_An Egyptian Man and Woman in their proper Habits_.
[Illustration: woodcut of Egyptian couple]
_An Account of_ EGYPT.
EGYPT, a country in Africa, is parted from Asia by the Red Sea, and
bounded on the north by the Mediterranean; on the east by Arabia
Petræa; on the south by Æthiopia and Nubia; and on the west by
Barbary. The air of this country is very unhealthy, occasioned by
the heat of the climate. The soil is made fruitful by the river
Nile, which overflows the country annually, from the middle of June
to September, and supplies the want of rain, of which there is very
seldom any. It abounds with corn, and does not want for rice,
sugar, dates, sena [sic], cassia, balm, leather, flax and linen
cloth, which they export. Diodorus Siculus relates, that there had
been formerly in Egypt, eighteen thousand great towns; the most
noted of which was Alexandria. In the eastern parts, beyond the
river Nile, is the famous country of Thebais, with its desarts
[sic], where St. Anthony, St. Paul, and other anchorets, had their
cells. Beyond the Red Sea there is another desart, where the
children of Israel lived forty years. The modern inhabitants are
fine swimmers, handy, pleasant, and ingenious, but lazy. This
kingdom was first governed by the Pharaohs; afterwards conquered by
Alexander the Great; and in the sixteenth century, Selim, the
Turkish Emperor, conquered the Mamulucks, or Saracens; for in the
year 1516, defeating and killing Camson, Soldan of Egypt, and
Tomumbey the next year after, Egypt was perfectly conquered by the
Ottomans or Turks, who have governed it ever since by their
Bashaws. The old religion of this country was idolatry, but now
Mahometanism prevails most, through there are some few Christians.
_An Account of_ BARBARY.
BARBARY is bounded by Egypt on the east, Mount Atlas on the south,
the Atlantic Ocean on the west, and the Mediterranean to the north.
Though this country be under the Torrid Zone, yet the mountains and
sea coasts, between the Straits of Gibraltar and Egypt, are more
cold than hot. The men of this country are allowed many wives
though they seldom are married to more than one. The women are
always veiled in the presence of men; so that a man knows no more of
the beauty of the woman he marries, than what he learns from her
parents, till they are actually married. The people are of a good
mild humour, and such as live abroad under tents, as the Arabians or
shepherds, are laborious, valiant, and liberal; but they who live in
cities are proud, covetous, and revengeful; and though they traffic
much, know but very little, and have neither banks nor bills of
exchange. Their commodities are beef, hides, linen, and cotton;
raisins, figs, and dates. It is a rich country, and governed, part
of it, as Fez and Morocco, by Kings; and the other, as Algiers,
Tunis, and Tripoli, by Bashaws from the Grand Seignior [sic]. As
for religion, they have the Christian, Jewish, and Mahometan, and
they who live in the mountains and fields with their flocke [sic],
which are a great number, have hardly any at all. When any one
dies, his friends have women that cry and scratch their faces, and
take on seemingly with great grief for the deceased. They live
mostly on rice, beef, veal, mutton; but wine is forbidden by
Mahomet's law.
_A Description of_ ZAARA, _or the Great Desarts
of_ AFRICA.
THE air of this country is very hot, so that the people are forced
to keep in their little huts, or seek refreshment in caverns, the
most part of the day; these desarts have a great number of lions,
tigers, and ostriches. The inhabitants are unpolished, savage, and
very bold, for they will stand and meet the fiercest lion or tiger.
They are divided into families or clans, each head of a family is
sovereign in his own canton, and the eldest is always head; they
follow the Mahometan religion, but are no strict observers of it.
The country is a mere desart, as the name imports, and so parched
for want of water, that the caravans from Morocco to Negroland are
obliged to carry both water and provisions, the province producing
hardly any thing for the support of life.
_A Negroe Man and Woman in their proper Habits_.
[Illustration: woodcut of Negro couple]
_An Account of the Land of the_ NEGROES.
THIS country lies along the river Niger, on both sides of it,
between Zaara and Guinea. It contains fourteen kingdoms. The
inhabitants of the sea coast are somewhat civilized by their
commerce with the Portuguese; but those that dwell up higher in the
country are savage and brutal. They are continually at war with one
another, and all the prisoners they take in war they sell for
slaves. They sow neither wheat nor barley, but only millet; and
their chief food is roots and nuts, pease and beans. The country is
surrounded with woods, and abounds with elephants. They have no
wine, but a pleasant sort of liquor, which they get from a certain
sort of palm trees, in this manner--they give three or four
strokes with a hatchet on the trunk of a tree, and set vessels to
receive the distilling juice, which is very sweet, but in a few days
grows strong, yet will not keep long, for in fifteen days it grows
sour. One tree will yield near a gallon in twenty-four hours. The
commodities of this country are gold, ostrich feathers, amber, gums,
civit [sic], elephants teeth, and red-wood.
_An Account of_ ÆTHIOPIA.
ÆTHIOPIA is about one-half of Africa, and divided into the Upper and
Lower Æthiopia. This country is pretty full of mountains much
higher than the Alps or Pyrenees, but level, spacious, and well
inhabited, and fruitful on the top; the soil near the Nile is
fruitful, but at a distance chiefly sandy desarts. The people
comely and well shaped, though black or swarthy. Their cattle are
very large, their horses and camels courageous and stout. Their
kings sit at table alone. Their messes not being very neat or
costly, are served in black clay dishes, covered with straw caps
finely woven; they use neither knives nor forks, spoons nor
napkins, and think it beneath them to feed themselves, and so have
youths on purpose to put the meat in their mouths. They have no
towns, but live in tents, which are so very numerous where the King
is, that they resemble a great city; and they have also their
officers to prevent disorder, and things are so well managed, thatthey can
remove speedily on all occasions without confusion. Their
commodities are metals, gems, cattle, corn, sugar, canes, wine, and
flax. They are a mixture of Jews, Mahometans, Pagans, and
Christians. The government is subject to an Emperor, who is called
Prestor [sic] John. In Lower Æthiopia the commodities are silver,
gold, ivory, pearls, musk, ambergris, oil, lemons, citrons, rice,
millet, &c. The people have hitherto been esteemed barbarous and
savage; but if the relations of Bruce, the celebrated traveller, are
in the least to be depended on, we have done them great injustice in
this respect; and we are well assured that they are not generally
canibals [sic], as we have been accustomed to think them. The
Hottentots inhabit part of the country, who are the most odious of
all the human species, for they besmear their bodies with grease and
all manner of filth, and adorn themselves with hanging the guts of
bears about their arms, legs and necks.
_An Account of_ GUINEA.
GUINEA is a kingdom of Africa; the country is very extensive, and
the people of Europe drive a great trade in it. The French were the
first who discovered it, about the year 1346. The soil of this
country is fertile, but the heat insupportable by any but the
natives, who are counted the blackest of all the Negroes, and most
of them go quite naked. Ignorance and stuperstition [sic] reign
among them, and it is said that they offer human sacrifices. They
look on God to be a good being, and for that reason only are civil
to him; they worship the devil, and pray earnestly he may do them no
mischief. Their commodities are cotton, rice, sugar, canes,
elephants, peacocks, apes, and pearls. Several small Princes and
states in the inland country, who are generally at war, sell their
prisoners for slaves to the Europeans; others traffic to different
countries for purchasing slaves, or steal them, and bring them down
to the coast; and some will sell their children and nearest
relations, if they have an opportunity.