AFRICAN ISLANDS.

Ar the mouth of the Red Sea lies the island of Zocotra, belonging to the Arabs. It is a populous and plentiful country, and particularly noted for aloes.

MADAGASCAR is separated from the continent by a channel, called the Channel of Mozambique. This island is 800 miles long, 150 broad, divided into 28 provinces, and watered by some considerable rivers. Its population is estimated at 4,000,000, blacks.

The CAPE VERD islands, so called, are opposite to the most projecting part of Africa. There are ten principal ones, lying almost in a half circle.

The CANARY islands, are still further north, almost opposite to Morocco, but more southerly; famous for Canary wine. The ancients called them the Fortunate Isles. They are ten or twelve in number; the chief are Great Canary, Teneriffe, Gomera and Ferro. Teneriffe is much encumbered with mountains. The Peak is an ascent in the form of a sugar loaf, 15 miles in circumference, and 13,265 feet high. It is a volcano.`

The MADEIRAS are three islands, in about 28 degrees north latitude, 100 miles north of the Canaries. The largest, is 180 miles in circumference. The Madeiras are opposite to Morocco: very fruitful, the climate is fine, and there are few reptiles. These islands are famous for an exquisite wine of the same name.

The AZORES, or WESTERN ISLES, lie about midway between the two continents, in about 37 degrees north latitude, nine hundred miles from land. They were discovered by a ship that was driven in that direction by stress of weather. They are nine in number, fertile in corn, wine, and a variety of fruits. The climate is remarkably salubrious. It is said that no poisonous or noxious animal can live on the Azores.

OTAHEITE. The SOCIETY ISLES, are a cluster lying near the 16th degree south latitude, the principal of which is Otaheite. The vegetable productions of these islands are numerous and luxuriant. The inhabitants of Otaheite alone are estimated at 204,000. The people exceed the middle size of Europeans in stature. In their dispositions, they are brave, open, and generous, without

either suspicion or treachery. Except a few traces of natural cunning, and some traces of dissimulation, equally artless and inoffensive, they posess the most perfect simplicity of character. Otaheite alone, it is supposed, can send out 1720 war canoes, and 68,000 able men. The chief of each district superintends the equipping of the fleet in that district; but they must pass in review before the king, so that he may know the state of the whole before they assemble to go on service. They are remarkable for their cleanliness; for both men, women and children constantly wash their whole bodies in running water, three times every day. Their language is soft and melodious and abounds with vowels.

The inhabitants of Otaheite believe in one Supreme Deity, but at the same time acknowledge a variety of subordinate deities; they offer up their prayers without the use of idols, and believe the existence of the soul in a separate state, where there are two situations, of different degrees of happiness. The inhabitants of all these islands are blacks, generally above the middle size, with fine open countenances and good shape. The climate is similar to that of the West Indies.

Africa once contained several kingdoms and states, eminent for the liberal arts, for wealth and power, aud the most extensive commerce. The kingdoms of Egypt and Ethiopia, in particular were much celebrated; and the rich and powerful state of Carthage, that once formidable rival to Rome itself, extended her commerce to every part of the then known world.

GREECE, EUROPE AND NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA, WERE SETTLED BY THE DESCENDANTS OF EGYPT. We learn from the ancient history of Europe that the first people known to have lived there were the Grecians, who occupied a small space of country on the Mediterranean. It is supposed to have been near 2500 years from the creation of the world, and about 3396 years to this period, that Greece was first settled by a colony from Egypt, led out by the celebrated Anthony, or Cecrops Egyptians, who conducted thither an Egyptian colony from the Nile, 1556 years B. C.

CHAPTER III.

ANTIQUITY OF AMERICA.

AMERICA, was first settled by the Israelites-Indians who came out from Egypt. [The View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith.] America was discovered by Columbus in 1492, and was peopled by Colonies in A. D., 1620, from Europe. The first settlement in New England was made at Plymouth, in the midst of a fertile country.-The Egyptians were an Ethiopian people. [Herodotus.]

The following authors are supposed to have referred to America in their writings:

M. de Chazelles, when he measured the great pyramid in Egypt, found that the four sides of it were turned [built] exactly to the four quarters of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa and America, above three thousand years ago. During so long a space of time, there has been no alteration in the poles of the earth or the meridians, to have turned the pyramid.

The celebrated Theopompus, a learned historian and orator, flourished in the time of Alexander the Great, the Egyptian hero. In a book entitled "Thaumasia," a sort of dialogue is given between Midas the Phrygian, and Silenus. The book itself is lost, but Strabo refers to it, and Ælianus has given us the substance of the dialogue which follows. After much conversation, Silenus said to Midas that Europe, Asia and Africa were but islands, surrounded on all sides by the sea; but that there was a continent situated beyond these, which was of immense dimensions, even without limits; it was inhabited by men

land was good, and there were mines Elianus referred to a country west of [Elian variar. Historiar., or Ælian's Ælian or Elianus lived about A. D.

HANNO, an African, flourished when the Carthaginins were in their greatest prosperity, but the exact time is unknown. Some place his times 40 and others 140 years before the founding of Rome, which would be about 800 years before our era. [Encyclopædia Perthensis.] He was an officer of great enterprise; having sailed around and explored the coast of Africa, he set out from the Pillars of Hercules, now called the straits of Gibraltar, and sailed westward thirty days. Hence it is inferred by many that he must have visited America, or some of its islands. He wrote a book, which he entitled Periplus, giving an account of his voyages, which was translated and published about 1533, in Greek. [The best account of Hanno and his voyages, with which we are acquainted, is to be found in Marianna's History of Spain.]

Many, and not without tolerably good reasons, believe that an island or continent existed in the Atlantic Ocean about this period, but which disappeared afterwards.

DIODORUS SICULUS says that some "Phoenicians were cast upon a most fertile island opposite to Africa." Of this, he says, they kept the most studied secrecy, which was doubtless occasioned by their jealousy of the advantage the discovery might be to the neighboring nations, and which they wished to secure wholly to themselves. Diodorus Siculus lived about 100 years before Christ. Islands lying west of Europe and Africa are certainly mentioned by Homer and Horace. They were called Atlantides, and were supposed to be about 1000 furlongs from Africa.

PLATO, an Ethiopian and an eminent Greek historian. His account has more weight, perhaps, than any of the ancients. He lived about 400 years before the Christian era. A part of his account is as follows: "In those first times [time of its being first known] the Atlantic was a most broad island, and there were extant most powerful kings in it, who, with joint forces, appointed to occupy Asia and Euiope, and so a most grievous war was carried on, in which the Athenians with the common consent of the Greeks, opposed

themselves, and they became the conquerors. But that Atlantic island, by a flood and earthquake, was indeed suddenly destroyed, and so that warlike people were swallowed up." He adds, in another place, “An island in the mouth of the sea, in the passage to those straits, called the Pillars of Hercules, did exist; and that island was greater and larger than Lybia and Asia; from which there was an easy passage over to other islands, and from those islands to that continent, which is situated out of that region." [America known to the Ancients, Vol. x. 8vo., Boston, 1773.]

"

“ NEPTUNE settled in this island, from whose son, Atlas, its name was derived, and divided it among his ten sons. To the youngest fell the extremity of the island, called Gadir, which, in the language of the country signifies fertile or abounding in sheep. The descendants of Neptune reigned here, from father to son, for a great number of generations in the order of primogeniture, during the space of 9,000 years. They also possessed several other islands; and, passing into Europe and Africa, subdued all Lybia as far as Egypt, and all Europe to Asia Minor. At length the island sunk under water; and for a long time afterwards the sea thereabouts was full of rocks and shelves." [Encyclopædia Perthensis, Art. Atlantis.] This account, although mixed with fable, cannot, we think, be entirely rejected; and that the ancients had knowledge of countries westward of Europe, appears as plain and as well authenticated as any passage of history of that period.

ARISTOTLE, or the author of a book which is generally attributed to him, [De mirabil. auscultat. Opera, vol. i. Voltaire says of this book, "On en fesait honneur aux Carthaginois, et on citait un livre d'Aristote qu'il n'a pas compose." Essai sur les Meurs et l'esprit des nations, chap. cxlv. p. 703, vol. iv. of his works. Edit. Paris, 1817, in 8 vo.] speaks of an island beyond the Straits of Gibraltar; but the passage savors something of hearsay, and is as follows: Some say that, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the Carthaginians have found a very fertile island; but without inhabitants, full of forests, navigable rivers and fruit in abundance. It is several day's voyage from the main land. Some Carthaginians, charmed by the fertility of the country, thought to marry and settle there; but