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DISCOVERY AND ADVENTURE

IN.

AFRICA.

CHAPTER I.

General View of the Natural Features of Africa.

Introductory Observations-Its Situation on the Globe-Extensive Deserts-Mountains and Rivers-Vegetable LifeAnimal Life-Social Aspect-Striking Contrasts which it presents.

BEFORE following the career of adventure and discovery in Africa, and viewing its kingdoms and regions under their varied aspects, it may be interesting to take a rapid survey of this continent in its original state, as it came from the hands of Nature. Though immense, and abounding even with the most striking and surprising contrasts, yet, on a general view, a certain uniformity, approaching almost to monotony, appears to pervade it. From the one end to the other, dreary wastes, of almost boundless extent, are spread over its surface, alternating with bright spots of the most luxuriant vegetation. These arid tracts, besides, have their borders embellished by shrubs and flowers, tinted with the most brilliant hues; while a profusion of animal life, in all its forms, distinguishes the more temperate latitudes.

Africa, considered in reference to her place on the globe, is an extensive continent so situated with relation to the

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three others as to obstruct the great highway across the ocean. Hence her coasts form the chief barrier to a direct maritime intercourse between the distant extremities of the earth. To perform the vast circuit of her shores, and to round her stormy capes, have tried the courage and constancy of the greatest navigators. Could Africa cease to exist, great facilities would be afforded to the communication between the other continents, and many new channels of commerce would be opened up. As, however, she has an existence likely to be coeval with theirs, our concern is with her actual condition, presenting as it does many peculiar claims to interest in the eyes of the philosopher and politician.

The physical peculiarities which distinguish Africa seem to depend chiefly on the circumstance, that almost her whole territory is situated within the tropics. The other portions of the earth's surface, which lie directly beneath the solar influence, consist generally either of sea, or of narrow and insular lands refreshed by breezes from the ocean. But the greatest breadth of this continent is under the immediate dominion of the sun; and most of her people see that great planet, in its annual progress from tropic to tropic, pass twice over their heads, and thus experience a repetition of its most intense and penetrating rays. The highest blessings of this sublunary world, when carried beyond a certain limit, become its deadliest bane; and that orb, accordingly, which cheers and illumines the rest of the earth, glares on Africa with oppressive and malignant beam, blasting the face of Nature, and covering her with desolation. Sometimes it converts the soil into a naked desert, and sometimes overspreads it with a noxious exuberance of vegetation. The land, when not watered by copious rains or the overflowing of rivers, is scorched and dried up, till it is turned into a dreary waste. Hence the vast plains of sand form a feature truly alarming. The Great Desert, with the exception of the narrow valley of the Nile, reaches across the entire continent, exhibiting an expanse of burning surface, where for many

days the pilgrim finds not a drop of water, nor sees the smallest vestige of animal or vegetable life. He pursues his dreary route amid loose hills, incessantly shifting, and leaving no marks to guide his course. Every breeze is loaded with dust, which enters the mouth and nostrils, penetrating even between the clothes and skin. Sometimes the sand drives along in clouds and whirlwinds, beneath which it was once thought that caravans and even armies had been buried; but it is now ascertained that the numerous bones which whiten the desert are merely those of adventurers who have sunk under famine, thirst, and fatigue; and that the sand, which continually moves, has accumulated over them. Travellers in these desolate tracts have been impressed with the idea of their being the bed of an ancient ocean. This is not the place to enter into a speculation on the formation of the earth; but that every part of its sur face lay once beneath the waters is sufficiently apparent, though there is no historical proof that Africa emerged later than other continents. The earliest records represent her deserts to have been as extensive as they are in our days, and to have pressed equally close upon the cultivated belt along the northern coast. In general, all regions between the tropics, when not plentifully watered, moulder into sand, alternating with a hard and impenetrable stratum of clay. The central wastes of Asia, of Arabia, and of Sindetic Hindostan, though inferior to those of Africa, are yet of a similar character, and also of immense extent.

In order to obviate the extreme effects of the tropical sun, which produces a desolation so dreadful, Nature has provided suitable remedies. Every country under this latitude has its rainy season, when, amidst the blaze of lightnings and the noise of thunder which rends the sky, Heaven seems to open all her windows to pour an unbroken flood upon the earth. The ground is covered as with a deluge, and the dry beds of the rivulets are filled with torrents; yet so intense are the solar rays, that the moisture thus lavished upon the surface is quickly dried

up. Great rivers, which, swollen by the rains, overflow their banks and lay the adjoining country under water, or at least afford the means of artificial inundation, are the principal source of that luxuriant fertility, that rapid growth of all vegetable substances, which characterize, in a peculiar manner, every tropical climate. It is to the streams, which descend from the lofty precipices and eternal snows of the Himmaleh, that the plains of Hindostan and China owe their amazing fruitfulness. Africa, too, has elevated mountain-chains, which give rise to several rivers of great magnitude and most fertilizing influence. Atlas, along its northern border, presents, even in so hot an atmosphere, pinnacles wrapt in everlasting snow. Still more extensive is that central range, which, distinguished by various local names, is most generally known under the poetical appellation of "The Mountains of the Moon.” Yet these ridges, besides being less gigantic than those of the other continents, labour under the peculiar disadvantage of extending across the breadth only of Africa. The Andes and the Himmaleh, those stupendous heights of America and Asia, as they traverse their respective regions in the direction of their length, cover a much greater surface, and thus create fertility in the plains which intervene between their bases and the ocean. But the larger of the African rivers, directing their course through a vast extent of low land, reach the sea only by a very circuitous passage; while several of them, diffusing their waters into lakes, are lost in the very heart of the continent. The result is, that the enormous breadth of the Sahara, or Great Desert, is scarcely irrigated even by a streamlet. It depends entirely on the periodical rains; and these sink into the sandy and porous surface, till, being arrested at the depth of eight or ten feet, they form that "sea under ground" which has been traced throughout a large portion of the waste.

Vegetable life, in consequence of this absence of moisture, is scantily diffused over a great extent of central Africa. In the heart of the mountains, however, and in the kingdoms along their border, the soil is most pro

fusely watered, and, under the influence of a tropical sun, produces, perhaps beyond any other part of the world, that luxuriant growth, and those gigantic vegetable forms, which distinguish the equatorial regions. The baobab, or great calabash, appears to be the most enormous tree on the face of the earth. Adanson assures us, that its circumference in some cases, is fully thirteen fathoms, as measured by his arms passed round the trunk. Branches, extending horizontally, each equal to a large tree, make the baobab a forest as it were in itself. The mangrove, too, which rises on the borders of rivers or inundated spots, diffuses itself in a manner truly remarkable. The branches dropping down upon the watery bank, strike root and grow; hence the original stem, spreading farther and farther, throws over the stream a species of natural arcade. Nor do these mighty trees stand alone, but have their interstices filled up by numberless shrubs, canes, creeping and parasitical plants, which intersect and entwine with each other till they form a thick and impenetrable mass of underwood. To cut even a narrow path through these dense groves is a laborious process; and as shoots are continually growing inwards on each side, the track, without constant travelling and the diligent use of the axe, soon becomes impassable.

As we approach the confines of the Desert, these giants of the wood disappear, and vegetation presents a different and more pleasing aspect. It exhibits now the light and gay form of the acacia, whole forests of which rise amid the sand, distilling those rich gums that constitute an important material of African commerce. The lotus, a

celebrated and classical shrub, the tamarisk, and other elegant trees, afford agreeable and nutritive berries, which are used as the principal food of several nations. Various flowering bushes, too, of the most delicate tints, rising in wild and spontaneous beauty, embellish the precincts of the waste. Thus, when first approached, and before vegetable nature begins to expire, instead of assuming a stern character, it wears rather a pleasing and smiling aspect.

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