In 1772 a French cartographer of a much higher order than had hitherto appeared--D’Anville--published a notable map of Africa, in which he cleared away much of the fantastic geography which the Dutch and Germans had developed from the explorations of the Portuguese. D’Anville’s map of Africa marks an important stage in the exploration of the Nile basin, as it approaches the maps of to-day much more than any previous chart. The outline of the African coast is given more correctly than heretofore, while D’Anville brushes away the exaggerations of Dutch and Portuguese cartographers, who had gradually extended the geography of Abyssinia till they had connected with the Nile all the main rivers of Africa in an absurd system of natural canalisation. [Illustration: D’ANVILLE’S MAP OF THE NILE BASIN. (Published 1729; Revised 1772.)] Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville was born at Paris in 1697. From his boyhood he devoted himself to the study of geography, and met with considerable encouragement from the learned societies of Paris and from the Court. D’Anville’s geography of Abyssinia was mainly based on the information collected by the Portuguese missionaries and by Ludolf. The result is so strikingly like the map subsequently constructed by Bruce as the result of his explorations, that it shows how very much information had already been collected by the Portuguese. The last edition of this map bears the date 1772, a date which is one year before Bruce could make the result of his explorations known. Were these dates not certain, it would almost have seemed as if D’Anville had obtained access to Bruce’s information and used it in his geography of Abyssinia. A great mistake in D’Anville’s map, however, is made in the delineation of the course of the Nile in its great Dongola bend. Here the Nile is made to approach the Red Sea at least a hundred miles nearer than is the case. There is a fairly correct suggestion of the Bahr-al-Ghazal (which is named) and the Bahr-al-Arab. The White Nile above the confluence of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is indicated more timidly. Its course passes through a somewhat vague lake, which may be due to a rumour of Lake Albert. Beyond this lake the sources of the White Nile are divided, and made to flow from two lakelets ten degrees north of the equator. To the south of these ultimate sources is the range of the Mountains of the Moon. On D’Anville’s map may be seen for the first time several modern place and river names connected with the Nile, such as Shendi (spelled Shanedi) and Bahr-al-Ghazal. Such other terms as Sennar, the Boran Gala tribe, and the Shankala Negroes are also given; but these were first mentioned by the Portuguese and by the Abyssinian teachers of Ludolf one hundred years earlier. There is also a hint at the Unyamwezi country south of the Victoria Nyanza under the name of Moenemuji, though this also was first mentioned by the Portuguese.