State of Human Society in Northern Central Africa. Read May 10, 1858. I.—I shall first make a few introductory remarks on the physical features of Northern Central Africa in general. I here take that part of the continent which rather deserves the name of North Africa, together with the more central portions, and consider the general features of that immense tract of country, which from a line drawn across the continent along the parallel of the Slave and Gold coast, and cutting off the widely-projecting headland of the Somal's coast, extends in an east-westerly direction through from 50 to 60, and from south to north through a breadth of about 25 degrees. In my further remarks, however, I shall confine myself more to the interior regions inclosed in this northern broadest half of the African continent, although occasionally I shall be obliged to include the seaboard in the range of my observations. There is a great number of gentlemen in this Society who would be able to give to the meeting a by far more accurate account of the country near the seaboard than I am able to give. I shall also exclude from my general view the highly interesting group of Abyssinia and the neighboring countries, which in every respect forms quite a region of its own, and has scarcely any intercourse with the rest of the African interior. If we now look at that broad extent of country about which I am speaking, the most characteristic feature is its uniform nature, as well with regard to its outline as with respect to its interior. In the outline of this continental territory, as hemmed in by the ocean, the only considerable indentations which we observe are on the east side, the deeply indented Arabian gulf, nearly insulating the whole African continent, on the southwest side the bight of Benin, and on the northern coast the two Syrtis. If we now regard the interior of this immense tract, we first have to observe that broad belt of sterile land intervening between the northern fertile zone along the Mediterranean, which in the west reclines on the slope of the Atlas chain and its minor branches, and the fertile lands of the tropical region to the south; while towards the east this vast desert tract is bordered by the large basin of the Nile, running from south to north through a breadth of nearly 30 degrees, and towards the south-west by the Niger, or however we may call that great river which in an immense curve sweeps into the interior as far as the 18th degree of N. latitude, and which has been an object of the highest attraction and interest in this country from the very beginning of the glorious proceedings of the African Association. In the midst, between these two immense rivers, connected with the lower course of the Nile by another line of oases, a long line of more favourable localities and of inhabitable oases stretches out through Fezzan and the country of Tebu, forming a natural link between the Mediterranean and the central regions with their central basin, the Tsad or Chad. Towards the west, opposite the great bend of the Niger, where it enters the very heart of the African desert, Nature has provided an outlying inhabitable spot, the oasis of Tawat, the southernmost places of which, namely Insalah and A'kabli, are situated nearly on a parallel with Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, and thus affords an easier access to the Niger, while at the same time it forms a point of junction with the middle routes to Negroland. Mountains. However, the desert is not a deep sink as was generally supposed before the period of our exploration, but rather an elevated tract of a mean elevation of from 1,000 to 1,400 feet, mostly consisting of rock, namely sandstone or granite, the latter being overlaid in the heart of the desert by vast tracts of gravel, while the sandstone region forms many elevated plains of larger or smaller extent, strewn with small pebbles. Several mountainous groups are found in different quarters of this region, the most prominent being Tibesti, the country of the north-western Tebu; A'sben or A'ir, the territory of the Kel-owi; the two mountainous regions called by the name A'derer, or A'derar, the one near the great north-easterly bend of the Niger, the other in the western part of the desert, near the town of Tishit; and the A'takor, or the mountain group of the Hogar, near Tawat. These mountainous tracts, while they slightly increase the difficulty of the passage for caravans, nevertheless are of the highest importance, not only for the temporary intercourse of travellers and merchants, but even as affording a dwelling-place to a tolerably numerous nomadic population, which, but for these more favored localities, could scarcely exist in the desert. But of course the cultivable or even inhabitable localities which these mountain clusters afford are very limited, and while the open desert is the most healthy residence, the ravines formed by these mountains are rather the contrary, and become a hotbed of fever in the same degree as they are better provided with moisture, and thus are |