be included the inhabitants of the great island of Madagascar; who, because their language contains probably about 100 or 150 words of Malayan, are absurdly supposed by some writers to be of the Malayan race, which they no more resemble than they do Europeans. The introduction of such terms has in fact been satisfactorily accounted for by the drifting of boats with crews of Malays from the shore of the island of Sumatra, two or three authentic examples of which have occurred within our own times. The fact of such occurrences having taken place Is a sufficient answer to the apparent difficulty of open boats with their crews performing a voyage which cannot be less than 3000 nautical miles. The manner in which such events would take place is, we think, obvious enough. A trading or fishing boat with a few cocoa nuts, affording meat and drink to the crews, and known to be a constant sea-stock in such cases, driven from the coast of Sumatra in the height of the N. E. monsoon, would in due course be carried into the S. E. trade wind, and going with a flowing sheet before the wind (the only course she could pursue), would be carried to the shore of Madagascar in a shorter time and with more safety than might at first be imagined. The common to it with Europe and Asia. carnivorous animals of Africa are 66 in number, of which 14 only are found in other parts of the world. The most remarkable of these is the lion, which is known historically to have once existed in the east of Europe and west of Asia. With the exception of an inferior variety found in some parts of northern Hindostan, this animal, so renowned in the fable, poetry, painting, and sculpture of almost every nation of the old world, from China to Spain, is now confined to Africa (Leonum arida nutrix); which it ranges from its N. to its S. extremity. Panthers, leopards, and many small species of the feline race also exist; and the cat has been domesticated, though it be much more rarely found in this state than in Europe, Asia, or even America. Of the Canine family, Africa contains the dog, wolf, fox, jackal, and hyena. The dog has not been found there in the wild state, but many varieties exist in a semi-domesticated condition, living in troops in the towns and villages, as it does in almost all the countries of Asia. The Africans have never, that we are aware of, used it for food or labour, or even for the chase. Jackals and foxes are numerous. Africa may be Such is a brief and necessarily imperfect considered the peculiar country of the hyena; account of the races of men inhabiting Africa. for of four existing species one only, belonging The subject is indeed full of difficulty; not only to Hindostan, is found out of its limits. from its extent, variety, and complexity but also the Viverra, or civets, several species exist in from the imperfect information, and indeed in Africa; among which is the true civet cat, domost cases the entire ignorance, which exists re-mesticated by the natives to produce civet; and garding it. The number of different nations, a species of the Mongoos, viz. the celebrated and even of distinct languages, is proportional Ichneumon, or rat of Pharaoh. Of bears, which to the barbarism of the people; and there is no either still exist, or are known to have existed, quarter of the globe, America excepted, in which in almost every country of Europe, Asia, and the number of both is so great. In our inquiry America, no example has yet been found in Africa. we have been able to detect at least 200 languages, and indeed the empire of Bornou alone is said to contain no less than thirty. Amount of Population. - There are no means whatever by which to form any estimate of the population of Africa. Hence the great discrepancy among the guesses that have been made of its amount. According to Balbi it contains 60,000,000, whereas Malte- Brun gives it 70,000,000, and the Weimar Almanac 101,000,000. III. Animals of Africa.-These, at its northern extremity, where it approaches Europe, and at its eastern, where it approaches, or rather joins Asia, are generally the same as those of these two portions of the globe; but throughout its greater part they are not only different from the European and African species, but equally also from the animals of the two portions of America, and from those of the Oceanic continent and islands. We shall confine our observations chiefly to those more immediately subservient to the uses of man. Of 1270 known species of terrestrial Mammalia there have been discovered in Africa, although more imperfectly explored than any other portion of the globe, no fewer than 290, of which 242 are peculiar to this continent. Of the Quadrumana, comprehending apes, monkeys, and lemurs, there are 55 species, of which 48 are peculiar to it; not one of them being identical with the species found in Asia or America. The most remarkable of the whole tribe is the Simia troglodytes, or chimpansee, which, after a careful anatomical comparison with the orung utan of Borneo, is now considered to make in physical formation a nearer approach to man than the latter, while it is unquestionably more lively and intelligent. Of the Cheiroptera, or bats, there are 30 species in Africa, 4 of which only are Of The Marsupial order of animals, or that of which the females have a double womb, is wholly wanting in Africa, as it is in Europe and continental Asia. Of the Rodent Mammalia, or gnawers, Africa yields many species of rats, squirrels, and four or five species of hare; while the rabbit is thought to have been originally brought to Europe through Spain from the African coast of the Mediterranean. The Pachydermata, or thick-skinned order, is very abundant; more so indeed than in any other part of the world. We find among these the horse, ass, zebra, dow, and quagga; the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, common hog, and lingallo or African boar. Although the horse cannot be asserted to be a native of Africa, not being found in the wild state, it has been domesticated there from the earliest ages of history. The Numidians had their cavalry when the Romans first became acquainted with them; and the horse does not appear to have been a stranger even to the ancient Egyptians; though among the mummies of quadrupeds found in the catacombs that of this animal does not appear. The most improved of the Negro tribes possess the horse, and have often a numerous cavalry; but, like Asiatics, generally the Africans do not apply the horse to draught or burthen, and confine its use to war or pleasure. When the Arabs conquered Egypt and northern Asia, they introduced their own breed, which, mixed in some degree with the native one, constitutes the barb and Egyptian horse-little inferior to the pure Arabian blood itself. The Dutch and English introduced into the colony, at the southern extremity of the continent, their respective national breeds; and the soil and climate of Africa being found generally congenial to the constitution of the horse, it has thriven and multiplied there as every where else. It The with the fat tail, of from 10 to 30 pounds weight, the same which is so general in Persia, Arabia, The ass is most probably not a native of and Tartary; and which, though long looked Africa, or we should still, in a country so little upon as a rarity and a monstrosity, is probably occupied by man, find it in its wild state, as we as extensively diffused over the globe as the do in so many countries of Asia. It has, how-variety more familiar to us. The wool and ever, been introduced into Egypt and Barbary, flesh of the fat-tailed sheep are greatly inferior possibly by the Arabs, and thrives extremely to those of our own breed; but the flesh of the well in both. The zebra, the dow, and the lamb is thought to be superior. There are said quagga, quadrupeds peculiar to Africa, and to be but two species of deer - one of which is beautiful, at least as to colour, are found in the common fallow deer-existing in this controops all over its arid plains and deserts. But tinent, and these are confined to the countries from a natural indocility or waywardness of bordering the Mediterranean. This is compentemper, or from the unskilfulness of the African sated by the existence of not less than 60 species people, probably, indeed from both causes,——— of antelope, all peculiar to it; a number far and the possession of the horse and ass, they have exceeding that of the genus found in every other never been tamed and applied to economical uses. part of the world. Some of the species, as the Ruminating animals are not less abundant than gazelle, do not exceed a foot and a half high, the Pachydermata. Of the 157 species of those and are remarkable for the beauty and gracefulwhich are ascertained to exist, 73 are found in ness of their form. Others are equal in size Africa; and, with the exception of 10, all of them to a large ass or zebra; as the gnu, which has are peculiar to it. The dromedary, or single- the body, tail, and paces of a horse. The most humped camel, is now abundant in all the dry numerous species is perhaps the springbok; parts of Africa, and is the principal beast of which, in the wide plains of southern Africa, is burthen. In the earliest portion of scriptural said to be found in herds of 10,000, or even history it is mentioned as being employed in 50,000. Not one of the whole family has ever carrying on the trade between Syria, Arabia, and been domesticated for the purposes of food or Egypt, and therefore it is fairly concluded that labour by the natives, as the rein and fallow deer it was well known to the ancient Egyptians. have been in Europe. is also found sculptured on some of the earliest The elephant is found in all the wooded and Egyptian architectural monuments. Egypt, how-low parts of Africa, from the northern limits of ever, from position, physical character, and civi- the great desert to the southern cape; and genelization, was always more an Asiatic than an rally in greater numbers than any where else in African country; and from the fact of the the world, if we except Ceylon and the countries camel's existing there, its general diffusion over lying between Hindostan and China. the country cannot be inferred. It does not African elephant differs, specifically, from the appear to have been known in the portion of Asiatic. The crown of the tooth is marked by Africa lying along the coast of the Mediter- a lozenge instead of ribbon stripes; the hind ranean during its possession by the Romans; foot has three toes instead of four; the forehead and it seems not improbable, therefore, as some is convex instead of concave, and the ears are have conjectured, that its general diffusion over longer. In point of size, general form, sagacity, the continent was the work of the Arabs, after and docility, there is probably no great difference. their adoption of the Mohammedan religion in No native African people, that we are aware of, the 7th century. The Giraffe, known to the ever tamed the elephant. When an African is Romans, and used in their games, is exclusively told that this is done in the East, he is as increan inhabitant of the dry parts of Africa. Not- dulous as a European would be if an African told withstanding its size, strength, and gentleness, him that his countrymen tamed the hippopotait has never been applied, in its domesticated mus, and used it as a beast of burden. The only state, to any useful purpose of man; and from hint we have seen that such a thing may be, its eccentric and awkward form and movement, is given by Mr. Campbell, the African traveller, is probably unfit for any. who informs us that he was told by a people of Horned cattle, or oxen, of many varieties, are the interior whom he encountered, that another general among all the more civilized tribes of people more advanced in civilization than themAfrica; and in Egypt the existence of the ox selves, the Mahalasley, "wear clothes, ride on is coeval with the earliest records of the country. elephants, climb into their houses, and are gods.' Mummies of this animal have been found in That the elephants used by the Carthaginians the catacombs, supposed to be not less than three were of the African species there cannot, we thousand years old. Whether the original stock think, be the least question. One of the conwas imported or was indigenous, cannot be as-ditions of the treaty forced upon them by the certained; but most probably the latter, for the common ox in the wild state is not known to exist in any part of this continent as it does in many parts of Asia and its islands, and as it is known once to have done in Europe. The buffalo (Bos bubalus) has been naturalised in Egypt since the middle ages, having been introduced from India through the conquests of the Arabs. One species of the ox family only is ascertained to be indigenous to Africa, and is peculiar to its southern extremity. This is the buffalo of the Cape, or Bos Caffer; an animal of great size and ferocity, which has never been tamed, and is probably untameable. Romans after the battle of Zama implies this clearly enough. They were to surrender all the elephants which they had tamed, and to tame no more for the future. It is obvious enough that had the elephants been Asiatic, they would only have been brought to Africa when already tamed. The Carthaginians being of an Asiatic, and not an African stock, form no exception to our previous remark. The Egyptians, the only people of Africa from whose ingenuity we might have looked for the domestication of the elephant, had "Perfugas, fugitivosque, et captivas omnes rederent Romanis, et naves rostratos, præter docem triremes fraderent, elephantosque, quos haberent domitos; neque domarent alios." (Livy, lib. xxx. c. 37.) The elephants of Pyrrhus were, no doubt, Astatic, and received through the Macedonian conquests. His invasion of Italy was but 47 years after the Indian invasion of Alexander; and therefore con Sheep and goats exist throughout all the drier parts of the continent; but neither are found in the wild state, and have probably been intro-sidering the long age of the elephant, the very individual animals in duced. The prevalent variety of the first is that brought from the banks of the Indus. the army of Pyrrhus may have been the same which Alexander none to tame; nor was their highly cultivated mesticated from the Carthaginians. It is very country well suited for their use, if they had. remarkable that it is now wholly unknown to As a contrast to the Africans, it may be ob- any African people in the domestic state, except served, that there is no people of Asia whose as imported by European colonists - a singular country produces the elephant by whom it has not proof of apathy and dulness in the whole race. been domesticated and used as a beast of bur- This bird seems to supply. in Africa, the place den, from the Hindoos, the most civilized, to the of the common fowl of Europe, the peacocks Malays, the least so. The Africans consider the and pheasants of Asia, and the turkeys and alecelephant only as a beast of chase, and hunt it tros of America. The ostrich, which once exfor its ivory, its flesh, and its hide; and the herds tended to the nearest parts of Asia, is now conare so numerous, and the population so scanty, fined to Africa; and the Arabs are said to have that the supply, according to present circum-introduced the practice of breeding them in the stances, appears for all practical purposes inex- domestic state, in order to obtain their feathers haustible. in greater perfection. Of our summer birds of passage many pass their winters in Africa; as the cuckoo and nightingale, some swallows, and the common quail and land-rail. The cheerful and active period of their lives, therefore, is passed among us, and the note of the cuckco and song of the nightingale are wholly unknown to the people of Africa. The woods of tropical Africa abound with birds of the parrot family, from those which are no bigger than a lark, to some which are equal in size to a large falcon. As in South America, the Indian Islands, and Australia, they are remarkable for the variety and brilliancy of their plumage, their dissonant and incessant notes, and their utter inutility to man. Proportional to the number of graminivorous and frugivorous birds, and of wild mammals and reptiles, is that of eagles, hawks, vultures, and other birds of prey. The two-horned rhinoceros, of a different species from the two-horned rhinoceros of Sumatra, inhabits the same localities as the elephant, and is hunted with the same avidity by the natives for its tough and thick hide and its horns. Traces for ox-harness, but above all shields, are made of the former, which are in repute throughout all eastern countries; and the latter are used for their supposed medical virtues, and are a regular object of traffic. It may be observed of this species of rhinoceros, as well as of the two which belong to India and its islands, that their docility and capacity for domestication are not inferior to those of the elephant itself. The slow and sluggish movements of this animal make it, notwithstanding these qualities and its great strength, an unsuitable beast of burthen, especially in countries where the elephant, the ox, the buffalo, and the horse exist; and, consequently, it has never been applied to such a purpose. Among Reptiles are to be found a great variety of the lizard family, from the chameleon up to the crocodile; and of snakes (a few poisonous, The hippopotamus is exclusively a native of but the greater number harmless), some species Africa, inhabiting the rivers and fresh-water not exceeding a few inches long, up to the pylakes of the whole continent, from the southern | thon, which measures 30 feet in length. All the confines of the Sahara nearly to the extreme species of this class differ from those of Asia cape. It was well known to the Greeks and and America, not to say of Europe, or the Romans as an inhabitant of the Nile; from Indian Islands, or Australia. Africa, of course, which, however, it has now disappeared every abounds in the insect tribe. Of these the bee where below the third cataract. In the rivers alone is directly useful to man, but has never and lakes of tropical Africa it still exists in un-been domesticated by the Africans. Africa yields diminished numbers, being from its locality diflicult to come at by the hunter. The common hog, in the wild state, is said to be found at the two extremities of the continent, where it approaches Europe and Asia, viz. Barbary and Egypt; but there is no evidence of the existence, anywhere else in Africa, of this animal, which was at one time general throughout Europe, and is still general throughout Asia and its large islands. Its place seems to be taken by the lingallo, or masked boar. This animal, which has teeth of a formation and growth resembling those of the elephant, and a large pendulous protuberance supported by a bony process on each check, giving it a hideous appearance, is not only found on the continent, but in Madagascar and the Canary Islands. It has never been domesticated, but the common hog has to a limited extent. no useful insect, such as the kermes of Europe and Western Asia, the lac of Eastern Asia, or the cochineal of South America. IV. Plants of Africa. In reference to its Flora, Africa may be divided into three regions, the Atlantic, the Equinoxial, and the Austral; to which we may add the principal islands on its western and eastern side, viz. the Canaries and Madagascar, with the Mauritius and Bourbon. The plants of the Mediterranean coast differ little or nothing from those of the opposite shore of Andalusia. Wheat, barley, maize, rice, the grape, the fig, and olive, thrive here in perfection, as does the date. It is not until we reach as far south as Egypt that the Flora assumes a character intermediate, as it were, between European and Tropical; and here, to the plants already enumerated, may be added the sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, and coffee. In Upper Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, we have a somewhat peculiar vegetation; and here we find the acacias, which produce gum-arabic, and the cassias, which yield the medicinal senna. In Abyssinia first appears the Scitamineous family of plants, the same which in the East yields ginger, turmeric, and cardamoms. The coffee plant still grows wild in the same region, which is indeed supposed to be its native country. The native Ornithology of Africa does not present the same number of subjects subservient to man as that of Asia, or even of America. The common fowl, goose, and duck are all of them probably strangers, and there is no doubt that this is the case with at least the first. They are bred by the native inhabitants, but only to a very limited extent. The only bird which Africa has contributed to the poultry-yard is the Guinea hen; of this genus there are four or five species In the Equinoxial part of Africa a totally new found abundantly on the western coast and its vegetation presents itself, entirely differing from islands. The bird, as its Latin name, Numila, that of Europe, and almost equally so from implies, was known to the Romans, and bred those of tropical Asia and America. One conby them. Most probably they received it do-spicuous forest tree of great size, however, the V. Religion.-Fêticism, in its most degrading and offensive form, is the religion of the greater number of the inhabitants of Africa, being professed by almost all the Negroes, and by nearly all the natives of Madagascar. They appear generally to admit a good and an evil principle, have their lucky and unlucky days; and their priests claim the power of preserving men and animals from the influence of evil spirits. Several of these nations have a national and supreme fétiche: the people called Ouidah or Widah, for instance, worship the serpent, an order of priests and priestesses being set apart to minister to this reptile. The Bissagos worship the cock; and the tribes on the Bight of Benin, who regard their own shadow as a fétiche, have a lizard for their principal divinity. Other tribes worship alligators, hyenas, leopards, &c.; and in some Agows, who reside near the sources of the Nile in Abyssinia, have, with less absurdity than most others, from time immemorial, offered sacrifices to the genius of that river. The narrative of the Moor Sydy Hamed represents the inhabitants of Wassenah and some tribes of Nubia, and of other countries in the region of the Nile and the interior of Africa, as worshippers of the moon; and those contiguous to Cape Mesurado in Guinea as worshippers of the sun. The Galla hold as sacred certain trees and stones, the moon, Bombar pentandrum, is common to the three continents. Another forest tree of vast magnitude, the Baobab, or Adansonia, is supposed to afford examples of the oldest living organized matter on our globe; some specimens, by counting the number of their concentric circles, being estimated at near 6,000 years old. The African oak, or teak, which, however, is probably neither the one nor the other, though its botanical place has not been as yet ascertained, is an inhabitant of the same region. The bamboo, so common and so useful in Asia and America, is unknown to Africa.. Whole plains in this quarter are occasionally overspread with the papyrus plant, to the exclusion of every other. Peculiar palms of course abound; among which, however, the date is no longer found. The most useful of these is that which yields the oil of commerce, the Elais Guineensis. Whether from the barba-instances immolate to them human victims. The rism of the natives or the uncongeniality of the soil and climate, corns are little grown, and their place is taken by hardy farinaceous roots, pulses, &c.; as the Dioscoria or yam, the Arachis or ground nut, and the pigeon pea or Cytisus cojan. The fruits of tropical Africa, in comparison with those of Europe, Asia, the Asiatic islands, or America, are few in number and of indifferent quality. The most remarkable are the nitta or donna (Parkia Africana), a species of custard apple (Anona Senegalensis), the safu, the cream fruit, the negro peach (Janocephalus laurina), the monkey apple, pigeon plums (Chrysohalanus), the Rammee apple (Mammea Africana), and the star apple (Chrysophyllum). The pine apple, a native of America, grows luxuriantly in the forests, as if it were indigenous. As we approach the southern extremity of the continent, a new form of vegetation presents itself, differing essentially from that of every other part of the world, but bearing the nearest analogy to that of Australia. Its character is suited to the arid nature of the soil and climate; and the prevailing genera are euphorbias, aloes, crassulas, and heaths, of endless species, and often of great beauty; plants generally with fleshy leaves, and slender roots, which are nourished more by dew than by the moisture of the earth. The grasses are generally coarse, and forest trees are only found in the moister parts near the banks of rivers. In the Canary Islands the species are for the most part European, but their growth and luxuriance is tropical. The great island of Madagascar has on its western side plants common to Africa, and on its eastern some that are common to the Indian archipelago. But generally both here and in Bourbon and the Mauritius, the Flora is peculiar and local. From this brief sketch of the native Flora of Africa, we shall be disposed to conclude, that although it may be equally varied, grand, and beautiful with those of Asia and America, it yields far fewer objects ministering directly to the uses of man. To Asia, or Egypt (a country African only by position), Africa probably owes the banana, the orange, lime and lemon, the tamarind, the cocoa-nut, cotton, and sugarcane. It may even be conjectured that it owes to the same source, and perhaps through the Phoenician settlers, wheat, barley, the grape, fig, and pomegranate. To America it unquestionably owes maize, tobacco, manioc, and the pine apple. If Africa be excelled by Europe, Asia, and America, in its turn it immeasurably exceeds Australia, which yields neither useful corn, root, nor fruit. and some of the stars. Sometimes the Negroes frame idols with a human countenance; and Capt. Tuckey and Dr. Smith were surprised to see, on the banks of the Zara in the interior of Africa, idols with European figures, and resembling the Egyptian, or rather the old Tuscan statues. The Betjouanas have a kind of highpriest, who ranks as the most important personage after the king. At Dagoumba, in central Guinea, there is a famous oracle, the resort to which renders it the entrepôt of a flourishing commerce. According to M. Douville (who, though referred to by Balbi, is a very doubtful authority), the Cassange, Molouas, Muchingi, Moucangama, and other nations of southern Nigritia, like many tribes in its centre, unite to idolatrous superstitions the horrible practice of human sacrifices; and though of an hospitable disposition, are said to be cannibals. Such are the dreadful aberrations to which uninstructed and uncivilized man is exposed. Among these nations, human sacrifices, according to M. Douville, take place only on the accession of a sovereign or on the occurrence of some great epidemic. The victim is always selected out of the country, and, if possible, at a great distance from the place of sacrifice: it must be a young man or woman, and ignorant of the fate that awaits him or her till the moment of immolation. Should any one reveal the fearful secret, death is the inevitable penalty. During the interval between the selection and the sacrifice the victim is kept with the greatest care, and every possible means is adopted for the purpose of making him fat. On the arrival of the fatal moment, he is suddenly put to death in the midst of imposing solemnities, and in the presence of the king, grandees, and people assembled to witness the spectacle. His body is inanin te. every mark of the most profound veneration and re pect — is referred Culte de Dieur Fetiches (by the President Debrosses), 12mo. 1760, cap. 1. &c. usually quartered, and immediately roasted, to be | portioned out among the spectators according to their rank, and devoured on the spot. But enough of these brutalizing enormities perpetrated in the sacred name of religion. detailing in what respect one barbarous and generally fluctuating system of government differed from another. All with each other. In fact, with but few exceptions, slavery and anarchy reign triumphant throughout Africa. And it would be to no purpose, even if we were accurately informed as to the discrepancies in the forms of government established With the exception of Abyssinia and the co-in different parts, to waste the reader's time by lonies founded in modern times on some points of the African coast, where Christianity is professed, Mohammedanism prevails in all the countries of Africa not devoted to Feticism and idola- VIII. Industry in Africa is at the lowest ebb. try. It is very widely diffused, having extended Except where they are associated with or have itself over the whole of Barbary, Egypt, Nubia, been instructed by Europeans or Arabs, the Afri&c., and being professed by a considerable num- cans have made little progress in the arts. ber of the more advanced Negro nations. Its the more laborious occupations are devolved on introduction has been, perhaps, the greatest females; and in some parts the wives of kings boon ever conferred on Africa, and has tended or petty princes are made to till the land for the materially to improve the habits and morals of support of their barbarian lords. Even the most the people. The Koran is the only recognized necessary arts are in an extremely backward code in many countries; and, what is singular, state. The ground, after being soaked with rain the Arabic is every where throughout Africa, with or covered with the mud brought down by the the exception of Abyssinia, the language used by rivers during the inundation, is not ploughed, but such of the natives as either read or write. It merely scratched with a hoe. There are no was introduced in the first age of the Hegira, and doubt sundry exceptions to the extreme indohas participated but little in the improvements lence, stupidity, and barbarism that seem to that have since been made upon it in Ásia. Ara- distinguish the bulk of the native races. bic has been for some centuries the language Mandingoes have made considerable advances of the Copts or descendants of the ancient Egyp-in civilization, and are advantageously distinguished among the people of the west coast; but The Christianity that prevails in Abyssinia is the Ovas of Madagascar are said to be in this largely alloyed with debasing practices and ob-respect discriminated from the others, and to be servances; and the priests are as ignorant and not only the most industrious people of that great worthless as can well be imagined. With the ex-island, but of the whole African continent, Egypt ception of the Cape Colony, the seats of Christianity in other parts of the continent are too trifling to deserve notice; but a considerable number of Christians of various denominations, and of Jews, are found in countries where Mohammedanism and Fêticism are prevalent. tians. VI. Language. Balbi has given a classification of the people of Africa according to their languages. Perhaps it was impossible to have selected a worse standard. We know little, and sometimes literally nothing, of the people in some very extensive countries, and if it be possible we know still less of their languages. Our knowledge of the latter is indeed in most instances exceedingly imperfect; so that any classification of the people bottomed on it must necessarily be little else than a tissue of errors. The Arabic, as we have just seen, is the learned language of the entire continent. The Berber is the vernacular idiom of the Barbary states; the Sangoa is used in Guinea; and the Poul, the Iolof, &c., bear the names of the people by whom they are spoken. The Ambounda is the language of all the tribes between the Congo and the coast of Mozambique. As was to be expected from the low state of civilization of those by whom they are used, these languages are all miserably poor. The reader will find in the article Abyssinia some account of the language of that singular portion of the African continent. VII. Government.-Most forms of government may be found in Africa. Despotism, however, in its worst and most offensive shape, is by far the more prevalent. In some states there exists a sort of feudal aristocracy, and in others an aristocracy depending on the rude distinctions of superior strength and prowess in war, which participates to a greater or less extent in the rights of sovereignty, and in some they are occasionally shared by the people. Some large states consist of a kind of confederacy of petty chiefs, who, however, are very frequently at war *Those who wish for further details may consult, Balbi, 3d ed. p. 840, &c. The and Barbary excepted. The Ashantees, too, seem to be in this as in some other respects superior to the bulk of the Negroes; and this, indeed, is one of the grounds on which they have been supposed to be not of Negro but of Abyssinian or Ethiopic origin. (Bowditch). It is farther true, as has been remarked by Balbi, that the cotton and other manufactures of Egypt have recently attained to considerable importance. But their progress has been, as every one knows, forced and factitious. In point of fact, too, they are carried on wholly under the superintendence of Europeans, and are no evidence whatever of the improvement of the Africans in manufacturing industry. It is a curious fact, that the smelting and working of metals, which would seem to require a degree of intelligence or of traditional knowledge hardly consistent with their backward state in other respects, is pretty extensively carried on by several of the Negro tribes.—(Balbi, p. 844.). Generally, however, the arts practised by the natives are of the most limited description, and are restricted to those necessary to supply the most indispensable wants. The tanning of leather, the weaving of cotton cloths, and the manufacture of mats are every where carried on; and in parts the articles produced are of a very good quality, and have much beauty. But the natives are for the most part ignorant of the use of the shuttle; and in weaving pass the threads of the woof between those of the warp one after the other, by the unassisted agency of the hand; taking a month or two to despatch as much work as a European could effect by means of his loom in as many hours! In all their works, in fact, they display little contrivance or design, but generally only a sort of indolent, stupid routine.-(Mod. Universal History, xiv. p. 31.) IX. Commerce.. It may appear a singular and not easily explained fact, that notwithstanding the low state of the arts in Africa, and the difficulties of the country, an extensive intercourse has been carried on, from the remotest antiquity, between very distant parts, of that con |