d to teach them, than on those who, whilst they are
sinning, know not what they are doing. To say a negro is incapable
of instruction, is a mere absurdity; for those few boys who have been
educated in our schools have proved themselves even quicker than our own
at learning; whilst, amongst themselves, the deepness of their cunning
and their power of repartee are quite surprising, and are especially
shown in their proficiency for telling lies most appropriately in
preference to truth, and with an off-handed manner that makes them most
amusing.

With these remarks, I now give, as an appropriate introduction to my
narrative--(1.) An account of the general geographical features of the
countries we are about to travel in, leaving the details to be treated
under each as we successively pass through them; (2.) A general view of
the atmospheric agents which wear down and so continually help to reduce
the continent, yet at the same time assist to clothe it with vegetation;
(3.) A general view of the Flora; and, lastly, that which consumes it,
(4.) Its Fauna; ending with a few special remarks on the Wanguana, or
men freed from slavery.

Geography

The continent of Africa is something like a dish turned upside down,
having a high and flat central plateau, with a higher rim of hills
surrounding it; from below which, exterially, it suddenly slopes down
to the flat strip of land bordering on the sea. A dish, however, is
generally uniform in shape--Africa is not. For instance, we find in
its centre a high group of hills surrounding the head of the Tanganyika
Lake, composed chiefly of argillaceous sandstones which I suppose to
be the Lunae Montes of Ptolemy, or the Soma Giri of the ancient Hindus.
Further, instead of a rim at the northern end, the country shelves down
from the equator to the Mediterranean Sea; and on the general surface of
the interior plateau there are basins full of water (lakes), from which,
when rains overflow them, rivers are formed, that, cutting through the
flanking rim of hills, find their way to the sea.

Atmospheric Agents

On the east coast, near Zanzibar, we find the rains following the track
of the sun, and lasting not more than forty days on any part that
the sun crosses; whilst the winds blow from south-west or north-east,
towards the regions heated by its vertical position. But in the centre
of the continent, within 5 deg. of the equator, we find the rains much more
lasting. For instan