the cotton fabrics of Egypt have of late acquired great importance. In Tunis linen cloths and shawls are manufactured, which are in great demand throughout Northern Africa. The negroes, though bad hunters, are excellent fishermen, and expert as goldsmiths; they can give steel a good temper, and reduce gold-wire to an extreme fineness. Many work iron and silver, and good cabinet-makers may be found among them. Among many of the negroes the art of dyeing is carried to a certain degree of perfection, and in Bornou the people make cotton cloths of the finest and closest tissue. The Bushmen of South Africa are good forgers, armourers, potters, and carvers. Several tribes in South Africa also work copper mines; and in Congo the people even cut precious stones, and make of them pendants for their ears, bracelets, &c. In fact almost every mechanic art has in one place or another advanced to an astonishing perfection; and sufficient is known to stamp the Africans as a race not devoid of genius or talent, but as a people possessed of many of the prerequisites of civilization as understood in Europe

and America.

From the remotest antiquity Africa has exhibited a vast inland commercial movement, and this still constitutes one of the characteristic features of the continent. The towns of Soudan are visited by caravans, which set out every year from the extremities of Africa to exchange the produce of their own countries, or those of Europe and Asia, for that of Central Africa. Mourzouk, in Fezzan, and Cobbé, in Dar-Fur, are as it were the northern and eastern gates of Soudan, and a large trade is supported with Egypt and Tripoli. The Arabs of Suez have possessed themselves of all the trade which that city carried on with Marocco, and have become, like the Fezzaners and Furians, the immediate agents of the commerial enterprise of Soudan with Moghreb. Many of the inland tribes carry on a large trade with Senegambia and the other colonies on the west coast. In the regions of the Nile, Cairo is the great mart between Africa and Asia, and this great city, by means of the people of Fezzan, &c., and the merchants of Khartum and Berber, has commercial relations with Tunis, Algeria, Fez, and Marocco, and the great towns of Soudan, Nubia, and Abyssinia. Speaking generally, we may say that commerce, to a certain extent, is the principal occupation of several African nations. Omitting the Jews, the Mandingoes, the Fezzaners, the Furians, and others already mentioned, the following are the principal trading people-the Serrawoolis, in Senegambia; the Somaulis; the Ghiberti, and the Movizas: all these carry on extensive transactions in several parts of the continent; several possess ships, and all are expert and able merchants. It is curious also to see the Laoubes, a people among the Jolofs, whose manners and customs resemble those of the Gipseys; and the Kroomen of the Grain Coast, and some other negroes living between Cape St. Ann and Cape Palmas, who leave their country for certain periods, to carry on trade or hire themselves as seamen on board of foreign vessels; and also, to find a great number of the Foulahs and Kenouz performing the same active and laborious duties which are performed in Europe by the Savoyards, Auvergnats, Tyrolese, Gallegos, Friulese, Irish, and others.

The most important commercial towns in Africa are:-Fez, Marocco, and Tangier, in Marocco; Algiers; Tunis; Tripoli; Mourzouk and Ghadames, in Fezzan; Cairo, Alexandria, Khartum, Berber, Suakim, Cossier, and Massuah, in Egypt and Nubia; Adowa, in Abyssinia; Angornou, Bornou, Kano, Saccatoo, and Kashna, in Central Soudan; Koulfa, in Nyffé; Commassie, Grand Bassan, Cape Lahou, Yandi, &c., in Ashantee,

Timbuctoo, Jenneh, Sego, Sansanding, and Kankan, in Western Soudan; Cape Coast, Elmina, Bonny, Calebar, &c., in Guinea; St. Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal; Freetown, at Sierra Leone; Cassanga, Yanvo, Bihi, Bailundo, Missel, Holo-ho, &c., inland; Cabenda, Ambriz, &c., on the coast of Congo; St. Paul de Loanda, Benguela, Mozambique, &c., in Portuguese Africa; and Berbera, in the country of the Somaulis.

The articles most in demand in the interior of Africa, are pistols, muskets, sabres, glass-ware, coarse woollen and silk stuffs, pottery, brass, printed cottons, muslins, writing paper, perfumes, spices, &c. The principal exports are--gold dust, ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather, indigo, senna, wax, &c. ; to which we must still add, SLAVES. Slaves, indeed, form a staple article of the African trade, and in spite of all the laws and regulations made for its suppres sion, the trade is still carried on with the greatest activity on both coasts, and even by way of Tripoli and Egypt. The internal slave-trade, always great, appears even to have increased in consequence of the difficulties attending exportation by sea. The rulers of the Mahomedan states make frequent incursions upon their idolatrous neighbors, for the purpose of procuring slaves for sale; and even the pseudo-Christian Abyssinians seize the Shangallas for the same unhollowed purpose; and we may add, to their shame, Anglo-Americans and Brazilian Portuguese are now the grand encouragers of the traffic; but it is pleasing at the same time to know that the United States' government is opposed, in all its influence, to its continuance.

The circulating medium in African trade, except in the states of Barbary, Egypt, &c., where a civilized currency is used, consists of salt, tibbar, and cowries. Tibbar or gold dust, of which the greater part is gathered in Central Soudan, is current throughout the whole continent, but differs in value according as it is abundant, or otherwise. The want of salt in the interior, and the difficulty of transporting so bulky an article, have so enhanced its value, that pieces of salt are used for money in many places. In the country of the Mandingoes, for instance, a piece of salt 2 feet long, 14 inches broad, and 2 inches thick, is worth from 5 to 10 dollars; in Dar-Fur 12 lbs. weight of salt are equivalent to a slave 14 years of age; and at a greater distance from the place where it is made, the value augments in proportion, till it is worth its weight in gold! Cowries, though of no intrinsic value, are nevertheless the most common money in Soudan, Guinea, and the table-land of Senegambia. These pretty little shells, which are fished in immense quantities at the Maldives, have in the interior of Africa a value nearly ten times their worth in Bengal, where 2,500 cowries are only equivalent to one shilling sterling. The principal current money in Abyssinia consists of pieces of cotton, worth a dollar; and when a smaller sum is required, the piece is cut into proportionate lengths.

The preceding details exhibit, in a great measure, the social condition of the people of Africa; but the following particulars will serve to give a more complete, though necessarily a very imperfect view, of this important subject. Africa presents several indigenous centres of civilization, while for others it is indebted to Europe and Asia; and in one particular to the United States of America. The first and most ancient is found in the region of the Nile, where, before the dawn of history, the Egyptians and the people of Meroë appear to have cultivated the arts and sciences, and where they have left, for the wonder and admiration of mankind, most im posing monuments of their genius and skill. The ancient civilization of Axum and Gondar appears to have emanated from Meroë, while the social

state of Middle and Lower Nubia, and the oases adjoining Egypt, appears to have originated from Egyptian colonists. The other centres of civilization, which are found in Soudan, deserve, no less than the first, the attention of philosophers. The particular character of the social system among the Foulahs and the Sousons, in Senegambia; the progress made by the Ardrahs -a progress which has carried them even to the invention of a species of writing; the imperfect civilization of the Dahomeys, Beninese, Dagoumbas, and other nations of Guinea and Congo; of the Movizas, Bushmen, Maquinis, and others, in South Africa,-affords some reason to believe that these people, free from foreign influence, have followed a particular direction in the development of their intellectual faculties, and have advanced but very slowly towards civilization. Among the Ashantees, the most powerful and most polished people of Guinea, there are several traditions, customs, and laws, which may be attributed to their ancient connection with Carthage and Egypt; and this remark may be applied to several other nations of inland Africa. The people of Timbuctoo, Bornou, Kashna, Haoussa, and other countries of Soudan, appear to have been indebted to the Arabs, if not entirely, at least in a great measure, for the state of civilization, imperfect as it is, in which modern travellers have found them.

As to the ancient and modern tribes of the Great Berber or Atlantic Family, which has successively come in contact with the Phoenicians, Carthagenians, Greeks, and Romans, and afterwards with the Arabs, it is natural to believe that it is to these polished nations that they owe their slight degree of civilization.

To these two kinds of indigenous civilization, we have to add two others foreign to Africa, into which, since the dawn of history, at four successive epochs, they have been imparted by two European and two Asiatic nations, namely, the Carthagenians and the Arabs of the Semitic family, and the Greeks and Romans of the Græco-Latin family. But the influence of the Carthagenians, Greeks, and Romans, never extended beyond the Sahara. Towards the fourth century Christianity was established in North Africa, along the slopes of the Atlas, in Nubia and Abyssinia, in the latter of which it still nominally prevails. Three centuries later the Arabs overran all Northern Africa, crossed the Sahara, and passed along the east coast as far as Sofala, everywhere introducing Islamism, and its imperfect civilization; and, even yet in those countries, the Arabic language is the sole vehicle of civilization and science. But beyond the pale of Islam the whole of Africa is barbarous; most of the people are in the lowest stage of savage life; and the modern Europeans have, for the period of three centuries, instead of endeavoring to introduce among them the civilization and the religion which themselves possessed, rather treated them as beasts, carrying them away in millions as slaves; fostering all their most evil propensities, and spreading desolation and misery over every region within the reach of the nefarious traffic.

A new element, however, has now been introduced as a civilizing agent into the social life of Africa. The Colonies and Missionary Stations of England and the United States have already become as so many centres, from which the elements of civilization diverge, and spread from the south and the west those blessings, which are being enjoyed by the respective nations to which they belong. These are of very recent date. With regard to Liberia, the influence of the social position of that republic must act energetically, the people being of the same origin and lineage as those

over whom its institutions are intended to be developed. The native tribes will at once comprehend that they are capable of enjoying the same advantages with the more polished congeners, and by a constant intercommunication gradually assume those better principles, which, no doubt, will eventually overthrow their existing barbarism, and raise from them that cloud which has overveiled their destiny from their first origin. Speaking of the colonization of the United States' negroes in Africa, the Hon. Henry Clay makes use of the following language: "I confess," says that great man, "that without indulging in any undue feeling of superstition, it does seem to me that it may have been among the dispensations of Providence to permit the wrongs under which Africa has suffered, that her children might be returned to their original home, civilized, and imbued with the benign spirit of Christianity, and prepared, ultimately, to redeem that great continent from barbarism and idolatry."—(Letter to Richard Pindell, Esq., 17th February, 1849.)

The imperfect knowledge we have of Africa, and its political divisions, disqualifies us from giving any very correct accounts of the nations which inhabit its several parts. We shall, therefore, have to consider it under an arbitrary arrangement, but one sufficient to preserve the geographical context to the whole. The following exhibits the outline which we intend to pursue in our descriptions:

I. The REGION OF THE NILE, including Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt. II. MOGHREB, including the Barbary States and the Sahara.

III. SOUDAN OR NEGROLAND, including Senegambia, Guinea, and the basins of the Kawara and the Tchad; or in other words, all the region between the Sahara and the ocean, eastward to Abyssinia, and southward to the central Mountains of the Moon.

IV. SOUTHERN AFRICA, including all that portion of the continent which lies south of Abyssinia and the Mountains of the Moon; and V. and lastly-the AFRICAN ISLANDS.

THE REGION OF THE NILE.

THE region watered by the Nile forms a long tract of country lying between the Desert and the Red Sea, and occupying the north-east portion of the African continent. It extends from 7° to 32° north latitude, or about 1,750 miles from south to north, and between the meridians of 30° and 43° east longitude, with a breadth varying from about 1,000 miles at the south to 130 or less at its northern extremity. The superficial area may be estimated at about 700,000 square miles. Within this region are included the three countries which are known under the names of Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia, each of which will form a separate section, though the greater part of the whole is now under the dominion of the Egyptian government.

EGYPT.

THIS ancient and celebrated kingdom occupies the whole of the region of the Nile, north of 24° 3′ N. latitude; but of this large space of 160,000

square miles little more than a tenth part is adapted to cultivation, the remainder consisting of salt marshes, sandy plains, or rocky and barren mountains. The cultivated land of Egypt consists of the long valley of the Nile, which measures above 500 miles along the course of the river, with an average breadth of only eight or ten miles; and a large triangular plain measuring about 150 miles along the sea, from which it extends about 100 miles inland to the point where it joins the valley. Besides these, there is likewise the province of Faioum or Fyoum, which is watered by a canal branching from the Nile, and comprises about 340 square miles.

The valley of the Nile is bounded on both sides by ranges of mountains from the Cataracts to near Cairo, where they diverge to the east and west respectively. The general character of the western range is that of a limestone formation, containing numerous fossil shells. The eastern range differs somewhat in character, as it rises more abruptly and often approaches close to the margin of the river. The elevation of these ridges is only a few hundred feet, and the eastern branch, which extends from Cairo to Suez, does not exceed 400 feet. In both ranges are numerous ravines which afford passages from the banks of the Nile into the eastern and western deserts. The great valley itself has the same inclination as the waters of the river, which is about two inches in the mile, so that As uan being about 460 miles from the sea, should be only 107 feet above its level. The slope, however, is not gradual through all this distance. It is greatest immediately north of Assouan, where the fall of the water is 7 inches in the mile, and diminishes almost to nothing as it approaches the Delta. The bed of the river, however, does not lie along the bottom of the valley, but along the top of a narrow ridge formed by the continual deposit of mud during the periodical inundations; and the same is the case with the Bahr Joussef, whose channel likewise forms a narrow ridge, with a hollow between it and the Nile. The banks consist of a succession of rich plains of unequal width, studded with little groves of palm trees, each of which hides a village. These groves, animated by innumerable flocks of turtle doves, pigeons and other birds, are surrounded with cultivated land, which is sometimes covered by the inundation; and on the retiring of the waters or at other seasons by irrigation, is clothed with the richest verdure and the most luxuriant crops.

At the northern end of the long valley, below the point where the mountains diverge and between them and the sea, lies the plain of Lower Egypt, which is almost a dead level intersected by the two great branches of the Nile. These branches form between them the celebrated "Delta." On each side of the Delta is a level plain of the same character. The whole of these plains is intersected in every direction by numerous canals, which convey the water of the river to every part, and thereby produce a continual verdure. The soil is rich and productive, and is covered with an excellent growth of shrubs and copsewood. About 60 miles above Cairo, a gap in the western mountains affords a passage for a branch or canal of the Nile into a large district called Faioum, through which the waters flow in numerous streams to the Birket-el-Keroun or ancient Lake Maris, converting a large portion of desert into the most fertile and most beautiful province of the country. Here the eye beholds smiling fields covered with a luxurious and almost tropical magnificence of vegetation, and forming a beautiful contrast to the barren desert that everywhere surrounds them, and of which they seem to have been once a part. The Faioum is densely peopled, and is never visited by the plague.