The account given by Leo Africanus deserves to be mentioned, as it confirms what is said by others. Locustraum plerumque tanta conspicitur in Africâ frequentia, ut instar nebulæ volantes solis radios operiant. **Ar

i

bores ipsas pariter cum frondibus ac fructu esitant. Discessura ova relinquunt, quibus aliæ, tametsi non volant, pullulant; et quibus in locis offenduntur, omnia ad cortices ar borum exedant; magnamque annonæ caritatem, præcipue in Mauritaniâ, relinquunt. vol. 2. p. 769. edit. Elzevir. It is wonderful that persons of learning should be at allin doubt, what the locusts were upon which John the Baptist fed. For we may be assured, that they were real locusts, as they were by no means an uncommon sort of food. The Angidoqayo, are mentioned by several ancient authors: and many nations still feed upon these animals, as we learn from modern travellers. The author above, having spoken of locusts as a curse, adds---verum Arabiæ Desertæ et Libyæ populi locustarum adventum pro felici habent omine: nam vel elixas, vel ad solem desiccatas, in farinam tundunt, atque comedunt. Agatharchides of Cnidus speaks to the same purpose---περι Ακριδοφάγων. Υπο δε την εαρινήν ισημεριαν----παμμεγεθων ακρίδων πλη

θος αμύθητον εκ της ανισόρητε μετα των ανεμων παρα Vivera xweas: and he says, that they served for food to the natives. Geog. Græci Min. V. 1. p. 42. Diodorus Siculus seems to have borrowed from hence his account of the same people.---Κατα την εαρινην ώραν παρ' αυτοις Ζεφυ βος και Λίβυες παμμεγέθεις εκριπτεσιν εκ της ερημε πληθος ακρίδων αμύθητον. εκ τοτε δαψιλεις τροφας έχεσι απαντα τον βίον. 1. 1. p. 162. Elian says the same of the rerri, or cicada.

TETTIYAS ETI DELTOV. Hist. Animal. 1. xii. c. vi. p. 667. τεττίγων αφειδως εχεσι. ibid. See also Hasselquist, p. 232.

Francis Alvarez speaks of the same calamity, in his account of the country of Prester John." In this country, and in all the do"minions of Prete Janni, there is a very

66.

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great and horrible plague. This arises from

an innumerable company of locusts, which

eat and consume all the corn and trees.

*

And the number of these creatures is so

great, as to be incredible: and with their "number they cover the earth, and fill the "air in such wise, that it is an hard matter 66 to

pro

see the sun and if the damage which they do were general through all the "vinces, and realme of Prete Janni, the peo

K

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ple would perish with famine.

But one year they destroy one province; sometimes "two or three of the provinces: and where

ever they go, the country remaineth more "ruined and destroyed than if it had been set "on

4

on fire." The author says, that he exoreised them, upon their invading a district where he resided: and, if the reader will believe him, it was attended with a very salutary effect. He proceeds--"In the mean time "there arose a great storme and thunder to"wards the sea; which came right against "them. It lasted three hours, with an ex"ceeding great shower and tempest; and "filled all the rivers. And when the water "ceased, it was a dreadful thing to behold the "dead locusts; which we measured to be "above two fathoms high upon the banks of "the rivers.--At another time I went with "the ambassador Zaga Zabo---to a town and "mountain called Agaon: and we travelled "five days journey through places wholly

waste and destroyed.The trees were "without leaves, and the barkes of them were "all devoured; and no grass was to be seen. "And if we had not been warned and advised "to carrie victuals with us, we and our cattel

"had perished. The country was all cover"ed with locusts without wings; and they "told us that they were the seede of them, "which had eaten up all: and that as soone

́as their winges were grown, they would seeke "after the old ones. The number of them "was so great; that I will not speake of it, "because I shall not be believed.While

we abode in the same signorie of Abugunn, "in a place called Aquate, there came at "another time such an infinite swarm of lo

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custs, as it is incredible to declare. They "began to come about three of the clock in "the afternoon; and ceased not till midnight.

The next day in the morning they began "to depart; so that by nine there was not

แ

one of them left; and the trees remained without their leaves. The same day came "another squadron; and these left neither bough nor tree unpilled. They continued "the space of five days.The compass that "these locusts took was nine miles.The

"

country did not seem to be burnt up, but "rather to be covered with snow, by reason "of the whitenesse of the trees; which were "all pilled."

All the western coast of Africa about Congo

and Angola; the regions also about the Gambia and Senegal, and of Northern and Southern Guinea, are liable to the same misfortunes. Barbot accordingly tells us, in speaking of Upper Guinea---"Famines are some years oc"casioned by the dreadful swarms of grass

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hoppers or locusts, which come from the "eastward, and spread all over the country "in such prodigious multitudes, that they "darken the air, passing over head like a

66

mighty cloud. They leave nothing that is 26 green, wherever they come, either on the "ground or trees; and they fly so swift from

place to place, that whole provinces are de"voured in a short time. Thus it may rightly

be affirmed, that dreadful storms of hail "and wind" (he might have added---of rain, and thunder, and of fire mingled with rain), "and such like judgments from heaven, are "nothing to compare to this."

But the most grievous calamity of this kind happened to the regions of Africa in the time of the Romans; and particularly affected those

Churchill's Collection, vol. 5. p. 33. The like in South Guinea mentioned by Barbot, p. 221. also in the Atlantic, p. 539 See also Nieuhof's Account of the Gold Coast, Astley's Collection, vol. 3. p. 420. and Cada Mosta.