gave it a name of better omen, which it has ever since retained, the Cape of Good Hope.

The king next equipped a powerful squadron, on the success of which the result of his favourite project was destined to depend. The conduct of this eventful voyage was committed to Vasquez de Gama, a man of noble birth, possessed of talents and intrepidity equal to such an arduous enterprize. Not yet acquainted with the proper seasons for navigating the Atlantic ocean, he set sail in July, and had to struggle for four months with contrary winds before he reached the cape. A calm at length succeeded, which enabled him to accomplish the important object of his voyage. He passed the southern extremity of Africa; explored its eastern shores as far as Melinda, in Zanguebar; and, sailing thence towards India, arrived at Calicut on the 22d of May, 1498. Unprovided with a military force sufficient to attempt a settlement on that coast, or with the commodities necessary for trading with the Indians, he hastened to Europe, and landed at Lisbon on the 14th of September, 1499, after an absence of two years, two months, and five days. To this voyage, the longest, the most difficult, and, next to that of Columbus, which had been accomplished about seven years before, the most important that had ever been undertaken, we are indebted for the discovery of the southern and eastern boundaries of Africa; and for the origin of the maritime trade with India, from which Europe in general, and our own country in particular, has since derived such extensive advantage.

From the first voyages of the Portuguese till near the close of the 18th century, our knowledge of this continent scarcely extended beyond its coasts. Except a few lines traced on its margin, the map of Africa was a wide extended blank, on which the geographer, according to his own conjecture, or on the doubtful authority of the Xeriff Edrisi and Leo Africanus, delineated the fancied course of unexplored rivers, or marked the positions of towns and nations as little ascertained. For the scanty knowledge which was obtained of the interior, we are chiefly indebted to a few spirited individuals, who,

with a generous ardour in the cause of science, had penetrated, in different directions, these unhospitable regions, undeterred by the variety of danger which they had constantly to encoun ter in their progress. Sparrman and Paterson had travelled in Caffraria, which was afterwards more fully explored by Vaillant, who has described the situation, political state, customs and manners of various nations, till then unknown to Europeans even by name. Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, had long been generally known; and our acquaintance with Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, was considerably enlarged by the communications of Norden and Bruce.

Such was the state of our knowledge of this continent until the abolition of the slave trade, and the formation of the African Institution, which will be more particularly noticed in another part of this work,

A

NON-MILITARY JOURNAL,

OR,

OBSERVATIONS

MADE IN

EGYPT.

BY A BRITISH OFFICER.

THESE observations, which from the substance of several

letters addressed by an officer of rank to his lady, are not less admirable for accuracy of description, than for the wit and humour in which they are conveyed. Our author accompanied the expedition to this celebrated country under Sir Ralph Abercromby, but his journal is not filled with military occurrences. His first communication is dated Rosetta, July 20, 1801, the description of which he begins thus:

I must first tell you, that after having been an inhabitant of the desert near Alexandria, (where not an atom of verdure was to be seen), from the day of our landing until after the action of the 21st, my ideas of Egypt, and the conjectures I formed, were not particularly favourable; nor likely to become more so by my removal on board ship, from whence the eye ranged over a vast space of country, yet met nothing but a continuation of that dreary, glaring, white sand, which fatigued and oppressed the eye, and bespoke only intense heat, and its concomitant agremens.

"With this impression on my mind, I left the ship in which I had embarked after the 21st, for Rosetta; that same even

ing we reached the bogaze (bar at the entrance of the Nile), but did not venture to cross it, two boats being lost in the attempt while we were in debate; we therefore anchored our little boat until the morning; when, with a fair and light breeze, we entered the Nile, and, in doing so, to my way of thinking, entered into (as the union has taken place, and I am no longer an Irishman, may say) TERRESTRIAL paradise.

"I was faint, debilitated, and miserable, with a nasty fever hanging on me, which followed my wound, and oppressed my spirits dreadfully; but the sudden transition from barren hot sand, and every thing that proclaimed a desolate and melancholy country, into the cheerful verdant soil which, either side of the Nile, presented to my feverish, but now all-devouring eye, gave such a fillip to exhausted and desponding nature, that, as if roused from lethargy, inspirited and revived by the unexpected novelty of the scene, I involuntarily rose up in the boat, and felt a degree of strength for a long time quite unknown to me. Every minute added to the beauty of the scene, and to my strength; the whole river, alive with wildfowl, and our boats; continued and picturesque groups of men and women sporting on its banks; while the buffaloes alongside refreshed themselves by bathing and rolling in the Nile, nothing but their heads appearing, which they ever and anon dipped to get rid of the busy fly; never did any creature seem to enjoy itself so much.

Here, an ancient-looking mansion, well built of brick, whose owner, in all the pompous grandeur and absurdity of the East, sat in the shade, encircled by his vassals, smoking, and drinking coffee, meditating upon--nothing; surrounded by highly cultivated grounds and lovely gardens, watered by the incessant labour of immense bullocks.

6

There, a village, which, though of mud huts, yet picturesque in the extreme; these huts rising in tiers, one above the other, to the summit of the hill upon which it stood, and, as the roofs were flat, had a very singular appearance.

'On one side, a very extensive wood of date trees, in which we discovered, at the winding of the river, fort Julien, built in a commanding situation, about two miles from the mouth

of the Nile. This afforded not only a fine, but very interesting object; it had surrendered but the day before.

At the other side, a village crowded with children, running naked about, and splashing in the water, delighting their anxious parents, who assembled upon the banks to watch them.

Immense tracts of ground, verdant with most luxurious clover; whole fields of cucumbers, sallads, beans, pumpkins, &c. &c.; pasture land covered with cattle; poultry of all kinds, (except turkeys, of which, odd to say, there are none in this country,) other fowls in myriads; pigeons swarming about the villages which present themselves, every 2 or 300 yards, upon the Delta side, proving its population and plenty: some of these villages with tolerably good houses, others entirely of huts and mud-holes, but all affording a novelty and variety of scene, and creature, that have made so strong an impression upon my mind, I never can forget my first trip up the Nile; which must at all times gladden and rejoice the poor unfortunate fellow who, like myself, shall enter it, either from a long sejour on board ship, or from the barren plains of Alexandria. I confess the effect it produced upon me, was that of doing for me more than all the medicins or medicines in the country; I felt myself, for the moment, a renovated

man.

• Though the sun was inclined to deal its heat most powerfully upon us, yet it was tempered by the charming fresh breeze, which one can almost always command upon this part of the Nile, and which wafted me safe to Rosetta, without being conscious of the langour and oppression of which I found every one in the town complain.

'I ought not to forget the delight we felt in being able, by leaning over the boat, to take up a drink of excellent good water, which was a very scarce commodity in our fleet; we found the water fresh within ten yards of the mouth of the Nile.

"The appearance of Rosetta through the trees, as you pass round the island, (the quarantine), is really not only beautiful, but grand; the houses seem elegant, regularly built,