Near This Place He Discovered The Remains Of A City,
Temples, And Fifty-Four Pyramids, Which Are Supposed, By A Writer In The
Quarterly Review, To Be The Ruins Of The Celebrated Meroc, As Their
Position Agrees With That Assigned Them By A Draughtsman Employed By Mr.
Bankes.
The army halted on the western bank of the Nile, opposite Halfaia:
about five hours' march above this place the Bahr el Abiad, or White River,
flows into the Bahr el Azreck, or Nile of Bruce.
In thirteen days from the
junction of these two rivers, the army, marching along the left, or western
branch of the Azreck, reached Sennaar.
In the year 1817, Delia Cella, an Italian physician, accompanied the army
of the bashaw of Tripoli as far as Bomba, on the route towards Egypt, and
near the frontiers of that country. He had thus an opportunity "of visiting
one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greek colonies, established
upwards of seven hundred years before the birth of Christ; and in being the
first European to follow the footsteps of Cato round the shores of the
Syrtis, and to explore a region untrodden by Christian foot since the
expulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising
disciples of Mahomet." In this journey he necessarily passed the present
boundary between Tripoli and Bengaze, the same which was anciently the
boundary between Carthage and Cyrene; and our author confirms the account
of Sallust, that neither river nor mountain marks the confines. He also
confirms the description given by Herodotus of the dreadful storms of sand
that frequently arise and overwhelm the caravans in this part of the
Syrtis. At the head of the Syrtis the ground is depressed, and this
depression, our author supposes, continues to the Great Desert. Soon after
he left this barren country, he entered Cyrenaica, the site of Cyrene: that
most ancient and celebrated colony of the Greeks was easily ascertained by
its magnificent ruins. From Cyrene the army marched to Derna, and from this
to the gulf of Bomba, an extensive arm of the sea, where the expedition
terminated.
Such are the most recent discoveries in this portion of Africa.
The settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, originally established by the
Dutch, and at present in possession of the English, was naturally the point
from which European travellers set out to explore the southern parts of
Africa. Their progress hitherto has not been great, though, as far as they
have advanced, the information they have acquired of the face of the
country, its productions, the tribes which inhabit it, and their habits,
manners, &c. may be regarded as full and accurate. The principal travellers
who have visited this part of Africa, and from whose travels the best
information may be obtained of the settlement of the Cape, and of the
country to the north of it for about 900 miles, are Kolbein, Sparman, Le
Vaillant, Barrow, Lichtenstein, La Trobe, Campbell, and Burcheli.
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