In Whitman's Hand

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About this Item

Title: Africa (The Equator

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1856

Whitman Archive ID: duk.00686

Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Transcribed from digital images of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the marginalia and annotations, see our statement of editorial policy.

Editorial note: Edward Grier estimates that Whitman wrote this document in "late 1855" (Walt Whitman: Notebooks and Unpublished Manuscripts, ed. Edward F. Grier [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1971). At one point, this manuscript likely formed part of Whitman's cultural geography scrapbook.

Contributors to digital file: Lauren Grewe, Nicole Gray, Ty Alyea, Matt Cohen, and Kevin McMullen



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  • Africa
(The Equator—on itin Africa the Guineas, Ethiopia—Zanguebar—Liberia only a little north—the Gaboon coast
the ^high long ranged linked ridged interminable ridged Mountains of the Moon, just north of the Equator, and running from east and west—2000 miles 3 miles high
Capes,
Cape Verde, the westernmost cape of the continent of Africa, on the coast of Senegambia not far north of Liberia
Cape of Good Hope, southern extremity
Cape Guardafui, eastern, lat. 10 north, point dividing the Indian ocean from the Red sea.
Cape Bon, northernmost, (coast of Tunis) in the Mediterranean
Cape Bajadore, on the desert, western extremity.
Isthmus of Suez
Seas
—the Red sea
—The ^good‑breathed ^aired ^fresh‑sunned Mediterranean, and from one to another of its islands
—Gulf of Guinea
Straits of Gibraltar
small Islands off the western coast, and large islands ^(Madagascars) off the eastern coast.
Mountains
—Mts of the Moon—
Snow Mts, southern part Africa, in Cape Colony.
Red Mts Madagascar

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R
  • Africa
Cape of Good Hope (8550 miles from New York
  • Rivers—in Africa
^the Niger 2300 miles
the Congo, (1000 miles or more, emptying into the Atlantic through Lower Guinea
The Nile The [white?] black black and venerable ^vast mother, the Nile,
White River, away down in Ethiopia, emptying in the Nile
Senegal, 900 miles, emptying into the Atlantic through Senegambia
Orange River, (Cape Colony)
People,
Caffres, southern extremity of Africa— of Caffaria—
M Nubians, below Egypt, (the Nile runs through it—
Liberians, ("free Liberians") the new colony—only a little north of the equator
Fezzanese, of Fezzan a province northern part of Africa, a little from the Mediterranean.—
Ashantees, in Guinea just north of the equator, west side
Booushuanas of South Africa, probably the same as Hottentots
Foulahs (in Senegambia, west coast, 10th deg lati
Berbers, of Berbera, (a city same name,) province ^close on the eEquator, eastern shore of Africa
Abyssinians, ^a large fine formed race, of Abyssinia, black, athletic, fine heads, (City Gondar) Abyssinia a province west coast of Africa, [f?] bordering partly on the Red Sea, partly on the Indian Ocean
Barcanese, of Barca on the Mediterranean,
Soudanese, 7,000,000 of Soudan
Ethiopians, quite entirely inland on and mostly below the equator—a country of [&?] doubtless of hot‑breathed winds airs and exhalations cities, ignorance, enti altogether unenlightened and unexplored
Fellahtas, on the Niger river, in Soudan 10 [deg?] north equator

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