at Mombaza, Melinda, Mozambique, and at all the leading points on that coast; which were still found in their possession by the early Portuguese navigators.

For this general view of Central Africa in the twelfth century we are indebted to Edrisi, Abulfeda, Ibn-alVardi, and other writers, who do not however pretend to have visited the regions which they describe. Arabic literature has, notwithstanding, been also enriched by the productions of some eminent travellers: Wahab and Abuzaid, in the ninth century, penetrated into China, and communicated to the western world the first distinct idea of that remarkable empire and its people. Their career, however, was far surpassed in the fourteenth century by Ibn Batuta, a learned Mohammedan, who traversed the continents of Asia and Africa from the Eastern Ocean to the banks of the Niger. For a knowledge of his narrative the English public have recently been indebted to the learned labours of Professor Lee of Cambridge, as a member of the Society for Oriental Translation. Unfortunately he could only procure the work in a very abridged form, which renders it more an object of curiosity than fitted to convey full information as to the state of the world at that early period.

It was from Fez that Ibn Batuta commenced his great peregrination through Interior Africa. He went first to Segilmissa, which he describes as a handsome town, situated in a territory abounding with date-trees. Having joined a caravan, he came, after a journey of twenty-five days, to Thaghari, which some manuscripts make Tagaza, evidently the Tegazza of Leo, supposed by Major Rennell to be the modern Tisheet, containing the mine whence Timbuctoo is chiefly supplied with salt. To our traveller the place seemed to contain no object desirable or agreeable; there was nothing but salt; the houses were built with slabs of that mineral, and roofed with the hides of camels. It even appeared to him that Nature had lodged this commodity in regular tables in the mine, fitted for being conveyed to a distance; but he probably overlooked an artificial process by which it is usually

brought into this form. From Thaghari he went in twenty days to Tashala, three days beyond which commenced a desert of the most dreary aspect, where there was neither water, bird, nor tree," nothing but sand and hills of sand." In ten days he came to Abu Latin, a large commercial town, crowded with merchants from various quarters of the continent. The manners of the people, as is indeed too common in the scenes of inland traffic throughout Africa, appeared to him very licentious, and wholly destitute of that decorum which usually marks a Mussulman residence. The women maintained a greater share of respectability than the other sex; yet this did not prevent their hiring themselves as temporary wives to those whom the pursuits of trade induced to visit the place. Professor Lee has not hazarded a conjecture what town this is; but, on finding it in one manuscript called Ayulatin, and in another Ewelatin, we think there is no doubt of its being Walet, which lay directly in the route of our traveller, and is the only great city in that quarter of Africa.

From Abu Latin the adventurer proceeded in twentyfour days to Mali, then the most flourishing country and city in that part of the continent. This is evidently the Melli of Leo, who described it as situated on a river to the south of Timbuctoo; but it is not easy to identify it with any modern position. Our traveller makes heavy complaints of the inhospitable spirit and narrow bounty of an African potentate in this district. Waiting upon his majesty, and being informed that a present was on its way to him, he feasted his imagination on the idea of some rich dress or golden ornament; instead of which, the whole consisted of a crust of bread, a dried fish, and sour milk. He had the boldness to remonstrate with the king about this beggarly donation, declaring, that, in the course of travelling over the whole world, he had never received the like; and his majesty, instead of being incensed, began to extend to him some measure of generosity. Ibn Batuta, however, was disgusted by the abject homage paid to this monarch, as it still is to the native princes

of Africa; the courtiers, as they approached, casting dust on their heads, throwing themselves prostrate and grovelling on the earth,—a degradation which he had never witnessed in the most despotic courts of the East. Yet justice is admitted to have been most strictly administered, and property perfectly secure; as a proof of which, merchants from the most distant country, who died at Mali, were as assured of leaving their inheritance to their posterity as if it had been deposited at home. The traveller was astonished by the immense size of the trees in this region, in the hollow trunk of one of which he observed a weaver plying his trade.

Ibn Batuta in this part of his journey saw the Niger; and the view necessarily led to a conclusion opposite to that hitherto entertained by his countrymen, who considered it as flowing westward to the ocean. Having no opportunity of making a complete observation, he fell into the opposite error, since prevalent in Northern Africa, and identified it with the Nile. He supposed it to flow by Timbuctoo, Kawkaw (Kuku ?), Yuwi (seemingly the Yeou), and then by Nubia to Egypt.

From Mali he turned northward to Timbuctoo. This city, which was then subject to the former, was governed by a negro viceroy, and was far from possessing the celebrity and importance which it has since attained. The town was chiefly peopled by merchants from Latham ; but what particular country that was, it appears now impossible to determine. He next proceeded eastward by Kawkaw, Bardama, and Nakda, where he seems to have been near Nubia, but gives no farther details till he again arrived at Fez.

About two centuries after Ibn Batuta, a very full description of Africa was furnished by a geographer named Leo, who was even honoured with the surname of Africanus. He was a native of Granada; but having, after the capture of that city by Ferdinand, repaired to Fez, he acquired in that once eminent school a knowledge of Arabic learning and of the African continent. He afterwards travelled through a great part of the interior, and

having made his way to Rome, wrote his description of it under the auspices of Leo X. It appears that, since the time of Edrisi, one of those revolutions to which barbarous states are liable had greatly changed the aspect of these countries. Timbuctoo, which at the former period either did not exist, or was not thought worthy of mention, had now risen to be the most powerful of the internal kingdoms, and the great centre of commerce and wealth. Ghana, once possessed of imperial greatness, had already changed its name to Kano, and consented to become tributary to it. Bornou appears under its present appellation; and several sovereignties which have since held a conspicuous rank are mentioned for the first time ;Casena or Cassina (Kashna), Zegzeg, Zanfara, and Guber. Gago, represented as being four hundred miles south-east of Timbuctoo, is evidently Eyeo, lately visited by Clapperton. Ghinea or Ghineoa, described as a city of great commerce and splendour, has been supposed to be Ghana; but we think it is evidently Jenne, which Park found to be the largest and most flourishing place in Bambarra. At Timbuctoo many merchants were extremely opulent, and two of them had obtained princesses in marriage. Literature was cultivated with ardour, and manuscripts bore a higher price than any other commodity. Izchia, the king, who had subdued all the neighbouring countries, maintained an army of 3000 horse, and a numerous infantry, partly armed with poisoned arrows. Gold, for which his capital had now become the chief mart, was lavishly employed in the embellishment of his court and person. He displayed solid masses, larger even than the one at Ghana, and some of his ornaments weighed 1300 ounces. The royal palace and several mosques were handsomely built of stone; but the ordinary habitations, as in all Central Africa, were merely bell-shaped huts, the materials of which were stakes, clay, and reeds.

CHAPTER IV.

Portuguese Discoveries.

Rise of the Spirit of Discovery-Voyages along the Western Coast-The Senegal-Prince Bemoy-Discovery of the Congo -Numerous Missionaries sent out-Superstitions of the Natives.

EUROPE during ten centuries, affected by the decline of the Roman empire, the irruption of the barbarous nations, and the operation of the rude systems of feudal polity, remained sunk in profound apathy respecting all objects relating to science, discovery, and distant commerce. The splendour of the Crescent for a short interval outshone whatever was brightest in the Christian world; and the courts of Bagdad, Fez, and Cordova, were more refined and more enlightened than those of London and Paris. At a somewhat early period, it is true, the Hanse Towns and the Italian republics began to cultivate manufactures and commerce, and to lay the foundation of a still higher prosperity; but they carried on chiefly an inland or coasting trade. The naval efforts, even of Venice and Genoa, had no farther aim than to bring from Alexandria and the shores of the Black Sea the commodities of India, which had been conveyed thither chiefly by caravans over land. Satisfied with the wealth and power to which they had been raised by this limited commerce, these celebrated commonwealths made no attempt to open a more extended path over the ocean. Their pilots, indeed, guided most of the vessels engaged in the early voyages of discovery; but they were em