This Account Was Confirmed By Several Other Ancient Authors; But For A Long Time The Question Was Agitated By Modern Writers As To Whether The Gambia Or The Senegal Was Not The River Spoken Of; Some Even Denying The Existence Of The Niger Altogether.

The fables of Herodotus were repeated, with a number of additions, by Diodorus; but the narrative of Strabo, in regard to the northern and western coasts, is somewhat more particular and authentic:

It adds nothing, however, to our acquaintance with the interior. The Greeks, under the government of the Ptolemies, navigated the Red Sea, and carried on a trade with Egypt; and some settlements were made by them in that country. Ptolemy Euergetes conquered part of Abyssinia, and established a kingdom, of which Axum was the metropolis; and remains of Grecian architecture have since been found in that quarter. To the two districts we have mentioned, the knowledge which the ancients possessed of Africa was almost exclusively confined; though Herodotus speaks of two voyages which had been undertaken with a view to determine the shape of the continent; but as nothing interesting can be gleaned from his indistinct narrative, and as the reality even of these voyages has been disputed, it seems unnecessary to give any account of them.

As in this brief sketch we are to confine ourselves entirely to discoveries made in the interior of Africa, we shall not mention either the various voyages made along the shores, or the different settlements formed upon the coast, as this would lead us far beyond our narrow limits.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 11 of 546
Words from 2547 to 2808 of 148366