A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 44

It was translated by D.J.A. Conde, who has added notes, comparing its state at that remote period, and in 1799.

579. Ponz Viage de Espana. Madrid, 1776, &c. 18 vols. 12mo.--Full of matter of various kinds, but tedious and dry.

580. Introduccion a la Historia natural y geographia-fisico del Reyno de Espana. Par D. Guill. Bowles.--The Italian translation of this work, Parma, 1783. 8vo. (the nature of which is sufficiently indicated by the t.i.tle) contains a commentary and notes by the translator, A. Zara, which adds to its value, in itself not small.

581. Descrizione della Spagna di Don A. Conca. Parma, 1793-7. 4 vols.

8vo.--This work is chiefly devoted to the fine arts, of which it enters into a full and minute description. There are also notices of antiquities, and natural history. It is admirably printed by Bodoni.

VII. AFRICA.

AFRICA IN GENERAL.

582. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa. By the late John Leyden, M.D., enlarged and completed to the present time by Hugh Murray, Esq., 2 vols. 8vo. 1817.--A useful, correct, and, in general, accurate and complete compilation, which satisfies the purpose and promise held out in the t.i.tle.

583. Leoni Africani totius Africae Descriptionis. Lib. VIII. Leyd. 1682.

8vo.--This work was originally written in Arabic, then translated into Italian by the author, and from Italian into Latin, French, Dutch, and English. The Italian translation is the only correct one: to the French, which is expanded into 2 vols. folio, and was published at Lyons in 1566, there are appended several accounts of Voyages and Travels in Africa. Leo was a Spanish Moor, who left Spain at the reduction of Grenada, and travelled a long time in Europe, Asia, and Africa: his description of the northern parts of Africa is the most full and accurate.

584. L'Afrique de Marmol. Paris, 1669. 3 vols. 4to.--This translation, by D'Ablancourt, of a very scarce Portuguese writer, is not made with fidelity. The subsequent discoveries in Africa have detailed several inaccuracies in Marmol; but it is nevertheless a valuable work: the original was published in the middle of the sixteenth century.

585. Geschichte der neuestin Portugeiesischen Entdeckungen en Africa, von 1410, bis 1460. Von M.C. Sprengel. Halle, 1783. 8vo.--This account of the discoveries of Prince Henry is drawn up with much judgment and learning.

586. Neue Beitrage zur Keuntniss von Africa. Von J.R. Forster. Berlin, 1794. 2 vols. 8vo.

587. Neue Systematescke Erd-beschriebung von Africa. Von Bruns. Nurem.

1793-99. 6 vols. 8vo.--A most valuable work on Africa in general.

THE NORTH OF AFRICA.

Those portions of Africa which are washed by the Mediterranean sea, possess strong and peculiar attractions for the traveller. It is only necessary to name Egypt, to call up a.s.sociations with the most remote antiquity,--knowledge, civilization, and arts, at a period when the rest of the world had scarcely, as it were, burst into existence. From the earliest records to the present day, Egypt has never ceased to be an interesting country, and to afford rich materials for the labours, learning, and researches of travellers. The rest of the Mediterranean coast of Africa, where Carthage first exhibited to the world the wonderful resources of Commerce, and Rome established some of her most valuable and rich possessions, are clothed with an interest and importance scarcely inferior to that which Egypt claims and enjoys.

While the countries on the north-east, washed by the Red Sea, in addition to sources of interest and importance common to them, and to Egypt and Barbary, are celebrated on account of their having witnessed and a.s.sisted the first maritime commercial intercourse between Asia, and Africa, and Europe.

588. Relation d'un Voyage de Barbarie, fait a Alger, pour la Redemption des Captifs. Paris, 1616. 8vo.

589. Relation de la Captivite a Alger d'Emmanuel d'Arande. Paris, 1665.

16mo.--This work, originally published in Spanish, contains, as well as the preceding one, some curious particulars regarding the manners of Algiers, especially the court, in the middle of the seventeenth century.

590. Voyage en Barbarie, 1785-88, par Poiret. Paris, 1789. 2 vols.

8vo.--This work, which was translated into English in 1791, is chiefly confined to that part of Barbary which const.i.tuted the ancient Numidia, and is interesting from the picture it exhibits of the Bedouin Arabs, and from the details into which it enters regarding the natural history of the country, especially the botany.

591. Relations des Royaumes de Fez et de Maroc, traduites de Castellan de Diego Torrez. Paris, 1636. 4to.

592. Histoire de la Mission des Peres Capuchins, au royaume de Maroc. 1644.

12mo.

593. Relation des Etats du Roi de Fez et de Maroc, par Frejus. Paris, 1682.

12mo.--Frejus was sent by the French King to Fez in 1666, for the purpose of establishing a commercial intercourse: his work is full and particular on the manners, customs, &c., of the country and people of this part of Africa; there is, besides, much curious information drawn from the observations of M. Charant, who lived 25 years in Fez and Morocco, respecting the trade to Tombuctoo. The coasts, currents, harbours, &c., are also minutely described. The French edition of 1682, and the English translation of 1771, contain the letters of M. Charant, giving the results of his information on these points.

594. Recherches Historiques sur les Maures, et Histoire de l'Empereur de Maroc, par Chenier. Paris, 1788. 3 vols. 8vo. M. Chenier was Charge des Affaires from the King of France to the Emperor of Morocco. The two first volumes are historical; in the third volume there is much valuable information on the physical, moral, intellectual, commercial, and political state of this kingdom.

595. Histoire du Naufrage, et de la Captivite de M. de Brisson. Paris, 1789. 8vo. This work, together with the travels of Saugnier, is translated into English; it contains a description of the great desert. This singular portion of Africa is also particularly described in the following works.

596. Voyage dans les Deserts de Sahara, par M. Follies Paris, 1792. 8vo.

597. Travels or Observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant, by T. Shaw. 1757. 4to.--The character of this work, for the information it contains in antiquities and natural history, is too well known and firmly established to require any particular notice or commendation. Algiers, Tunis, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia Petrea, were the scene of these travels and researches.

598. A Journey to Mequinez, by J. Windhus. 1723. 8vo. In 1721, Captain Stewart was sent by the English government to Fez and Morocco to redeem some captives; this work, drawn up from the observations made during this journey, is curious: the same remark applies generally to the other works, which are drawn from similar sources, and of which there are several in French and English.

599. History of the Revolution in the Empire of Morocco in 1727-8, by Captain Braithwaite. 1729. 8vo. Besides the historical details, the accuracy of which is undoubted, as Braithwaite was an eye-witness of the events he describes, this work gives us some valuable information on the physical and moral state of the people.

600. Lemprieres Tour from Gibraltar to Tangier, Sals, Mogador, &c., and over Mount Atlas, Morocco, &c. 1791.--The author of this work, (who was a medical man, sent by the Governor of Gibraltar at the request of the Emperor of Morocco, whose son was dangerously ill,) possessed, from the peculiar circ.u.mstances in which he was placed, excellent opportunities of procuring information; the most interesting and novel parts of his work relate to the haram of the Emperor, to which, in his medical character, he had access; the details into which he enters, respecting its internal arrangements and the manners of its inhabitants, are very full and curious.

601. Tully's Letters from Tripoly. 3 vols. 8vo.--Much curious information on the domestic life and manners of the inhabitants, and more insight into female manners and character, than is generally gained respecting the females of this part of Africa.

602. Captain Lyons' Travels in Northern Africa, from Tripoly to Mouzzook.

1821. 4to.--Though the object of these travels was not accomplished, they contain much information on the geography of central Africa collected during them. On this important point, the Quarterly Review should be consulted.

603. Schousboe Betrachtungen uber das Gewaesrich, en Marokko. Copenhag.

1802. 8vo.--This work, translated from the Danish, relates chiefly to the botany, metereology, soil and productions of Morocco; and on other topics it gives accurate and valuable information.

604. Viaggio da Tripoli alto Frontiere dell' Egitto. 1817. P. Della Cella.--The scene of these travels must give them an interest and value, since they embrace "one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greek colonies," and a country "untrodden by Christian feet since the expulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising disciples of Mahomet," The work, however, proves that its author was not qualified to avail himself of such a new and interesting field of enquiry, remark, and research, to the extent which might have been expected.

EGYPT

Whoever wishes to be informed respecting the state of Egypt and its inhabitants during the remotest ages to which they can be traced, must have recourse to the accounts given of them in the Scriptures, and by Herodotus and other ancient writers. During the dark and middle ages, as they are called, information may be drawn from the following sources.

605. Abdollatiphi Historiae Egypti Compendium, Arabice et Latine. Oxford, 1800. 4to.--There are several editions of this work: the one, the t.i.tle of which we have just given, was edited by Professor White. He also published a preceding one without the Latin version; which was republished at Tubingen, with a preface by Paulus. An interesting and instructive "Notice de cet ouvrage," was published by Sacy, the celebrated orientalist, at Paris, in 1803. The Arabian author relates what he himself saw and learnt in Egypt, and is particularly full on the plants of the country; the historical part occupies only the two last chapters; he lived towards the end of the twelfth century.

606. Abulfedae Descriptio Egypti, Arabice et Latine, notas adjecit J.

Michaelis. Gottingen, 1776. 4to.--This author lived in the fourteenth century, and was celebrated for his geographical knowledge, of which this work is a valuable proof.

607. L'Egypti de Murtadi. Paris, 1666. 12mo.--This work of the middle ages, translated from an Arabic ma.n.u.script belonging to Cardinal Mazarin, is curious, but extremely rare.

608. Nouvelle Relation d'un Voyage en Egypte. Par Wansleb. 1672-73. Paris, 1678. 12mo.--Wansleb was a German, sent into Egypt and Ethiopia by the Duke of Saxe Gotha, to examine the religious rites and ceremonies of the Christians there. He was afterwards sent again into Egypt by Colbert; the fruit of this journey was a great number of curious and valuable ma.n.u.scripts, which were deposited in the Royal Library at Paris. Besides the work just stated, he published in Italian "Relatione dello Stato presente dell' Egypto". Pans, 1671. 12mo.--Both these works are particularly useful and instructive on the subject of antiquities, and for the accuracy of the descriptions and names he gives to the different places and ruins.

609. Description de l'Egypte, composee sur les Memoires de M. Maillet.

Paris, 1741. 2 vols. 12mo.--Maillet was French Consul at Cairo for sixteen years: his work is valuable on antiquities, and the religion of the ancient and modern Egyptians. It may also be consulted with advantage for information on the manners and customs; but in what he relates regarding the Nile and natural history, he is not so accurate and judicious.

610. Lettres sur l'Egypte. Par M. Savary. Paris, 1786. 3 vols. 8vo.--This work, very celebrated and much read for some time after it appeared, and translated into English, German, Dutch, and Swedish, gradually lost the character it had acquired; partly because his descriptions were found to be overcharged and too favourable, and partly because he describes Upper Egypt as if he had visited it, whereas he never did. Nevertheless, the learning and judgment which this author displays in drawing from scarce and little known Arabic authors, curious notices respecting ancient and modern Egypt, give to the work an intrinsic and real value, which is not affected by the observations we have made.

611. Voyage dans la Haute et Ba.s.se Egypte. Par Sonnini. Paris, 1799. 3 vols. 8vo.--This work deservedly bears a high character for the accuracy and fulness of its natural history; especially its ornithology: antiquities, manners and customs, are by no means overlooked: there are two translations into English,--the one published by Debrett, 1800, 4to. is the best; it was afterwards published in 3 vols. 8vo.

612. Voyage dans la Haute et Ba.s.se Egypte. Par Denon. Paris, 1802. 2 vols.

folio.