AFRICA, one of the four principal divisions of the earth.
Map of Africa from the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 2, plate XC. Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Along the coasts, it is in general reckoned abundantly fruitful, and its produce excellent. The Romans very justly considered Africa as the patria serarum, for there is no other place breeds the number or the variety. In this quarter there are several desarts, some of theme of vast extent, covered with sand, by which whole caravans have been sometimes smothered. The principal rivers are the Nile and the Niger, the first of which disembogues itself into the Mediterranean, after traversing Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt; and the last into the Atlantic ocean, by a western course from Upper Ethiopia. Geographers are not yet agreed about the sources of either of these rivers; according to some, their sources are not far distant from each other. There are some mountains in Africa remarkably high, particularly in Abyssinia and Barbary, in which last is the famous mount Atlas, which separates Barbary from Biledulgerid.
Countries of Africa, Capital Cities, With the Distance and Bearing of each from London; also the Time of each Country compared to that of England. Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Text reproduced in part from the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1768–71).