An Englishman under the name of Robarts came to Alexandria in 1788, and after a short stay proceeded to Kahira. His intention was, it is said, to have penetrated into Abyssinia by way of Massuah. While at Kahira he applied repeatedly to the Coptic Patriarch for a letter from him to the head of the Abyssin church; with which the latter, under various pretences, constantly refused to furnish him. He continued at Kahira several months, and afterwards found his way to _Moccha_. Repeated attempts were made by him to execute his projected voyage to the opposite territory, but all without success. The persons from whom I received this information, and who, as would seem, derived it from his own authority, assured me that he had encountered almost insurmountable obstacles, and been obliged to submit even to personal indignities. They allowed too that this gentleman was far from being unqualified for the enterprize, in judgment, experience, or physical force. The same persons acquainted me that he had afterwards advanced to the Mogul peninsula, and had accompanied the British troops, during two campaigns, against the usurper of Mysore, in various parts of the peninsula. He even returned to Alexandria after the treaty of Seringapatam; and at that place, being attacked by an acute disease, breathed his last in the Franciscan convent there established. More authentic and interesting materials respecting this traveller, may possibly have reached this country. Yet I thought it not improper to mention these few particulars, which may tend to illustrate the nature of a voyage to Abyssinia. The errors in African geography are numerous, and proceed from various causes. Among those causes, however, are particularly to be enumerated, That the same province has often one name in the language of that province, and another in Arabic. Of the places called indiscriminately _Fertît_ by the Arabs, each little district has an appropriate name. Again, the name of a small province is occasionally taken for a large one, and _vice versâ_. _Bahr_ is applied to a great lake, as well as to a river. _Dar_ is a kingdom, and is sometimes applied to a village, and often to a district. _Fûr_ seems to be an Arabic name, signifying in that tongue a _Deer_; and, it may be conjectured, has been applied to that people in the same sense as _Towshân_, a hare, is by the Turks to the natives of the Greek islands—from the rapidity of their flight before the Mohammedan conquerors. Nothing can well be more vague than the use of the word _Soudan_ or _Sûdan_. Among the Egyptians and Arabs _Ber-es-Soudan_ is the place where the caravans arrive, when they reach the first habitable part of Dar-Fûr: but that country seems its eastern extremity; for I never heard it applied to Kordofân or Sennaar. It is used equally in Dar-Fûr to express the country to the West; but on the whole seems ordinarily applied to signify that part of the land of the blacks nearest Egypt.