CHAPTER XII.
Construction of the Map of Africa.
That the Geography of Africa has made a slower progress towards improvement than that of every other part of the world, during the last, and the present century, is to be attributed more to natural causes, than to any absolute want of attention on the part of Geographers. Formed by the Creator, with a contour and surface totally unlike the other Continents, its interior parts elude all nautic research; whilst the wars and commerce in which Europeans have taken part, have been confined to very circumscribed parts of its borders. These most productive means of geographical information failing, the next resource is to collect materials from the best informed amongst the travelled natives: I say natives, because the generality of European Travellers reckon upon some degree of solace, as well as the gratification of curiosity, during their peregrinations: not to mention, that it is more the practice to see what has been already seen, than to strike into a new path, and dare to contemplate an unfashionable subject. To the lovers of adventure and novelty, Africa displays a most ample field: but the qualification of local manners, and, in some degree, of habits, must in this case, be superadded to that of language: and this, unquestionably, renders the undertaking more arduous than that of an ordinary Tour. But the Adventurer in quest of fame, will readily appreciate the degrees of glory attendant on each pursuit.
The 18th century has smiled propitiously on the Science of Geography throughout the globe; and an Englishman may be allowed to pride himself that his countrymen have had their full share of the glory attending this, and other kinds of researches tending to increase the general stock of knowledge. It is to this spirit that we are to attribute the acquisition of the materials which form the subject of the present Work. It is no less to this spirit that we are indebted for the progressive improvements in the North-American and Asiatic Geography: our systems embracing objects far superior to the limited views with which Geographical Surveys are ordinarily undertaken: not the topography of townships, districts, counties; but the Geography of Empires, Regions, and Continents!
As both Europe, and its adjacent Continent, Asia, are spread over with inland seas, lakes, or rivers of the most extended navigations, so as collectively to aid the transport of bulky articles of merchandize from one extreme of them to the other; and to form (like stepping-stones over a brook) a more commodious communication: so likewise the northern part of the new Continent appears to have an almost continuous Inland Navigation, which must prove of infinite advantage to the inhabitants, when fully peopled; and contribute to their speedier civilization, in the mean time. But Africa stands alone in a geographical view! Penetrated by no inland seas, like the Mediterranean, Baltic, or Hudson’s Bay; nor overspread with extensive lakes, like those of North America; nor having in common with the other Continents, rivers running from the center to the extremities: but, on the contrary, its regions separated from each other by the least practicable of all boundaries, arid Desarts of such formidable extent, as to threaten those who traverse them, with the most horrible of all deaths, that arising from thirst! Placed in such circumstances, can we be surprised either at our ignorance of its Interior Parts, or of the tardy progress of civilization in it? Possibly, the difficulty of conveying merchandize to the coasts, under the above circumstances, may have given rise to the traffic in men, a commodity that can transport itself! But laying this out of the question, as an abstract speculation, there can be little doubt but that the progress of civilization amongst the Africans has been as slow as can be conceived, in any situation: and it has also happened, of course, that the destined Instruments of their civilization have remained in a proportional degree of ignorance concerning the nature of the country.
Nothing can evince the low state of the African Geography, more than M. D’Anville’s having had recourse to the Works of Ptolomy and Edrisi, to compose the Interior Part of his Map of Africa (1749.) It is well known, that those Authors wrote in the second and in the twelfth centuries of our æra. Most of the positions in the Inland Part of the great body of Africa are derived from Edrisi; and it is wonderful how nearly some of the positions agree with those furnished by the present materials. Such was the transcendant judgement of D’Anville in combining the scanty notices that are furnished by the Nubian Geographer!
But the Public are not to expect, even under an improved system of African Geography, that the Interior Part of that Continent will exhibit an aspect similar to the others; rich in variety; each region assuming a distinct character. On the contrary, it will be meagre and vacant in the extreme. The dreary expanses of desart which often surround the habitable spots, forbid the appearance of the usual proportion of towns; and the paucity of rivers, added to their being either absorbed or evaporated, instead of being conducted in flowing lines to the ocean, will give a singular cast to its hydrography; the direction of their courses being, moreover, equivocal, through the want of that information, which a communication with the sea usually affords at a glance. Little as the Antients knew of the Interior Part of Africa, they appear to have understood the character of its surface; one of them comparing it to a leopard’s skin. Swift also, who loses no opportunity of being witty at the expence of mathematicians, diverts himself and his readers both with the nakedness of the land, and the absurdity of the map-makers.
“Geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,