f the Niger. 
The mod confiderable mountains in Afiica are the At¬ 
las, a ridge extending from the Wedern Ocean (to which 
it gives the name of Atlantic Ocean) as far as Egypt. It 
had its name from the king of Mauritania, a great lover 
of adronomy, who ufed to obferve the dars from its fum- 
mrt; on which account the poets reprefent him as bear¬ 
ing the heavens on his Shoulders. The mountains of the 
Moon, extending themfelves between Abyffmia and Mo- 
nomotapa, are dill higher than thofe of Atlas. Thole of 
Sierra Leona, or the mountains of the Lions, which divide 
Nigritia from Guinea, and extend as far as Ethiopia. 
Thefe were dyled by the ancients the mountains of God, 
on account of their being fubjedt to thunder and light¬ 
ning. The Peak of Teneriffe, which the Dutch make 
their fird meridian, rifes about two miles high in the form 
of a fugar-loaf, and is fituated on an ifland of the fame 
name near the coad. 
The mod noted capes or promontories in this country 
are, Cape Verd, fo called, becaufe the land is always co¬ 
vered with green trees and moffy ground, and it is the 
mod wederly point of the continent of Africa. The Cape 
of Good Hope, fo denominated by the Portuguefe, when 
they fird went round it in 1498, and difeovered the paffage 
to Afia. It is the fouthern extremity of Africa, in the 
country of the Hottentots, and is the general rendezvous 
of (hips of every nation who trade to India, being about 
■ half way from Europe.'—There is but one drait in Afri¬ 
ca, which is called Babel-Mandel, and joins the Red Sea 
with the Indian Ocean. 
To what we have already faid concerning the produce of 
Africa, we may add, that no part of the world abounds 
with gold and diver in a greater degree. Here are alfo a 
■prodigious number of elephants ; and it is furprifing, that 
neither the ancient nor modern Europeans, notwithstand¬ 
ing their extravagant and infatiable third after gold and 
filver, fliould have endeavoured to edablilh themfelves 
in a country much nearer to them than either America or 
the Ead Indies; and where the objedls of their defire are 
found in equal, if not greater, plenty. 
Next to gold and.filver, copper is the mod valuable me¬ 
tal; and on this continent it is found in great plenty, in- 
fomtich that the mountains of Atlas above-mentioned are 
faid to be all compofed of copper ore. 
Only a fmall part of this continent was known to the 
ancients, viz. the kingdom of Egypt, and the northern 
coad, comprehending little more than what is now known 
by the name of Barbary. It was divided into Africa Pro- 
fria, and Africa Interior. Africa Propria comprehended 
A F R 
only the Carthaginian territories. Africa Interior Com¬ 
prehended all other nations to the fouthward of thofe ter¬ 
ritories, or thofe at a greater didance from Rome. The 
only kingdoms, however, with which the Romans had any 
connedtion, were the Numidians, the Mauritanians, and 
the Gaetuli. All thefe, as well as Egypt, were fwallowed 
up by that enormous power, and reduced to the condition 
of Roman provinces. But the Romans never feem to 
have penetrated beyond the tropic of Cancer. There ap¬ 
pears, indeed, to have been fome intercourfe between them 
and the Ethiopians : but the latter always preferved their 
liberty ; and we find their queen Candace mentioned in the 
times of the Apodles, when the Roman power was at its 
highed pitch. 
Between the tropic of cancer and the equinoctial line, a 
multitude of favage nations were fuppofed to have their 
refidence, known by the names of Melanogtetuli, Nigri- 
tse, Blemmyes, Dolopes, Adacuri, Lotophagi, Ichthyo- 
phagi, Elephantophagi, &c. (which are taken notice of, 
as well as the others already mentioned, under their proper 
names); but that Africa was a peninfula, feems to have 
been totally unknown both to the Europeans and Aliatics 
for many ages. It is probable, indeed, that fome of the 
Plienicians, and their offspring the Carthaginians, were 
not fo ignorant; as they carried navigation to a much 
greater height than either the Greeks or Romans: but 
their difeoveries were all concealed with the greated care, 
led other nations fliould reap the benefit of them; and, 
accordingly we can now find no authentic accounts con¬ 
cerning them. The navigation round Africa, in particu¬ 
lar, is recorded by the Greek and Roman writers rather 
as a drange atnufing tale than as a real tranfaction ; and, 
as neither the progrefs of the Phenician and Carthaginian 
difeoveries, nor the extent of their navigation, were com¬ 
municated to the red of mankind, all memorials of their 
extraordinary (kill in naval affairs, feem in a great meafure 
to have perifhed, when the maritime power of the former 
was annihilated by Alexanders conqued of Tyre, and the 
empire of the latter was overturned by the Romans^ 
That the peninfula of Africa, however, was in reality 
failed round by the Plienicians, we have on indifputabie 
authority ; for fome of that nation undertook the voyage* 
at the command of Neclio king of Egypt, about 604 years 
before the Chriftian aera. They failed from a port in the 
Red Sea, and after three years returned by the Mediter¬ 
ranean: and the very objections that were made to the 
veracity of their accounts at that time, are unanfwerable 
proofs to us that this voyage was really accompliffied.. 
They pretended, that, having failed for fome time, the 
fun became more and more vertical, after which he ap¬ 
peared in the north, and feemed to recede from theme 
that, as they returned, the fun gradually feemed to move 
fouthwards; and, after becoming vertical once more, ap¬ 
peared then in the fouth fide of them as before they Set 
out. This, which we know muff certainly have been the 
cafe, was deemed incredible at that time, and univerfal 
ignorance concerning the extent of this continent prevail¬ 
ed till the fifteenth century. The firft attempts towards 
attaining a knowledge of Africa was made by the Portu¬ 
guefe, in 1412. Notwithdanding their vicinity, tliey had 
never ventured beyond Cape Non, fituated in about lat. 
27°N. which had received itsnamefroma fuppofed impoffi- 
bility of palling it. This year they proceeded one hun¬ 
dred and Sixty miles farther, to Cape Bojador; which 
dretching a confiderable way into the Atlantic Ocean, with 1 
rocky cliffs, appeared fo dreadful to the navigators, that 
they returned without any attempt to pafs it.. In an at¬ 
tempt to double this formidable cape, they difcqvered the 
Madeira I (lands, in 1419; but Cape Bojador continued to 
be the boundary of their continental difeoveries till 1433, 
when they penetrated within the tropics,, and in a few 
years difeovered the river Senegal, Cape de Verd, and 
the iflands which lie off that promontory. In 1449, the 
weftern iflands, called the Azores, were difeovered: and, 
in 1471, tliey firft penetrated beyond the line; and were 
furp riled 
