it is from an easy access by the surrounding deserts, it seemed to offer a secure retreat to all who had any thing to fear from political convulsions; and it probably received all those who fled from the intestine divisions of the Chalifate. Certain it is, however, that before the eleventh century several kingdoms were erected on the banks of the Niger, in which Mahometans formed a numerous and the ruling part of the population. The greatest of all these kingdoms was that of Ghana, situated on the eastern part of the Niger, or, as the Arabians call it, the Nile of the negroes. The king was absolute over his own subjects, though he acknowledged the supremacy of the Abasside calif.

The magnificence of this sovereign's court, the number of tame elephants, and camelopards, which formed part of his train, and the masses of native gold which adorned his throne, are all mentioned by the Arabian writers in terms of admiration. But this splendour seems to have belonged wholly to the prince; and the Arabian population, the mass of the people, were still clad in the skins of beasts, and possessed neither industry nor civilisation. To the king of Ghana belonged also Wangara, or the land of gold. To the west of Ghana was situated the kingdom of Tocrur, in which was a city of the same name, together with those of Sala and Berissa. The Nile of the Negroes flowed also through Tocrur, and at a distance of sixteen days' journey from Sala fell into the sea. At some distance from the shore was the island of Ulil, from which the states of Nigritia were supplied with salt. The kingdom of Tocrur, which appears to have been situated near the gulf of Benin, though enriched by an active commerce, was yet considered inferior to that of Ghana. The kingdom of Timbuctoo is of comparatively recent origin.

To the south of these kingdoms lay the extensive country called Lamlam, the savage inhabitants of which were hunted by the nations on the Niger, and sold to the slave merchants of Barbary and Egypt. The same

practice still continues: slaves are a staple merchandise of central Africa; and the defenceless negroes are pursued as unrelentingly at present as in the days of Herodotus. Beyond Lamlam the Arabians had no knowledge of any inhabited countries; and influenced by the usual pride of science, they doubted, in consequence, whether any existed. They were acquainted, however, with the kingdoms of Zaghara, Kanem, and Kuku, which are probably comprised in the Bornou of modern travellers. The king of Kuku kept a splendid court, and maintained a numerous, well-appointed army: the merchants and nobility wore superb dresses, with ornaments of gold; but the lower orders were as poor and ill clad as in the other negro states.

The Arabians had but a limited acquaintance with Nubia and Abyssinia, in which the Christian religion firmly resisted the doctrines of Mahomet; the necessities of trade, however, induced the merchants of both regions to acquiesce in respecting a neutral frontier, and they met accordingly, near the cataracts of Syene, for the purpose of exchanging their commoditics.

Eastern Africa, from Egypt to Cape Corientes, was frequented by the Arabians in the tenth century: they soon established, in that quarter, their faith and their dominion. The names which they gave to the nations of that country are retained at the present day. The cities of Melinda, Mombaza, and Sofala, were already flourishing in the twelfth century. The country in which these cities were situated was called Zanguebar, or the country of the Zinges. The Arabian geographers also placed in the peninsula of India a people called Zinges, who were distinguished from the Hindoos by the darkness of their complexion. Thus the Zinges of the Arabians correspond with the Ethiopians of the Greeks, as well as with the Sanchas, or Troglodytes, of the Hindoo geographers. Like these latter also, the Arabians believed that the continents of Africa and Asia were united in the Southern Ocean. Madagascar, there is reason to believe, was known and even colonised

by the Arabians in an early age. To the south of Zanguebar was the country called Wac-wac, which seems to be the Makooa country of modern maps.

In the West the knowledge of the Arabian geographers was, perhaps, as extensive, if not so correct, as those of the Romans. The Fortunate Islands were known to them by the name of Chaledat, or the Perpetual Islands. On these islands were said to be colossal statues, pointing towards the West, so as to indicate to mariners the danger or impossibility of continuing the voyage in that direction. The erection of these statues was attributed to Dhou'lkarain, or the Twohorned, as Alexander the Great is called in the East. He is adopted by Oriental writers, as Hercules, Bacchus, and Sesostris were adopted by the Greeks, as the founder of every monument, the origin of which is not historically known. The Atlantic, or the Sea of Darkness, as the ocean is generally called by them, was but little known to the Arabians. Much fable is mixed with all that they relate concerning it. The island of Mustakkin, filled with serpents, recalls to mind the Ophiusa of the Carthaginians; and perhaps it owed its existence to an ancient tradition, like the Cimmerian darkness of the ocean. The inhabitants of the isle of Kulkan had the heads of marine monsters. Laka abounded with odoriferous woods. The Arabians, in omitting to state distances, have left an open field for conjectures; and there have not been wanting some who maintain, that by those lands of monsters and of perfumes we ought to understand the continent of America, or at least the islands of the West Indies.

There is very little reason, however, to believe that the Arabians were accustomed to make distant voyages on the ocean or Sea of Darkness. The only evidence that they ever attempted such a navigation is found in the remarkable story of the Almagrurim related in nearly the same words by Ibn el Vardi and Edrisi. The former of these writers, after describing Lisbon, adds, that eight persons from that city, curious to know what was

beyond the sea, equipped a vessel with all necessary provisions for a long voyage, and swore not to return till they had found the end of the sea and the land at the west. They advanced eleven days in the open sea, and then twelve days more in a sea of unfathomable depth with immense waves. The winds carried them to the south, and they at last arrived at an island to which they gave the name of Ganam, or the island of sheep; but the flesh of the sheep which they found there was too bitter to be eaten. They took water, however, and continuing their voyage towards the south, on the twelfth day discovered an inhabited island. The men

were large and red. At the end of three days an Arabian interpreter came to them in order to learn the purpose of their voyage. The king being made acquainted with their intentions, told them that he had sent persons to explore the ocean, who, having sailed westward for a month, were surprised with a thick darkness and forced to return. The adventurers from Lisbon, hearing that they were a month's sail from home, nastened to return ; and in memory of that event a quarter of the city received the name of Almagrurim, the Wanderers, a name which it retained in the time of Ibn el Vardi, who died in 1358. This attempt to reach the end of the ocean was made in 1147, and was probably not the only enterprise of the kind: in 1291 a similar attempt was made by two Genoese, of whose fate or success, however, no account remains.

Some have supposed, and De Guignes among the rest, that the red men mentioned in this account must have been Americans; but it is much more likely that they were Normans, who are not unfrequently called red men in the East. As there was an Arabian interpreter on the island, and the distance from Lisbon was known, the coast of Africa was probably not far off; and in fine, the Almagrurim seem not to have sailed beyond the Canary islands.

CHAP. II.

TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA.

IBN BATUTA SETS OUT ON THE PILGRIMAGE.-ASCENDS THE NILE. RETURNS TO GAZA. — THE BATHS OF TIBERIAS. THE MOSQUE OF THE FOOT. MIRACLES AT MESHID ALI. -SHIRAZ.BAGDAD.

- MECCA.

VISITS YEMEN AND ABYSSINIA.

THE BERBERS. THE ZUNUJ. ZAFAR. THE FRANKINCENSE

TREE. -ORMUZ. - FARS. -SECOND PILGRIMAGE. -GOES THROUGH UPPER EGYPT TO CAIRO JERUSALEM ANATOLIA. THE TURKOMANS. -SOCIETY CALLED THE BROTHERHOOD. ERZERUM. FALL OF AEROLITES. -SHOWERS OF FISHES.THE OTTOMAN PRINCES. - IBN BATUTA GOES TO CRIM.DESERT OF KIPJAK. TATAR CAMP. CITY OF BULGAR.SHORTNESS OF THE NIGHTS. SIBERIAN TRAVELLING. SINGULAR MODE OF TRAFFIC. THE RUSSIANS. IBN BATUTA ACCOMPANIES A GREEK PRINCESS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. THE PROCESSION. HIS RECEPTION.-ACCOUNT OF THAT CITY.-HISTORICAL DIFFICULTIES. - GREEK CUSTOMS IMITATED BY THE TURKS.-PIOUS WISH OF EL HARAWI.

ALTHOUGH, as has been already observed, the greater part of the geographical works transmitted to us by the Arabians are quite divested of the interest of a personal narrative, yet a few volumes of Arabian travels have been preserved, which are worthy objects of curious attention, if it were merely for the strong contrast they exhibit between the Oriental and European modes of thinking and viewing the same object. Among these the travels of the Sheikh Ibn Batuta hold a foremost rank: they embrace all the countries which may be considered as peculiarly belonging to Arabian geography; they adduce some very singular instances of the wide diffusion of the Arabs through the East, and are strongly marked with all the national characteristics. Ibn Batuta may be fairly numbered among the most remarkable travellers of any age or country. The only account of his manifold peregrinations which is known to exist is unfortunately but an extract from an epitome; and by