A Manual of Ancient History. M. E. Thalheimer
First Period.
Note.—A discrepancy will be found between the Egyptian and the Hebrew chronology. The latter, before the accession of Saul, is mainly conjectural; as it is possible that two or more judges were reigning at the same time in different parts of the land. The periods of the several judges and of foreign servitude on p. 36, are copied literally from the Bible; the times of inter-regnum are conjectured, but probably fall below rather than exceed the truth. If continuous, these periods added together make 535 years—a longer interval than can be found between the reign of Menephthah and that of Saul (§§ 79 and 154.) It may here be said that many historians believe the “Pharaoh’s daughter” who rescued Moses to have been Mesphra or Amen-set (§ 146.) In this case, Thothmes IV was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and we gain nearly 200 years for the transitional period of the Hebrews.
It may be hoped that Egyptian MSS. now in the hands of diligent and accomplished scholars will soon throw light on this interesting question.
PART II. AFRICAN NATIONS.
GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF AFRICA.
114. The continent of Africa differs in many important respects from that of Asia. The latter, extending into three zones, has its greatest extent in the most favored of all, the North Temperate. Africa is almost wholly within the tropics, only a small portion of its northern and southern extremities entering the two temperate zones, where their climate is most nearly torrid. Asia has the loftiest mountains on the globe, from which flow great rivers spreading fertility and affording every means of navigation. Africa has but two great rivers, the Nile and the Niger, and but few mountains of remarkable elevation.
115. Africa is thus the hottest, driest, and least accessible of the continents. One-fifth of its surface is covered by the great sea of sand which stretches from the Atlantic nearly to the Red Sea. Much of the interior consists of marshes and impenetrable forests, haunted only by wild beasts and unfit for human habitation. With the exception of a very few favored portions, Africa is therefore unsuited to the growth of great states; and it is only through two of these, Egypt and Carthage, that it claims an important part in ancient history.
116. Northern Africa alone was known to the ancients, and its features were well marked and peculiar. Close along the Mediterranean lay a narrow strip of fertile land, watered by short streams which descended from the Atlas range. These mountains formed a rocky and scantily inhabited region to the southward, though producing in certain portions abundance of dates. Next came the Great Desert, varied only by a few small and scattered oases, where springs of water nourished a rich vegetation. South of the Sahara was a fertile inland country, near whose large rivers and lakes were cities and a numerous population; but these central African states were only visited by an occasional caravan which crossed the desert from the north, and had no political connection with the rest of the world.
117. In the western portion of Northern Africa, the mountains rise more gradually by a series of natural terraces from the sea, and the fertile country here attains a width of two hundred miles. This well watered, fruitful, and comparatively healthful region, is one of the most favored on the globe. In ancient times it was one vast corn-field from the Atlas to the Mediterranean. Here the native kingdom of Maurita´nia flourished; and after it was subdued by the Romans, the same fertile fields afforded bread to the rest of the civilized world.
118. Eastward from Mauritania the plain becomes narrower, the rivers fewer, and the soil less fertile, so that no great state, even if it had originated there, could have long maintained itself. The north-eastern corner of the continent, however, is the richest and most valuable of all the lands it contains. This is owing to the great river which, rising in the highlands of Abyssin´ia, and fed by the perpetual rains of Equatorial Africa, rolls its vast body of waters from south to north, through