From the west of Europe we naturally pass to Africa, and we find that the Romans were acquainted with about one-third of that continent. Pliny, from a statement by Ag( ippa, estimates the breadth from north to south, through Cyrairdica and the country of the Garamantes, that is from Barca towards Bournu, at 910 Roman miles, a distance from the Mediterranean which falls considerably short of the Niger. It appears, however, that they were not alto gether ignorant of that river in another direction. Pliny, on the authority of Juba, king of Mauritania, mentions that the Nile rises from a lake in the interior of that country, and that, after running under ground through a desert of twenty days journey in extent, it makes its appearance again on the confines of Ethiopia, where its source is call ed Nigris. From this modern geographers have conclud ed, that the desert here mentioned is the great desert of Sahara, that what Pliny calls the Nile is only a small river running along the south side of Mount Atlas, and that its pretended reappearance is no other than the source of the Niger or Joliba. In this our readers will recognise the opinion of Herodotus, expressed in a more detailed form, that the Niger and the Nile are the same river, and they will also observe, that the Roman geographers, in the time of Pliny, were not better acquainted with the western part of Africa, than their rivals the Carthaginians had been. Ptolemy, indeed, distinctly mentions the Niger, and enu merates some of the towns situated on its banks, as Tuca bath, Nigira, 'fa-Gana and Panagra, in AN hich later geo graphers have discovered the modern towns of Tombuc too, Cashnah, Gana!), and \Vangara; but even his account of the interior is very partial and indistinct. Of the Ca varies, the Romans undoubtedly knew more than the Car thaginians, though these islands were still regarded too much as the region of fiction. They were called in gene ral the Fortunate hies, a name famous with the poets, and perhaps too frequently employed in the more sober details of the historian. Among the particular names, we find Canaria and Nivaria, the former obviously the same with modern Canary, the latter, perhaps, denoting Tene•iffe With its snowy summit. On the eastern side of Africa, the geography of the Romans was neither very distinct nor very extensive. They seem to have been acquainted with the Nile, as far as the Automates of Iferodotus, but not to have penetrated farther. On the shores of the Indian ocean, their navigation terminated at the promontory of Prasum, a point which Ptolemy represents as lying to the south of the equator, but which, from a careful investi.
gation of the measures employed by him, is found to cor ' respond with Cape Brava, two degrees to the north of the line.
When we turn to Asia, we find the geographical im provements of the Romans much more interesting in a scientific point of view, as well as more important in re gard to commerce. These improvements may be almost wholly ascribed to the discovery of the monsoons, by which the communication with India was completely altered, and the trade of that rich and luxurious country prodigiously extended. Embarking. at the Egyptian ports on the Red Sea, and passing the so aits of Babel•mandel, the merchant was carried by the south-west monsoon, or Ilippalus, so called from its discoverer, directly to the peninsula of Ilin dostan, and back again by the Vulturnus, or north-east monsoon, in the course of the same year. This navigation was first undertaken during the reign of Augustus, till which time the route to India was either across the desert from Syria to the Euphrates, down the Persian gulf and along the northern coast of the Arabian sea to the mouth of the Indus; or farther to the north by the Caspian sea, and the Oxus or Jihon. Some ancient writers represent the latter as much more easily accomplished than it could possibly have been, by supposing that the Oxus fell into the Caspian Sea, or rather that Lake Aral was a gulf of :hat sea. But even if this had been the case, the conveyance of merchandise by such a route, must" have been exceed ingly slow, expensive, and precarious, compared with the direct course across the Arabian Sea. By the latter, also, the western coast of the peninsula of India became better known, and opened the way for other discoveries in the in terior as well as on the Bay of Bengal. The whole ex
tent of country 'south of the line joining the mouth of the Indus and the mouth of the Ganges, was soon explored, and is described with considerable minuteness by Pliny and Ptolemy. Of the north of India, the accounts of these writers are extremely vague ; but it appears that Thibet was pretty well known under the name of Serica. On this subject, indeed, there has been much learned disquisition among critics and geographers, some supposing, as we have now stated, that Serica included Thibet, with part of the north of India, while ethers consider it as denoting China. This last opinion is chiefly founded on the calcu lations of Ptolemy, by which Serica appears to be situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean ; but these calculations are obviously in direct contradiction, not only to Pliny, but to Ptolemy himself. According to the former, Asia ter minated a little to the cast of the Gaig,es and the north of the Caspian Sea; and he distinctly says that the Seres in habit the middle of the eastern regions, of which the Scy thians and Indians occupy the two extremes. The latter also describes Serica as bounded on the east by unexplor ed countries, and on the south by the mountains of Emon dm, (the modern Emod, Ifema, ur Ilimmala), which sepa rate it fimo India. It is unnecessary to observe, that nei ther of these accounts can possibly apply to China, While both are accurate if understood of Thibet. cc Ilere, then," to use the words of a modern geographer, " among tile Alps of Asia, and on the borders of the great desert of Shamo, expired the last ray of the geographical of the ancients." To pursue the history of geography through the period on which we arc now about to enter, would be to trace the decay of every thing dignified and ennobling, and to mark the progress of ignorance and barbarism, triumphing over science and civilization. We should find, in the euurse of a few centuries, the inhabitants of the whole civilized world completely extirpated, and succeeded by a race of men who knew nothing of themselves farther back than their recollection carried them, and nothing of the rest of mankind but what they learned during their career of vic tory and bloodshed. We should perceive the termination of all friendly intercourse among different countries, and wars carried on no longer with a view to conquer and ci vilize, but to extirpate and destroy. It is not consistent, however, either with the nature or the limits of the present article to .enter into a minute detail of the circumstances that conspired to accelerate the destruction of the Roman empire, or enumerate the various tribes that took posses sion of the different countries of Europe, and the revolu tions that took place in their manners and form of govern ment. We shall only observe, therefore, that during the latter period of the Roman history, literature and the fine arts had in a great measure banished the cultivation of science, and the ardour of curiosity, so necessary in all la borious researches, but particularly for geographical dis covery, had degenerated into a love of indolence and ease. A great deal still remained to be clone by active and enter prizing adventurers, before the science of geography could be successfully prosecuted in the retirement of an acade my; but euterprize and adventure were no longer to be found among a people enervated by every species of luxu ry and dissipation. We find, accordingly, that from the time of Ptolemy, till the overthrow of the Roman empire, there is scarcely a single fact on record that deserves a place in the history of geographical discoveries. From that period, the progress of all knowledge was retrograde. The monuments of learning that had been reared by the persevering labours of many ages, were successively over thrown ; till Alexandria itself, the last refuge of persecuted science, fell a sacrifice to the merciless fury of a barbarous fanatic. The work of devastation was now complete. The last faint glimmerings of intellectual light were extinguish ed, and the gross perversion of religious principle in Eu rope, with the establishment of a false system in Asia, threatened to perpetuate that darkness which had envelop ed the civilized world.