56. Tombuctoo, or Timbuctoo, as it is also called, the great commercial emporium of the interior of Africa, is situated near the North Western extremity of Soudan, about 12 miles from the Northern bank of the Nigir, its port upon which is called Kabra. It is a town of ancient foundation, having been built about the commencement of the 13th century, but it is neither so large nor so populous as it has till very lately been supposed, for its circuit is said not to exceed 3 miles, and the number of its inhabitants to be under 15,000. The population is chiefly composed of negroes, for the Moors who actually reside there are few: the houses are described as being generally mud-huts, crowded together in the midst of a barren and sandy desert. Tombuctoo owes all its importance to its central situation, which renders it the grand point of union betwixt the Moors in the Northern part of the continent, the negroes of Senegambia on the West, those of Soudan on the East, and of Guinea on the South; from all these countries caravans repair to it, and for the time very much add to the population and life of the town, which on their departure again relapses into its native dullness. New Birnie, the capital of the kingdom of Bornou, is situated to the S. W. of L. Tchad, and contains about 10,000 inhabitants; it is a town of some importance, from its sovereign being one of the most powerful monarchs in the whole country, having at different times extended his conquests over all the surrounding states as far as Dar-Fur. Kanem lies to the N. of L. Tchad, its capital is Maoo; Begharmi is on the opposite shores of the lake, and its chief town is also called Begharmi, or sometimes Mesna. Dar Saley or Waday is one of the most powerful kingdoms in all Soudan, and has rendered the neighbouring state of Kordofan tributary to it: its chief town is Cobbe, which is one of the principal channels of communication between the people of Nigritia and the Abyssinians, Nubians, and Egyptians. TIBBOO AND TUARICK. 57. The Tibboo inhabit the Eastern part of that extensive desert country which lies between Soudan and the kingdoms on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea: they are bounded on the N. by Fezzan and Barca, on the E. by Egypt and Nubia, on the S. by Dar-Fur, Dar Saley, Kanem, and Bornou, and on the W. by a line extending between the last mentioned country and Fezzan, which separates them from the Tuarick. They are not quite black, and differ altogether both in their appearance and manners from the negroes: they follow a roving, predatory life, and are divided into several tribes, who are constantly making war upon each other, and pillaging the surrounding countries; about one half of them profess the Mahometan religion in a very corrupt form, but the others are pagans. The principal tribes are the Tibboo of Febabo, dwelling on the borders of Barca and Fezzan; the Rock Tibboo or Rshade, so called from their houses being built in the rocks, whose chief town is Abo, a little to the S. ofFezzan; the Tibboo of Bilma,and Tibboo of Gunda, towards the frontiers of Bornou; the Tibboo of Borgoo, whose chief town is Yen, and the Tibboo of Arna, near the borders of Waday.-The Tuarick inhabit the Western part of the great desert country of Sahara, being bounded on the N. by the Barbary States, on the E. by Fezzan and the territory of the Tibboo, on the S. by Houssa and Senegambia, and on the W. by the Moorish tribes dwelling along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. They are a powerful race of people, and their skin is much whiter than that of their Eastern neighbours the Tibboo; they speak the Breber language, and are all Mahometans. They lead a wandering and Nomadic life like the Arabs, and live upon pillage; they are divided into many tribes, and are always at war with the different kingdoms of Soudan, whence they carry off vast 798 Fezzan-Cape Verde, Canary, Madeira, and Western Is. numbers of captives and sell them as slaves. The caravans traversing their territory from the Barbary States to the countries on the Nigir, are obliged to pay them a certain tribute to secure themselves a free and unmolested passage. The principal Tuarick tribes are those of Ghraat on the S. W. frontiers of Fezzan; the Kolluri, who possess the kingdom of Asben to the N. of Bornou; the Tuarick of Agadez, and the Tagama Tuarick, immediately above Houssa.-The Moors and Arabs who wander about the Westernmost parts of the Sahara, are divided into many branches and tribes, as the Trasarts, Labdessebas, Wadelims, Lodajas, Mongearts, Hilil, &c.: some of them trade in the gums which are produced in the forests of the country, but they are all in the practice of plundering such vessels as are wrecked on the coast, and selling the crews into slavery. KINGDOM OF FEZZAN. 58. Fezzan, the ancient Phazania, touches to the N. upon the Regency of Tripoli, and is bounded on all other sides by the Great Sandy Desert: it comprehends a superficial extent of about 136,400 square miles, but its population is thought not to exceed 180,000 souls, and is of a very mixed character, being composed partly of the natives of the surrounding desert, and partly of merchants from all the neighbouring countries. Fezzan is governed by a king, who assumes at present the title of Bey, and whose power is despotic and hereditary; he is altogether uncontrouled in the exercise of his authority, though his dominions have been tributary to Tripoli since the middle of the 16th century, the Bashaw of the latter country annually sending an embassy to receive the stipulated sum either in gold, slaves, or other articles of value. Fezzan was overrun at a very early period by the Saracens, who established in it the Mahometan faith, which has ever since continued to prevail, though many traces of gross paganism are still to be met with: about one half of the inhabitants are negroes, the limits of the black population extending as far Northward as the town of Sebha. Fezzan derives all its importance from its situation rendering it the great depôt for most of the commerce which is carried on between the Northern, Eastern, and Central parts of Africa; hence merchants from the principal Barbary States, as well as from Soudan, Egypt,and even from Nubia, are found dwelling within its limits, and caravans of traders from several of these countries occasionally pass through it. Its capital Mourzouk, is situated in the South Western part of the kingdom, and is the ordinary residence of the sultan or Bey; it is surrounded by strong walls, but is a place of very little consequence, its population not exceeding 2,000 souls. The other chief towns of Fezzan are Sockna, Sebha, Zuela, and Germa, the last of which was formerly called Garama, and was the capital of the Garamantes. THE CAPE VERDE, CANARY, MADEIRA, AND WESTERN ISLANDS. 59. The Cape Verde Islands, the most Southern of those which lie off the N. W. coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, are about 300 miles distant from the promontory whence they derive their name. The principal of them are ten in number, viz. St. Antonio, St. Vincent, St. Lucia,St. Nicholas,Sal, and Buenavista, on the North; and Mayo, Santiago, Fuego or St. Philip, and Brava or St. John, on the South: the nearest of them to the mainland is Buenavista, and the most distant St. Antonio. They unitedly contain a superficial extent of about 1,800 square miles, and 100,000 inhabitants. They were first discovered in the middle of the 15th century by a Genoese in the service of the king of Portugal, and were then inhabited by negroes: the Portuguese, however, have at different times sent out a number of settlers, and have ever since kept possession of them, their governor residing at Porto Praya in the island of Santiago.-The Canary or Fortunate Islands lie off the South Western extremity of Morocco, Forteventura, the nearest of them, being only 45 miles distant from the mainland. There are only seven principal islands, namely, Forteventura, Lancerota, Canary, Teneriffe, Gomera, Palma, and Ferro: of these, Canary is remarkable as having given name to the whole group, Teneriffe on account of its very lofty peak, and Ferro as the place adopted by the old geographers for a First Meridian. The Canary Is. contain about 2,900 square miles, and 180,000 inhabitants; they are under the dominion of the Spaniards, whose viceroy resides at Santa Cruz in Teneriffe, the most important harbour of the whole group. The Canary Islands were completely lost sight of in Europe during the dark ages, till the middle of the 14th century, when the Spanish navigators brought a confused account of their existence; they were not, however, fully explored till fifty years afterwards, when a Norman gentleman conquered most of them, and received the sovereignty of them from Henry 3d., king of Castile, on condition of perpetual homage to the crown of Castile. The aboriginal natives of the Canaries were called Guanches, and defended every mile of their islands against the invasion of the Spaniards with great intrepidity, till being overpowered by superior numbers and discipline, they were at last either exterminated or forced to submit to the ceremony of baptism. The few of them which remained from the massacres which had been committed amongst them, were not, however, able to be kept in that degree of civilization required by their conquerors; the Spanish colonists therefore applied subsequently to the mother country for the introduction of the Inquisition, which was immediately granted, and this horrible engine of state policy so completely effected the purposes of destruction, that not a single original inhabitant can now be found on any one of these fertile and salubrious islands.-The Madeira Is. lie farther out in the Atlantic, at a distance of 240 miles from the Northernmost of the Canaries, and about half as far again from Mogodor on the coast of Morocco. They belong to Portugal, and contain about 520 square miles, and 95,000 inhabitants, who are chiefly Europeans. The only important island is likewise called Madeira; its chief town is Funchal.-The Azores or Western Islands are about 400 miles to the N. W. of Madeira, and nearly twice this distance from the mainland of Africa, as well as from C. St. Vincent, the S. W. extremity of Portugal, from which they lie in a direction due West. The principal islands are nine in number, viz. St. Maria, St. Michael, Terceira, Graciosa, St. George, Pico, Fayal, Flores, and Corvo: of these the most important one is Terceira, the capital of which is Angra, where the Portuguese governor resides. The Azores were unknown to the ancients, and though some description of them was given by the Arabian geographers of the middle ages, they were not visited by Europeans till about the middle of the 15th century, when they were discovered by a Flemish merchant who was driven by stress of weather upon their shores; this led to their being explored by the Portuguese, who have ever since kept possession of them. CHAPTER XXX. AMERICA. 1. America is thought by some to have been alluded to by ancient authors under the name of the Island Atlantis, which they pretend, derived its name from Atlas, Neptune's eldest son, who succeeded his father in the government of it. The most distinct account of this celebrated country is to be met with in the Timæus and Critias of Plato. He describes it as a large island in the Exterior, or Atlantic Ocean, 30,000 stadia in length, and 2,000 in breadth; as lying opposite to the Strait of Gades and the coast of Ethiopia, as exceedingly fertile and productive, and abounding in metals and trees. He farther states that there was an easy passage out of this island into some others, which lay near a large continent, exceeding in dimensions all Asia and Libya. Neptune settled in Atlantis, and distributed it amongst his ten sons, to the youngest of whom he assigned one extremity of it, called Gadir, which in the language of the country was said to denote fertile, or abounding in sheep. The descendants of Neptune reigned over the country during a period of 9,000 years, the government passing down from father to son in the order of primogeniture: they likewise obtained possession of several other countries, and subdued all Europe as far as the borders of Asia Minor, and all Libya to the frontiers of Egypt. Their own immediate territory was a federative republic, established by a law which Neptune, its founder, had promulgated, and himself engraved upon a column within the walls of their great temple. This republic was governed by ten Archons, who ruled over as many provinces, under the guidance of certain established customs, which invested them with the power of life and death over all their subjects. Assemblies were held alternately in each state every five years, in which all public affairs were subjected to deliberation; the offences of citizens were examined by the archons, and punishment pronounced according to the degree of their aggravation. At last, however, this island was submerged in the ocean by some terrible convulsion of nature, and nothing farther was ever heard either about its inhabitants or their institutions: the sea, where it sunk, was rendered so muddy and so full of flats and shelves that it could not be navigated'. 2. The reality and local situation of the island of Atlantis have given occasion to many different opinions. Amongst those, who have advocated its actual existence, some have imagined it referred to America, and others to certain lands, which once united Ireland to the Azores, and the latter to the mainland of the New World. Others, however, are of opinion that Atlantis is the same with the peninsula of Sweden and Norway, whilst some have not scrupled to place it even in more desolate regions, at Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, or Nova Zembla. But it appears far more probable that it never had any existence except in the fanciful imaginations of the poets, or the conjectural speculations of calculating philosophers: the unnavigable sea, which rolled over its demolished wreck, was known to have been frequently navigated, from the days of Pytheas and Hanno to those of the emperor Augustus, not only by the adventurous and unwearied traders of Carthage, but by many others in the employ, and under the dominion of Rome. The Atlantides Insulæ must not be confounded with it, for the minute descriptions of them, which have been handed down to us by some of the ancient historians, completely identify them with the Fortunate or Canary Islands 2. On the other hand, there seems no reason to suppose that such of the ancient philosophers as felt persuaded of the spherical figure of our Earth (and Plato was one of these 3), should be induced to reflect on the little portion of land with which they were acquainted, and to conclude that the whole of the vast surface which remained, was not covered with water. Plato has himself distinctly stated it as his opinion, that the Mediterranean Sea was only a little inlet of the vast Exterior Ocean; and his imaginary description of the great Atlantic Island and Continent, which he placed in it, may have originated in his own mind from a deep investigation of the matter, and a conviction that land would one day be found in that direction. It was the same opinion which, a few centuries since, was entertained by the thoughtful and enterprising Columbus so warmly and zealously, that it supported him through all the discouraging scenes of raillery, abuse, and persecution, which he had to undergo, and which at length so fortunately terminated in his discovery of the conjectural Island of Atlantis in the actual continent of America. But amongst all the ancient authors, who have alluded to the future discovery of a New World, none have predicted it more happily than Seneca, in the following passage from his Medea3: Venient annis Secula seris, quibus Oceanus 3. America, or The New World, may be regarded as an immense island, stretching nearly across the Western Hemisphere, in the same way that the three great continents of the Eastern Hemisphere, being connected together and surrounded by the ocean, likewise form one enormous island. It is The Island of Atlantis is spoken of and alluded to by many other writers: amongst others by Aristotle, Meteor. II. 1; de Cœlo, II. 13: by Ælian, V. Hist. III. 17: by Strabo, II. p. 102: and by Pliny, II. 90; VI. 31. 2 Plutarch, vit. Sertor. 8. 9.-Sallust. Fragm. 489. 588.-Flor. III. 22.— Plin. VI. 36. 37. 3 Phædr. T. I. p. 108, 245; Timæus, IX. 356. 4 Timæus, T. IX. p. 296. 5 Act II. ad fin. washed on the E. by the Atlantic Ocean, on the S. by the Antarctic Ocean, on the W. by the Pacific Ocean, and on the N. by the Arctic Ocean: it is the second in size amongst the four great divisions of the Earth (being inferior only to Asia, and nearly five times as large as Europe), but its population is surpassed by each of the other three. America was discovered, in the year 1492, by Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, who, at different times, made four voyages thither; but it has unjustly derived its name from Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, who, having heard of the discoveries of Columbus, imbibed the desire of distinguishing himself by a similar pursuit, and first visited the New World in 1499. Two years prior to this, Sebastian Cabot, the son of a Venetian pilot, but an Englishman by birth, was despatched from Bristol, his native place, by king Henry 7th, and discovered the islands of Newfoundland and St. John, and sailed down the coast of the mainland as far as Florida. 4. Columbus having had considerable nautical experience, felt satisfied not only that there must be lands still farther to the Westward than those already explored, but that a shorter passage to the East Indies, at that time the great object of Portuguese navigation, might be found in steering in that direction than round the continent of Africa. When he had settled his plan for extending the boundaries of the knowledge of the Earth, he laid his scheme before the senate of Genoa, and, making his own country, for which he bore a filial and sincere affection, the first tender of his services, offered to sail under the banners of that republic, in quest of new regions. Genoa rejected his offer; and Portugal, to whom he next applied, treated him with so much duplicity, that he went himself to Spain, whilst at the same time he sent his brother Bartholomew into England, to make the like proposals to both courts. By both, his schemes were at first slighted, till by the interposition of some zealous friends at the court of Spain, a change was effected in his favour, and a treaty signed with him, by which Ferdinand and Isabella, the sovereigns of Spain, appointed him their High Admiral in all the seas he should discover, and their viceroy in all the islands and continents. He accordingly set sail from Palos, a small sea-port town of Seville in Andalusia, his fleet consisting of only three small vessels, having on board but ninety men; and after surmounting the difficulties of a perilous and mutinous voyage, he discovered, on the 33d day from his departure, one of the Bahama islands, which he subsequently named San Salvador. He was the first European who set foot in the New World which he had discovered, and he took solemn possession of it for the crown of Castile and Leon, with all the formalities observed in the appropriation of new discoveries. From San Salvador Columbus proceeded in his investigations; he saw several islands, and touched on three of the largest: he likewise visited Cuba and Hispaniola. Wherever he went he inquired for gold, and having obtained a certain quantity of the precious metal, and made other arrangements, he took his departure homewards, accompanied by some of the natives, and arrived in the port of Palos, about seven months and a half from the time when he set out thence. Ferdinand and Isabella conferred upon him the highest honours which gratitude or admiration could suggest: all his stipulated privileges were confirmed, his family was ennobled, and another armament was immediately fitted out for him. This consisted of 17 ships, and about 1,500 persons, of whom a large number were men of distinction, destined to settle in the newly discovered countries. 5. Columbus sailed from Cadiz on his second voyage to the New World, in the year 1493. He first reached the Caribbee Islands, and subsequently Hispaniola, where he built a small town, which he named Isabella, in honour of his royal patroness: he then proceeded in quest of new discoveries, but during a tedious voyage of five months, in which he endured every hardship, he only discovered the island |