Page:Life of Africaner.pdf/3



entering on the history of this noted individual, it may be necessary to give a short outline of the continent of Africa, which forms one of the four quarters of the world. Its length, from north to south, is between 4000 and 5000 miles, and its greatest breadth, from east to west, is about 4000 miles. The Mediterranean Sea separates it from Europe, and the Red Sea from Asia. It is divided into North and South Africa; North Africa being that division which lies north of the equator, and South Africa that which lies south of the equator. The greater portion of this continent lies under a vertical sun. Within the tropics, or middle part of Africa, the aborigines, or natives, are generally jet black, and to the north or south they are of a dark-olive colour. In the whole of that vast continent, no natives of a white complexion are to be found. When a white person appears in any of the African countries for the first time, he is an object of great terror to the natives, especially to the women and children, who immediately run from his presence.

Most of its inhabitants are totally unacquainted with snow and ice; indeed, they would as soon expect to see the flinty rock dissolve into water, as to see water changed into hard ice. Some years ago, one of the natives, sailing in a ship to England, happened, when near that country, to go hastily on deck on a