A Geographical Survey of Africa
Its Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Productions, States, Population, etc.

Published in 1840, this compilation of the known geography of Africa was intended to aid colonisation and trade.

James MacQueen (Author)

9781108031264, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 May 2011

432 pages, 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.55 kg

James MacQueen (1778–1870) was a British geographer and also one of the most outspoken critics of the methods of the British anti-slavery campaign in the 1820s and 1830s. Although he never visited Africa, he became an acknowledged expert on the continent, through reading all available accounts, ancient and modern, as well as interviewing slave merchants while managing a sugar plantation in the West Indies. This work was published in 1840, and was aimed at assisting the expansion of colonial trading interests. In the preface he is critical of the efficacy of British attempts to eradicate the slave trade, and also of the ill-preparedness and often fatal ignorance of many explorers. He believed that with better information and planning, European involvement in Africa could be much more effective, and that the slave trade could be better reduced by the work of missionaries and by increased trade than by military intervention.

Letter to Lord John Russell
Preface
1. General view of Africa, population and states
2. Great Desert, nature, extent, miseries in crossing it
3. Arabian divisions of Africa
4. Guinea
5. Ashantee, or Western Wangara
6. Human sacrifices
7. Western division of Africa, countries, rivers, Rokelle, Rio Nunez, Rio Grande, Gambia, Senegal, etc. etc.
8. The Niger, or Joliba, and its early tributaries, the Tankisso, Sarano, the Bagoe, the Kowara Ba, Ba Nimma, etc. etc.
9. Butter Tree, Colat-Nut Tree, Jinne, Massina, etc. etc.
10. Course of the Niger below Jinne, Lake Dibbie
11. La Mar Zarah River, Cabra, Timbuctoo, small rivers, etc.
12. The Niger below Timbuctoo
13. The Niger below Boussa, the Oli, the Moussa, Wawa
14. The country from Badagry to Katungah
15. Delta of the Niger
16. The Lower Niger and the Shadda, etc. etc.
17. Yacoba, Adamowa, Kernorsa, Biafra, etc.
18. Rivers and countries eastward from Boussa to Bornou, Mayyarrow, Coodonia, Quarrama, etc. etc.
19. Kashna, Ghana, Oongaroo, Meczara, Lamlam, Agadez, the Yeou, Old Birnie, Gambarou, etc.
20. Bornou, Kouka, Lander and Clapperton's itineraries
21. The River Shary and its tributaries
22. Country from Mourzook to Bornou
23. Lake Shad, or Zad, Bagherme, Bahr el Gazelle, Wajunga, the Gir, the Asoo, Caugha, Kuku, Lake Fittre, etc.
24. Runza, Dar Saley or Waday, Darfur, Kordofan, Zagawa, Nubia
25. The Bahr el Abiad, Shilluk, Denke, or Donga, the Bahr el Azreek, Abyssinia, Angot, Gondar, etc. etc.
26. African rivers which flow to the south, Shoa and Effat, Tadjoura, Zeilah, River Hawash, Ancober
27. Berbera - Eastern Horn of Africa, etc. etc.
28. Magdosha, the Zebbee, Narea, Gingiro, etc.
29. Jaba, the Quillamancy, Limmou, the Habahia and its tributaries
30. The Zaire or Congo, cataracts, etc.
31. The Coanza, the Cuanene, Mattemba, Cassange, Meropooa, the Fish River
32. The eastern coast of Africa, the Zambeze and Senna, Tatta, Zanzibar, Quiloa, population of South Africa, lakes in South Africa
Concluding remarks
Construction of the map
Appendix.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]