AFRICA, the second in point of size of the great divisions of the globe, has long been truly the " dark continent," the land of mystery; but of late much has been done to open it to us by the enterprise of explorers, the zeal of missionaries, the perseverance of com mercial speculation, and the military aggressions of Europeans. The extreme n. and n.e. borders, in ancient times the scats of civilization, had fallen back into a state of barba rism, but are now partially restored to importance. Great progress has also been made from the s. in exploring the elevated land of the interior, and introducing commerce among the natives. The efforts of England to suppress the slave-trade, and to open new channels for manufacturing industry, also seem likely, in the course of time, to make great alterations in the condition of the peoples on the western coast. The chief hin drances are found in the few accessible points on the coast. the pestilential climate of the marshy lowland bordering on the sea, the barrenness of vast tracts like the desert of Sahara, over which one must travel rapidly, and only by certain routes; and lastly, the barbarism and sanguinary character of the natives. On the other hand, the position of A. is favorable to its exploration by Europeans. Its most remote harbors are almost as near as N. America—nearer than Brazil, and much nearer than British India.
The valley of the Nile was known in the earliest period of history as the nursery of commerce, arts and sciences; but while Egypt was flourishing, the rest of A. was almost totally unknown, and was vaguely spoken of as Libya. The Greeks and the Romans pene trated into A., probably as the Niger; but they had scarcely any definite knowl edge of the countries lying beyond Numidia, while South A. was entirely unknown. The tradition that Jewish and Tyrian merchants, on their voyages to Ophir, explored the e. coast of A., is dubious; but another account, that. in the time of Pharaoh-Necho, the Plurnieians circumnavigated A., seems to be well authenticated; and it is probable that
the Carthaginians had a better knowledge of parts of the interior than we have in the present day. For a history of the older discoveriesin A., we may refer to Murray's His torical Account of Di.-coreries and Travels to Africa (2 vols.. Edin. 1817), and to Leyden's Sketch of the DL.coreries in Sorthern and Western Africa (Edin. 1709).
The 15th c. was marked by an extension of geographical knowledge in A. as else where. Henry the navigator sailed round the formidable cape Nun (nonplus ultra); Diaz and Vasco de Gams discovered the cape of Good Hope; and both the western and the eastern coasts were partly explored by several European voyagers. The older travels and discoveries may be arranged in the following order: In the 14th c., the travels of the Arabian Elm Batuta in the n. of A. In the 15th c., the Portuguese discoveries of Madeira, cape Blanco, Senegal, Guinea, Benin, the cape of Good etc., and the navigation of the e. coast by the Portuguese Covilham, who first traveled in Abyssinia. In the 16th c., the travels of Leo Africanus through Barbary and Sahara to Abyssinia, the travels of the German Ranwolf in North A., voyage to Guinea, which was followed by several other expeditions in 1554 and 1562. In 1570 and 1600 the Portuguese visited 3Ionomotapa, then a powerful state near the Mozambique coast. In the 17th c., the Englishmen Jobson and Thomson, in their journey to Timbuctoo, opened British commerce with A., and the slave-trade immediately followed. In 1662, we find a French colony on the Senegal, and many exploring journeys to the interior were made by Renouard and others. In 1624, the Jesuit Lobo endeavored to find a way from the equator through the interior as far as Abyssinia. Thevenot's journey to Egypt in 1652, the English occupation of Cape Coast in 1664, Brue's voyage to Senegambia, and several other visits to the western coast, mark the progress made in the latter half of the 17th c.