The Walt Whitman Archive
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Editorial note: Edward Grier estimates that Whitman wrote this document in "late 1855" (Walt Whitman: Notebooks and Unpublished Manuscripts, ed.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 it—in 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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