Caffers, or properly Koussis, Caffer being not a national appellation, but an Arabic word, signifying in general terms an unbeliever, and consequently of no precise meaning in geography. The Caffers, or Koussis, are of a bright black colour, tall and stout, and their features are not disagreeable. The clothing of both sexes consists only of hides of oxen, rendered pliant as cloth; but most of them go nearly naked, and are in general tattood. According to M. Vaillant, they believe in a Supreme Being and a future state of rewards and punishments: but they have no external worship, no sacred rites, nor any priests. Instead of these, however, they have conjurors, whom they greatly distinguish and revere. They are governed by a chief, whose power is very limited. He receives no taxes, but has a larger portion of land to cultivate, and a greater number of cattle to tend and feed, in order to support his family and maintain his dignity. He has no troops at command; and has no other authority than that which arises from his being revered as the father of a free people.* M. Vaillant enters into minute details of the manners of the Caffrees, as well as of the nature of their country, for which his amusing work may be consulted. After passing the unknown. coast of Natal, and the bay of Dongola, in advancing towards the north is the country of Sofala, where the Portuguese have a settlement and a fort. The country is said to be fertile, and to contain mines of gold of considerable value. The original natives are black; but a colony of Arabs has been settled on the coast, and their descendants retain the Arabian complexion, with a dialect of the language.

On the north of Sofala is the extensive kingdom of Mocaranga, preposterously called Monomotapa, which is the title. of the monarch, not the name of the kingdom. According to D'Anville's map, the large river Zambezzi, encircles the kingdom on the west and the north. This river is said to derive its source from a vast lake in the interior, and to be in

some places above a league in breadth.

At the distance of

Vaillant's Trav. are written in a pleasant style, and contain some curious observations; but unfortunately they have too much the air of romance to command implicit credit.

about 90 or 100 miles from the coast, it divides into two large branches, forming a delta, and again subdividing, falls into the sea by five mouths, the principal stream being called the Luabo. In the month of April the Zambezzi inundates the low country. A chain of high mountains, called the spine of the world, stretching from north to south, and covered with perpetual snow, is said to pervade the interior. The plain country, however, is exposed to excessive heats; but the soil is in general said to be fertile. Some of the mountainous parts abound in gold. The Portuguese, who engross all the commerce, have a station near the mountains of Fura, about 600 miles within land, where the largest quantities of that metal are found. They have also some fortresses on the coast. According to the imperfect accounts which are given of this country, the government seems to resemble the disor derly feudal system which once prevailed in Europe. The king is acknowledged as paramount sovereign; but the country appears to be under the immediate government of numerous petty chiefs, whose children are retained at court as hostages, in order to ensure their fidelity. The monarch's guards are said to consist of females slightly armed, a circumstance which, if true, exhibits a striking analogy with the system of the far distant court of Dahomey. If our accounts be correct, a feature so similar, and regarded by Europeans as so singu lar, in the political institutions of countries on the opposite sides of this vast continent, between which no intercourse can subsist, and which are in all probability totally unknown to cach other, would induce a conjecture that the system of retaining female guards is an ancient and general practice among the princes of southern Africa. It must, however, be observed, that all our accounts of this extensive and naturally important region, are very imperfect, and none of them recent.*

The same observation may be extended to the countries of Mosambique and Zanguebar, stretching northward from Macaranga. Although the Portuguese possess the important

All our accounts of those countries are by Portuguese authors of the sixteenth century, and all of them are replete with exaggeration and fiction.

stations of Mosambique and Melinda, they do not explore, or at least they do not publish any accounts of those regions, which, excepting the coasts, present only a blank in geography. The Portuguese city of Mosambique, situated on an island about two miles from the continent, in 15° 8' latitude, and 40° 10' east longitude, is large and populous, containing many churches and monasteries. The harbour, which is safe, spacious, and commodious, is defended by a citadel, in which the Portuguese keep a garrison. The trade consists chiefly in gold, elephants' teeth, and slaves.

Melinda, the capital of the kingdom of that name, is also in the possession of the Portuguese, who have a fortress and several churches in the city. Melinda is a Mahomedan kingdom, founded by an Arabian colony; but the inhabitants are a mixture of Pagans, the original natives of the country, Mahomedans of Arabian descent, and Christians, converted by the Portuguese. The productions of this kingdom are rice, sugar, cocoa, and the other tropical fruits. It also affords gold, ivory, ostrich feathers, various kinds of drugs, and other articles common to the equatorial regions of Africa. The coast of Zanguebar is represented in general as marshy and unhealthful. The little kingdom of Quiloa, with that of Mombaza, and the small aristocratical republic of Brava are also dependent on the Portuguese. In proceeding still towards the north, the coast of Ajan presents an extensive tract of sandy deserts, thinly inhabited by a few scattered Arabian tribes. The kingdom of Adel is an Arabian colony, extending from the deserts of Ajan northward to the entrance of the Straits of Babelmandel and Cape Guardafui: the prince and most of the people are Mahomedans. From Sofala, northward as far as to the Red Sea, Arabian colonies are every where found; but the period of their establishment is not recorded in history. The Portuguese, under the famous Vasco di Gama, were the first Europeans who visited these parts; and soon after reduced them under their dominion. At present they may be justly considered as masters of all the eastern coasts of Africa, from Sofala, to the kingdom of Adel, a vast extent of maritime territory, comprising many rich and fertile countries, which, in the hands of an enterprising people, as the Portuguese were

in the sixteenth century, might receive incalculable improvements, and afford vast supplies of national wealth. If the spirit of industry, investigation and enterprise, were resuscitated, and properly encouraged in Portugal, her subjects, being masters of Congo and Angola, Mocaranga, and Mosambique on the opposite coasts of Southern Africa, might open an immense field of geography and natural history. A company of scientific men, attended by 300 or 400 regular troops, might, with safety, explore the whole intervening interior.

ABYSSINIA.

CHAP. I.

Situation.....Extent..... Boundaries.....Face of the Country.........Mountains..... Rivers......Lakes......Mineralogy.....Mineral Waters.....Soil.....Climate..... Vegetable Productions.....Zoology......Natural Curiosities....Antiquities and Artificial Curiosities.

ABYSSINIA is situated in that part of the torrid zone that lies within the northern hemisphere; but its extent and boundaries are so imperfectly known, and so differently defined in books of geography, that the parallels and meridians, within which it is included, cannot be fixed by accurate information. One of our popular works on this science, places Abyssinia between 6° and 20° north latitude, and between 26° and 44° of east longitude; and gives it 920 miles in extent from north to south, and 900 from east to west.* Another, without mentioning the parallels, assigns to this country eleven degrees of latitude, and eight degrees of longitude, on the middle parallel of ten degrees, making a length of 660 geographic, or about 770, or rather by a more exact computation, of 765 British miles from north to south, and a breadth of about 548 of the same miles from east to west. Such disagreements and uncertainties, in regard to countries so little known, ought not, however, to excite our surprise. In regard to its boundaries, which, except to the east, may be considered as undefined, it

Guthrie, Art. Abyssinia.

Pinkerton says 572 geographic, or 550 British miles, which is a manifest error; for eight deg. of longitude in the tenth parallel of latitude, is only 472. Pink. Geog. vol. 2. p. 721.