Africa was divided, by the ancients, into two great branches, which they denominated Africa Propria, and Africa Interior. With regard to the respective limits of these divisions, geographers are not agreed. Under the name of Africa Propria, or the territory of Carthage, Melo and Ptolemy comprehend all the countries situated between the river Anipsaga, now Sussegmar, and the borders of Cyrenaica ; thus including Nuinidia and the Regio Syrtica, countries quite distinct from the proper territory of Carthage. Other geographers have more accurately described it as bounded by the river Tusca on the west ; on the north, by the Mediterranean, or African sea ; on the south, by the frontiers of the Gara mantes and deserts of Libya Interior ; and on the east, by the Mediterranean and the Lesser Syrtis. In Africa Propria were comprehended two provinces, called Zeu gitana and Byzacium, nearly corresponding with the summer and winter circuits of the modern kingdom of Tunis. The limits of Africa Interior were less accurate ly defined. This vague appellation was applied in gen eral to those remote and southern provinces of Africa, which were scarcely known either to the Greeks or Ro mans, but by Etble or indistinct report. Tae more pre cise divisions of this contineht, so far as it had been ex plored by the ancients, were EGYPT ; CYRENAICA, or Pentapolis, which, with MARMARIC is included under the modern name Barca ; REGIO SYRTICA, afterwards called Tripolis, or Trijiolitana, now Tripoli; AFRICA PROPRIA, now Tunis ; NUMIDIA, now Algiers ; MAU RITANIA, including the modern kingdoms of Morocco and Fez ; and GETULIA, supposed to be the same with Bildulgerid, though its limits have not been exactly as certained. LIBYA, though properly applied to the in terior only, was frequently used as the name of Africa in general ; and all the southern regions were compre hended under the appellation of E.TUJOPIA.
After the downfal of the Roman empire, Africa was scarcely known to Europeaa;s, till the accidental disco very of the Canary Islands excited a general spirit of adventure, which the previous invention of the mariner's compass powerfully aided and increased. In the year 134•, Clement VI., in virtue of the right arrogated by the holy see to dispose of all countries possessed by in fidels, erected these islands into a kingdom, which he bestowed on Lewis de la Cerda, of the royal 11111111y of Castile. But, as they were never visited by that un fortunate prince, a grant of them was obtained from Henry Ill. of Castile, by John de Betheneourt, a Nor man baron, who succeeded in conquering them ; and the sovereignty of the Canaries remained for sonic time in his family, as a fief held of the crown of Spain. Pre vious to that event, some of Betheneourt's countrymen, who were settled in Normandy, ar• said to have visited the coast of Africa, and to have advanced far to the south of the Canary Isles. But these voyages, suggested no public plan of discovery, but either by the roving spirit of adventure, which they inherited from their an cestors, or by the enterprising avarice of private mer chants, attracted so little attention, that scarce a memo rial of them has been transmitted to our times.
It was not till the fifteenth century, that the boldness of enterprise, which improving skill in navigation inspir ed, and the ardent curiosity natural to minds just emerg ing from ignorance, and expanding wit!: more enlarged ideas, suggested regular plans of discovery, which at length conducted the navigator to a new world, and to regions hitherto unexplored. The Portuguese took the lead in this glorious career. A great armament was equipped by John I. of Portugal, destined to attack the Moors on the coast of Barbary. Several vessels were appointed to sail before it, to the western shores of Africa, in quest of countries which yet remained un known. At that time, navigation was still very imper
fect ; the voyages of the Portuguese had hitherto been limited by Cape Non; but the vessels sent on this ex pedition passed that dreaded promontory, and proceeded as far as Cape Bojador, 160 miles beyond the progress of former navigators. The breakers, which clashed with tremendous fury over the cliffs of Bojador, projecting far into the Atlantic, deterred them from attempting to sail round it ; but their success gave new ardour to the passion for discovery, and roused the emulation of suc ceeding adventurers. The flattering prospects which now began to open on the African continent, were cher ished with enthusiasm by Henry, fourth son of John, a prince of rare talents, enlightened and polished beyond the age in which he lived. Capable of conceiving the grandest designs, his judgment readily discerned how far they were practicable ; and when his resolutions were once formed, he prosecuted them with an ardour and a decision which no obstacle could withstand. Geography had been his favourite study. He had accompanied his father on his expedition to Barbary ; and comparing the discoveries then made by the fleet, with the accounts of intelligent travellers, he was convinced of the proba bility of finding new and opulent countries in the more southern latitudes of Africa. To indulge without in terruption these enchanting prospects, and to mature his schemes for realizing them, he withdrew from court on his return from Barbary, and fixed his residence at Sagres, where the view of the Atlantic constantly re minded him of his favourite project, and directed all his meditations to the means of its completion. lie soon fitted out a single vessel, and int listing the command of it to Gonzalez %arc° and trristan V CZ, MO gentlemen of his household; w ho volumarily mini' took the enter prise, he instructed tin-in to end, avour, oy all means, to double Cape Bojador, and e 1artlit teotards the south. The timid moue ut toastiog, which still pre vailed, would probab:y have prevented them Irmo ac complishing- the objel t 01 their voyage ; hut their ef forts were rewarded by an accidental discovery, which proved equally satisfactory to their master. A sudden squall of wind drove them out to sea, and carried them to an unknown island, which in commemoration of their escape from shipwreck, they named Saute. When they returned to Portugal, Henry received w ith tram. port the account of an adventure, which seemed to en large the field of discovery ; and pursuing his favourite. project with keener ardour and inure sanguine hope, lie next year sent out three ships, under the same command ers, along with Bartholomew Perestrello, to take pos session of the island to which they had so fortunately been driven. From Porto Santo they observed, towards the south, a fixed spot in the horizon, which they con jectured to be land ; and, directing their course towards it, they came to a considerable island, uninhabited and covered with wood, which, from that circumstance, they called Madeira. Their voyages to these islands accus tomed the Portuguese to a bolder navigation. Giliane7. who commanded one of Henry's ships, venturing into the open sea, doubled Cape Bojador, and discovered the vast continent of Africa, still washed by the Atlantic ocean, and stretching, apparently without limits to the south. These successes gave a stronger impulse to the adventurous curiosity or the Portuguese. In a kw years, they advanced within the tropics, discovered the river Senegal, and explored all the coast of Africa, from Cape Blanco to the Cape de Verd.