rt, was the
spot fixed on; and the steam-vessels touching there were enabled to
prepare themselves for the continuance of their voyage. We shall
subsequently see how strikingly British protection has changed the
desolateness of this corner of the Arab wilderness, how extensively it has
become a place of commerce, and how effectually it will yet furnish the
means of increasing our knowledge of the interior of the great Arabian
peninsula.

It is remarkable that Africa, one of the largest and most fertile portions
of the globe, remains one of the least known. Furnishing materials of
commerce which have been objects of universal desire since the
deluge--gold, gems, ivory, fragrant gums, and spices--it has still
remained almost untraversed by the European foot, except along its coast.
It has been circumnavigated by the ships of every European nation, its
slave-trade has divided its profits and its pollutions among the chief
nations of the eastern and western worlds; and yet, to this hour, there
are regions of Africa, probably amounting to half its bulk, and possessing
kingdoms of the size of France and Spain, of which Europe has no more
heard than of the kingdoms of the planet Jupiter. The extent of Africa is
enormous:--5000 miles in length, 4600 in breadth, it forms nearly a
square of 13,430,000 square miles! the chief part solid ground; for we
know of no Mediterranean to break its continuity--no mighty reservoir for
the waters of its hills--and scarcely more than the Niger and the Nile for
the means of penetrating any large portion of this huge continent.

The population naturally divides itself into two portions, connected with
the character of its surface--the countries to the north and the south of
the mountains of Kong and the Jebel-al-Komr. To the north of this line of
demarcation, are the kingdoms of the foreign conquerors, who have driven
the original natives to the mountains, or have subjected them as slaves.
This is the Mahometan land. To the south of this line dwells the Negro, in
a region a large portion of which is too fiery for European life. This is
Central Africa; distinguished from all the earth by the unspeakable
mixture of squalidness and magnificence, simplicity of life yet fury of
passion, savage ignorance of its religious notions yet fearful worship of
evil powers, its homage to magic, and desperate belief in spells,
incantations and the _fetish_. The configuration of the country, so far as
it can be