the very heart of the Andes. The interior of Africa, however,
notwithstanding its navigable rivers, has been hitherto almost a
sealed chapter in the history of the globe. The deserts, which extend
from Egypt to the Atlantic, and which cover a great surface of the
interior, have proved a barrier to the march of conquest, or
civilization; and whatever science has gained, has been wrested by
the utmost efforts of human perseverance and the continual sacrifice
of human life.

It must, however, be allowed that there are obstacles existing to the
knowledge and the civilization of central Africa, which cannot be
overcome by the confederated power of human genius. Extending 5000
miles in length, and nearly the same extent in breadth, it presents
an area, according to Malte Brun, of 13,430,000 square miles,
unbroken by any estuary, or inland sea, and intersected by a few long
or easily navigable rivers; all its known chains of mountains are of
moderate height, rising in terraces, down which the waters find their
way in cataracts, not through deep ravines and fertile valleys. Owing
to this configuration, its high table lands are without streams, a
phenomenon unknown in any other part of the world; while, in the
lower countries, the rivers, when swelled with the rains, spread into
floods and periodical lakes, or lose themselves in marshes. According
to this view of the probable structure of the unknown interior, it
appears as one immense flat mountain, rising on all sides from the
sea by terraces; an opinion favoured by the absence of those narrow
pointed promontories, in which other continents terminate, and of
those long chains of islands, which are, in fact, submarine
prolongations of mountain chains extending across the main land. It
is, however, not impossible, that in the centre of Africa, there may
be lofty table lands like those of Quito, or valleys like that of