passes, all the spectators are obliged to appear bare-footed, and commonly kneel. His subjects bow down to the ground, but this ceremony is not required from foreigners. He generally wears a red silk turban. At a public audience Mr. Browne, saw bim seated on his throne, under a lofty canopy of various kinds of stuffs of Syrian and Indian fabric, The Melcks, or ministers, were sitting in a respectful posture, bending down their heads, and behind them was a line of guards, who had caps ornamented in front with a small piece of copper, and a black ostrich feather. Their other dress consisted only of a cotton shirt of the manufacture of the country, Each bore. a spear in his band, and a target on the opposite arm. Behind the throne stood fourteen or fifteen eunuchs, splendidly arrayed in habiliments of cloth or silk, but awkwardly adjusted. The space in front was filled with more than 1500 petitioners and spectators. During the whole ceremony an encomiast stood on the left hand of the monarch, crying out with all his strength. "See the buffaloe, the offspring of a buffaloe, a bull of bulls, the elephant of superior strength, the powerful. sultan, Abd-el-rachman-el-Raschid. May God prolong thy life, O master! May God assist thee and render thee victorious."* Such is the barbaric pomp of the petty monarch of Dar Fur....

The military force does not exceed 2000 men, and yet this number is greatly missed out of the population, and is spoken of as a large army. From this, and a variety of other considerations arising from the state of agriculture, the quantity of produce, and the general appearance of the country, our author, who resided three years in Dar Fur, does not estimate the whole population of the kingdom at a greater number than 200,000 souls. The people being of different tribes, have different languages: several of which are dialects of the Arabic. Their dress is a cotton shirt, blue or white; and they wear on the head a small cotton cap, the white turban, which in the Turkish dominions is permitted to all, being in Dar Fur restricted to those who have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. The women wear a slight cotten cloth round the waist, and another thrown over the shoulders. Those of su

Browne's Travels, p. 236.

perior rank use a very ornamental head-dress, from each side of which a silver chain hangs down on the shoulders, and their legs are adorned, or rather encumbered, with large rings of silver or brass, sometimes of the weight of four or five pounds.* The original inhabitants of Dar Furare a collection of various tribes. Their complexion is for the most part perfectly black, and their hair short and woolly; but their features are very different from those of the negroes of Guinea. The Arabs, who are numerous, retain their native distinctions of feature, complexion, and language. The disposition of the Furians appears to be more cheerful than that of the Egyptians. They are fond of dancing; and in spite of the law of Mahomed, for which they pretend so much zeal, they are not less attached to drinking. A fermented liquor called buza, procures them the enjoyment of intoxication, in which they indulge with the most riotous excess. In 1795, the sultan prohibited the use of this liquor under the penalty of death; but even the edicts of despotism have not been able to extinguish their strong propensity to inebriation, which is still indulged, though with less publicity. Polygamy is extensively practised; and the licentious intercourse of the sexes is indulged with little restraint or regard to decency. Thieving, lying, and cheating in trade, are vices almost universal. In a word, the moral picture of the people is more disagreeable even than the physical circumstances of the country. This description of Dar Fur, by an intelligent traveller, after a residence of three years in that kingdom, might in all probability be, with little variation, applied to most of the petty Mahomedan states in the northern part of the interior of Africa, such as Fezzan, tributary to the dey of Tripoli, Bornou, Cashna, Beerou, Dar: Kulla, and several others, known from the reports of the tra ders, who come with the caravans to the various commercial stations.

Browne's Trav. p. 330. 337.

† Ibid. p. 340.

It is worthy of observation, that although Dar Fur is a great mart of inland trade, especially for slaves, there is no current money. Every thing is transacted by barter. Even the gold and silver coins brought by the caravans from Egypt, are used for ornaments of female dress. Browne's Trav. p. 332.

After reviewing the laborious and perilous attempts of those adventurous travellers, it will not be amiss to examine how far they bave succeeded in illustrating the geography of Africa. Mr. Park, from personal view, has brought to light several Negro and Moorish kingdoms in the western part of the inte rior, and decided a curious geographical question, by ascertaining the course of the Niger from west to east. From information extremely probable, he has also nearly determined the situation of the great central cities of Tombuctoo and Houssa, and developed several important particulars relative to their politics and commerce. Mr. Browne has not only given a minute description of Dar Fur from his own observations, but has also collected from the Jelabs, or travelling merchants, much important intelligence concerning many countries to the south and the west of that kingdom, their situation, distances, &c. according to the method of computation used by the caravans, as well as relating to the origin of the Bahr-el-Abiad, or real Nile.* Mr. Park's travels on the western side terminated at 1° 30, and those of Mr. Browne, on the eastern part, at 28° 8 longitude east from Greenwich. The intelligence obtained by the former extended to 4°, that collected by the latter reached to about 17° east longitude. So far the rays of modern intelligence throw a faint light upon central Africa. Between these meridians is found a deficien. c of 13, or 876 English miles, concerning which all is vague and conjecture. But between the limits of their actual observations, is an interval of twice that extent, or of 1752 miles, a space comprising the cities of Tombuctoo and Houssa, the termination of the Niger, and, in fine, the most interesting part of central Africa, the knowledge of which still remains a desideratum in geography.

See the itineraries containing distances, bearings, and other remarks. Browne's Trav. Append. No. 6.

The distances are calculated on the parallel fourteen degrees, nearly the latitude of Sago and Cobbé.

AFRICAN ISLANDS.

!

Is describing the African islands, it may perhaps appear the clearest arrangement to begin with those that are the nearest to Europe, and to proceed to those that are the most remote from our quarter of the globe, advancing round the continent from the western to the eastern coast.

Madeira, belonging to Portugal, is about fifty miles in length, and twenty in breadth. Funchal, the principal, and indeed the only town of note in the island, is situated in latitude 32° 37' north, and in 17° 01' west longitude. This island is remarkable for its excellent wine, which constitutes the chief article of its commerce. The annual produce of this commodity is computed at 18,000 pipes, of which above 10,000 pipes are annually exported to England. The interior consists of high mountains, visible at the distance of sixty miles; and at the time of its discovery by the Portuguese, the whole island was one continued forest. Funchal, situated in a fertile valley on the south side of the island, is a handsome city, the seat of the governor and the bishop, and contains about 11,000 or 12,000 inhabitants. The population of the whole island is estimated at 64,000. The principal merchants are English and Irish Catholics. Porto Santo, to the north-east of Ma deira, is a small but fertile island. ·

The Canary, or Fortunate islands, belonging to Spain, form an interesting groupe. Seven of these are inhabited, of which Teneriffe is the most remarkable, on account of its celebrated peak. The summit of this mountain is inaccessible, by reason of the snows, except from the middle of July to the end of August; and the cold is always extreme, so as to cause the hands to swell, and the nails to turn black. The peak resembles a cone standing on a small base, and can only be ascended by a zig-zag path on the south side. In the middle of the summit is a conical bason called the caldron, of about 100 yards in diameter, and 50 in perpendicular depth. It is bor dered with calcined rocks, some of which are red, and others

For the description of Madeira, see Voyage de Verdun, vol. 1. p. 57, &c.

white. Around are many little mouths from one to four inches in diameter, which exhale at intervals a thick and foetid smoke. The largest hole, about eight inches in diameter, is within the crater, and emits an extremely hot smoke, accompanied with a noise resembling the bellowings of a bull. About the midway in descending the crater, is a cave, which seems to penetrate to à considerable depth, and to be paved with ice, covered with a depth of above two feet of extremely cold and pure water. In winter, the summit of the peak is covered with a thick snow, of a dazzling brightness resembling polished silver. These islands have an excellent soil, with a pleasant and salubrious climate. They produce wheat, barley, and oats. The celebrated. Canary wine is chiefly the product of Teneriffe and Palma, which also afford considerable quantities of sugar. Gomera is noted for the produce of silk, and the tree which yields the gum called dragon's blood. Laurels, wild olives, cypresses, and pines, are common: but the old tale of the tree in Ferro, which was said to supply the island with water by the dropping of its leaves, may be ranked among those fables, or at least those exaggerations with which geographers, historians, and travellers, have often amused a wondering world. The zoology, of the Canary islands presents most of the domestic animals seen in Europe. Palma, in the island of Canary, is the chief town of the whole, but the governor usually resides in Teneriffe, the most considerable island of the whole groupe. The inhabitants of the seven islands are computed at 140,000, of whom about 64,000 are assigned to Teneriffe..

The Cape de Verde islands belonging to Portugal, are op posite to that African promontory, from which they have des rived their name. They are ten in number, of which St. Jago, in latitude 14 54 north, and longitude 23° 26 west, is the chief, containing Ribira, the principal town and seat of the bishop. The air of these islands is hot and unhealthful, the

圜

For an accurate description of the peak of Teneriffe, see Voyage de Verdun, tom. 1. The latitude of the peak is twenty-eight degrees seventeen minutes, north; longitude, sixteen degrees twenty-three minutes west. W. Ham. Moore's Tables.

+ Hamil. Moore's Tables of latitude and longitude.