and Cashna, terminating, as is supposed, in some lakes eastward; and the Nile, which, dividing Egypt into t charges itself into the Mediterranean, after a prodigiou its source in Abyssinia. The most considerable mountains the Atlas, a ridge extending from the Western Ocean, to the name of Atlantic Ocean, as far as Egypt. It had its king of Mauritania, a great lover of astronomy, who us the stars from its summit; on which account the poets rep bearing the heavens on his shoulders. The mountains of th tending themselves between Abyssinia and Monomotap are still higher than those of Atlas. Those of Sierra 1 Mountain of the Lions, which divide Nigritia from Gu tend as far as Ethiopia. These were styled by the ancien tains of God, on account of their being subject to thund ning. The Peak of Teneriffe, which the Dutch make th dian, is about two miles high, in the form of a sugar-lo tuated on an island of the same name near the coast. capes or promontories in this country are Cape Verd, so the land is always covered with green trees and mossy gr the most westerly point of the continent of Africa. Good Hope, so denominated by the Portuguese, when the round it in 1489, and discovered the passage to Asia. It is extremity of Africa, in the country of the Hottentots; an rendezvous of ships of every nation who trade to India, half way from Europe. It is at present in the possession of who took it from the Dutch in September 1795. Ther strait in Africa, which is called Babel-Mandel, and joins with the Indian Ocean. The situation of Africa for commerce is extremely favou ing as it were in the centre of the globe, and having the nearer communication with Europe, Asia, and America, the other quarters has with the rest. That it abounds wit have not only the testimony of the Portuguese, the Dutc lish, and the French, who have settlements on the coast of that of the most authentic historians. It is, however, the of Africa, that, though it has 10,000 miles of sea-coast, large, deep rivers, it should have no navigation, nor receiv fit from them; and that it should be inhabited by an innum ple, ignorant of commerce, and of each other. At the these rivers are the most excellent harbours, deep, safe, calm from the wind, and capable of being made perfectly secure cations; but quite destitute of shipping, trade, and merch where there is plenty of merchandize. In short, Africa, th quarter of the globe, stored with an inexhaustible treasure, a under proper improvements, of producing so many things, de well as convenient, within itself, seems to be almost entirely not only by the natives, who are quite unsolicitous of r benefits which nature has provided for them, but also by civilized Europeans who are settled in it, particularly the P villages, inhabited chiefly by fishermen, who caught great plenty of fish, long cotton nets, which they make themselves, and use nearly in the same m are used in Europe." Those who would see more concerning this celebrate the different opinions and notices of ancient and modern geographers an relative to its rise, course, and termination, may consult the ample and ingen tion on that subject, in Major Rennell's Geographical Illustration of Afric to Mr. Park's Travels. Africa once contained several kingdoms and states eminent for the liberal arts, for wealth and power, and the most extensive commerce. The kingdoms of Egypt and Ethiopia, in particular, were much celebrated; and the rich and powerful state of Carthage, that once formi. dable rival to Rome itself, extended her commerce to every part of the then known world; even the British shores were visited by her fleets, till Juba, who was king of Mauritania, but tributary to the republic of Carthage, unhappily called in the Romans, who, with the assistance of the Mauritanians, subdued Carthage, and, by degrees, all the neighbouring kingdoms and states. After this the natives, constantly plundered, and consequently impoverished, by the governors sent from Rome, neglected their trade, and cultivated no more of their lands than might serve for their subsistence. Upon the decline of the Roman empire, in the fifth century, the north of Africa was over-run by the Vandals, who contributed still more to the destruction of arts and sciences; and to add to this country's calamity, the Saracens made a sudden conquest of all the coasts of Egypt and Barbary, in the seventh century. These were succeeded by the Turks; and both being of the Mahomedan religion, whose professors carried desolation with them wherever they came, the ruin of that once flourishing part of the world was thereby completed. The inhabitants of this continent, with respect to religion, may be divided into three sorts; namely, Pagans, Mahomedans, and Christians. The first are the more numerous, possessing the greatest part of the country, from the tropic of cancer to the Cape of Good Hope; and these are generally black. The Mahomedans, who are of a tawny complexion, possess Egypt, and almost all the northern shores of Africa, or what is called the Barbary coast. The people of Abyssinia, or the Upper Ethiopia, are denominated Christians, but retain many Pagan and Jewish rites. There are also some Jews in the north of Africa, who manage all the little trade that part of the country is possessed of. There are scarcely any two nations, or indeed any two of the learned, who agree in the modern divisions of Africa; and for this very reason, that scarcely any traveller has penetrated into the heart of the country; and consequently we must acknowledge our ignorance of the bounds, and even the names of several of the inland nations, which may be still reckoned among the unknown and undiscovered parts of the world; but, according to the best accounts and conjectures, Africa may be divided according to the following table: 793 Tr.with or belong to Babel-Mandel All Nations 3,600 Caulausia Ditto 1,000 Joanna Ditto 168,coo St. Austin Ditto 1,840 Mauritius French Bourbon, ditto 2,100 Bourbon St. Helena, in the Atlantic Ocean St. Helena Ascension, ditto St. Matthew, ditto St. Thomas, Anaboa, Ditto Prince Island, Fer- ditto nandopo Having given the reader some idea of Africa, in general, with the principal kingdoms, and their supposed dimensions, we shall now proceed to describe particularly the more considerable countries, as far as they are known to Europeans from the accounts of the latest travellers, beginning, as usual, from the north, with Egypt and the States of Barbary. BOUNDARIES.] IT is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, North; by the Red Sea, East; by Abyssinia, or the Upper Ethiopia, on the South; and by the Desert of Barca, and the unknown parts of Africa, West. AIR.] It is observed by M. Volney, that during eight months in the European. "During the whole of this season, the air is i sky sparkling, and the heat oppressive to all unaccustomed to other months are more temperate. The southerly winds w times blow in Egypt are by the natives called poisonous wind: winds of the Desert. They are of such extreme heat and arid animated body exposed to them can withstand their fat: During the three days which it generally lasts, the streets ar and woe to the traveller whom this wind surprises remote fr when it exceeds three days, it is insupportable. Very fre inhabitants are almost blinded with drifts of sand. medied by the rising and overflowing of the Nile. These e SOIL AND PRODUCE.] Whoever is in the least acquaint terature, knows that the vast fertility of Egypt is not owing tle falling in that country), but to the annual overflowing o It begins to rise when the sun is vertical in Ethiopia; and rains fall there, viz. from the latter end of May to September times October. At the height of its flood in the Lower Egy is to be seen in the plains but the tops of forests and fruit-t towns and villages being built upon eminences either natur cial. When the river is at its proper height, the inhabitant a kind of jubilee, with all sorts of festivities. The banks, which confine it, are cut by the Turkish basha, attended by his but, according to captain Norden, who was present on the oc spectacle is not very magnificent. When the banks are cut, is let into what they call the Chalige, or grand canal, w through Cairo, from whence it is distributed into cuts, for their fields and gardens. This being done, and the waters be retire, such is the fertility of the soil, that the labour of the man is next to nothing. He throws his wheat and barley ground in October and May. He turns his cattle out to gra vember, and, in about six weeks, nothing can be more char the prospect which the face of the country presents, in rising getables, and verdure of every sort. Oranges, lemons, and ot perfume the air. The culture of pulse, melons, sugar-canes, plants which require moisture, is supplied by small but reg from cisterns and reservoirs. Dates, plantains, grapes, figs, trees, from which wine is made, are here plentiful. March are the harvest-months, and they produce three crops; one o tuces and of cucumbers (the latter being the chief food of the tants), one of corn, and one of melons. The Egyptian pas equally prolific, most of the quadrupeds producing two at a t the sheep four lambs a year. ANIMALS.] Egypt abounds in black cattle; and it is said inhabitants employ every day 200,000 oxen in raising water grounds. They have a fine large breed of asses, upon which th tians ride, those people not being suffered by the Turks to ride other beast. The Egyptian horses are very fine; they never t walk well, and gallop with great speed, turn short, stop in ar and are extremely tractable. The hippopotamus, or river-h amphibious animal, resembling an ox in its hinder parts, with like a horse, is found in Upper Egypt. Tigers, hyænas, camel: lopes, apes with the head like a dog, and the rat called ichn are natives of Egypt. The cameleon, a little animal someth sembling a lizard, that changes colour as you stand to look upc is found here, as well as in other countries. The crocodile w |