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[341] The Tropic of Cancer. --_Ed. _

[342] Called by Ptolemy _Caput Assinarium_, now Cape Verde.

[343] The Canaries, called by the ancients _Insulae Fortunatae_.

[344] The province of Jalofo lies between the two rivers, the Gambia and
the Zanago. The latter has other names in the several countries through
which it runs. In its course it makes many islands, inhabited only by
wild beasts. It is navigable for 150 leagues, at the end of which it is
crossed by a stupendous ridge of perpendicular rocks, over which the
river rushes with such violence, that travellers pass under it without
any other inconvenience than the prodigious noise. The Gambia, or _Rio
Grande_, runs 180 leagues, but is not so far navigable. It carries more
water, and runs with less noise than the other, though filled with many
rivers which water the country of Mandinga. Both rivers are branches of
the Niger. Their waters have this remarkable quality; when mixed
together they operate as an emetic, but when separate do not. They
abound with great variety of fishes, and their banks are covered with
horses, crocodiles, winged serpents, elephants, ounces, wild boars, with
great numbers of others, wonderful for the variety of their nature and
different forms. --FARIA Y SOUSA.

[345] _Timbuctu_, the mart of Mandinga gold, was greatly resorted to by
the merchants of Grand Cairo, Tunis, Oran, Tlemicen, Fez, Morocco, etc.
[346] Contra hoc promontorium (Hesperionceras) Gorgades insulae
narrantur, Gorgonum quondam domus, bidui navigatione distantes a
continente, ut tradit Xenophon Lampsacenus. Penetravit in eas Hanno
Poenorum imperator, prodiditque hirta foeminarum corpora viros pernicitate
evasisse, duarumque Gorgonum cutes argumenti et miraculi gratia in
Junonis templo posuit, spectatas usque ad Carthaginem captam. --PLIN.
Hist. Nat. l. 6. c. 31.

[347] Sierra Leone.

[348] Cape Palmas. --_Ed. _

[349] During the reign of John II. the Portuguese erected several forts,
and acquired great power in the extensive regions of Guinea. Azambuja, a
Portuguese captain, having obtained leave from Caramansa, a negro
prince, to erect a fort on his territories, an unlucky accident had
almost proved fatal to the discoverers. A huge rock lay very commodious
for a quarry; the workmen began on it; but this rock, as the devil would
have it, happened to be a negro god.