AN OLD DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA.*

AL-EfessAN IBC MOHAMMED AL-WES IS, generally known as Leo Africanus, was born in Granada about 1495, of respectable and wealthy parents, who migrated to Fez when he was a small child. In that learned city he received an excellent education, and at the youthful age of about thirteen entered the diplomatic service. His various journeys, which extended

over the whole of Northern Africa, and to Constantinople, Arabia, and Asia Minor, were made sometimes in the company of his uncle, and sometimes " in the train of My Lord Seriffo,' who may have been one of the Shereefs, who about this period were engaged in preaching the Holy War, which ended not only in driving the Christians from the coast, but in seating the Hoseini dynasty on the throne of Morocco." But while he was still in his teens, he seems to have been himself employed as an Envoy by the King of Fez, and entrusted with important diplomatic business. When he was about twenty-five years old, he had the ill-luck to fall into the hands of some Christian (probably Venetian) corsairs, " who, finding that they had a person of greater learning than usual on board, carried him to Rome as a present to Pope Leo X. (Giovanni de Medici), in the hope, no doubt, of atoning by the pious act for a long accumulation of infamy." The Pope was so pleased with the intelligence of his Moorish slave, and with the entertaining stories he could tell of the strange countries he had visited, that he quickly freed him and " gave him a handsome pension that he might not have any inclination to leave him." The supple Moor allowed himself to be converted to Christianity, and was baptised under the

name of Giovanni Leone, the Pope standing as his godfather. He stayed in Italy for more than twenty years, but appears to have died in Tunis in 1552, having again become " as good a Moslem as he had ever been a Christian ! " His History and Description of Africa was clearly derived from copious and careful notes, written in Arabic, while he was on his

journeys, but these notes were revised and rewritten by him in Italian, with a proper insertion of opprobrious epithets here and there for matters and persons connected with the Mahommedan religion. The Italian manuscript was dated 1526, but was not published till 1550. It was subsequently translated into French and Latin. John Pory's English translation, published in 1600, was apparently mainly derived from the Latin version, since it reproduces several of the errors of the Latin translator, as the present editor points

out.

Leo Africanus was a very accurate observer of places and people, and can generally be safely depended on where he describes what he himself saw. But he is less credible when he repeats the stories of other travellers—indeed, he often

hints an honest doubt himself—and when he trespasses on the domain of natural history he makes many mistakes. He de- scribes almost every town and district of Northern Africa, and his descriptions are wonderfully natural, fresh, and diversified, and at times quaint and entertaining. Thus, in his account "of the mountaine of Nififa," west of Morocco, we read (p. 275) :—

" The said mountains hath great store of inhabitants : and albeit the tope thereof are continually couered with snows ; yet doth it yeerely affoorde marueilous increase and abundance of barley. The rude people there are so destitute of all humanitie and cruill behauionr, that they do admire not onely all strangers, but also do even gaze and woonder at their apparell. I myself remained two dales among them, in which space all the people of the towne came flocking about me, greatly woondring at the white garment which I wore (being such as the learned men of our countrey are vsually clad in), so that every one being desirous to

• The History and Description of Africa. By Leo Africanus. Done into English by John Pory. Edited by Dr. Robert Brown. Printed for the Hakluyt Society.

handle and view this garment of mine, in two daies it was turned from white to blacke, and became all greasie and filthie. Here one of the townsmen being allured with the strangenes and noueltie of my sworde, which I bought at Fez for halfe a ducats, would neuer leaue intreating of me, till I had exchanged it with him for r.an horse, which cost (as himselfe affirmed) aboue ten

At another time, being sent by his uncle to carry presents to a certain Prince, on the way he " innented verses in the

princes praise." "Supper being ended," we read (p. 307), "I greeted the prince in this wise : Your highnes (my lord) hath receiued all those gifts, which your humble seruant mine

vncle (in token of his loiall disposition, and that he might be had of your highnes in remembrance) bath sent you : Now I being both his sisters sonne and his scholler bane nought else but a few wordes to present your prinoelines withall ; may it please you therefore to accept of such homely stnffe as

my witt could sodainly affoord in the time of my iourney. These wordes ended, I began to read my verses unto him ; and being as then but sixteene yeerea of age, the prince gave right ioyf tall and diligent eare vnto me," and not only so, but next morning rewarded the young poet with fifty ducats and a good horse. This was better pay than he got for acting as

judge in a certain poor village, which he visited, since "it was their customs neuer to dismiss any stranger, till he had both heard and thoroughly decided all the quarrels and con- trouersies of the inhabitants." For eight days he was engaged in the work :-

" Vpon the eight day they all of them promised to bestowe some great rewards vpon me. Wherefore the night following- seemed vnto me a yeere long: for I was in good hope the next morrow to bane receiued a masse of golde from my clients. So soone as the next day began to dawne they placed me in a certain church-porch : whither after an vsuall and short praier ended, each man full reuerently presented his gift vnto me_ Here some offered mo a cocke, others brought me nuts and onions, and some others bestowed a h indfull of garlicke vpon me. The principall and headmen sin Ingst them presented me with a goat ; and so by reason that there was no money in all the said mountaine, they proffered me not one farthing for my paines : wherefore all the said gifts I bequeathed vnto mine oste ior his woorthie entertaining of me." (p. 277.)

Fez and Cairo and some other important towns are described at considerable length, and many curious things are told about them. At Fez the porters seem to have worked on communistic principles, putting their earnings together and dividing them equally at the end of each week. " Strange it is to consider how exceedingly these porters lone one another; for when any of them deceaseth, the whole companie main-

taineth his widow and fatherlesse children at their common charge, until either she die, or marrieth a new husband " (p. 432). Leo visited Timbnctoo, or Tombnto, and tells us that " the inhabitants and especially strangers there residing, are exceeding rich, insomuch that the king that now is

married both his daughters vnto two rich merchants " (p. 824). He was personally "acquainted with Abu Baer, sirnamed Pargama, the kings brother, who is blacke in colour, but most beantifull in minde and conditions" (p. 826).

John Pory, whose style is an excellent specimen of Eliza- bethan English, prefaced his translation of Leo Africanus with an account, compiled from other authors, of what was then known or guessed (especially the latter) about those places in Africa " undescribed by Iohn Leo ; " and he also appended chapters containing "a relation of the great Princes and the manifold religions in that part of the world." "Richard Hakluyt, who out of his mature judgment in these studies, knowing the excellencie of this stone abone all others in the same kinde, was the only man," says Pory, " that

moored me to translate it ; " and the Hakluyt Society have done well to reprint Pory's work. It has been excellently edited, with abundant notes and elucidative maps.