ABSTRACT
THE Geography of the region lying between Mombasa, 4° 10′ S. lat, and Patte, 2° S. lat, has been greatly misunderstood, and, strange as it may seem, by no one more so than by the geographer, Mr. Cooley. This gentleman, in a book entitled “Inner Africa laid open,” expatiates largely upon this portion of the East African coast, criticising very severely the information supplied by Dr. Krapf; but never was displayed more completely the difficulty of geographers to set right in their cabinets the inaccuracies of travellers. The truth is, that Mr. Cooley, with all his knowledge, research, and talents, did not understand—how could he?—the subject upon which he wrote. His great mistake seems to have been an unlimited confidence in the records of the Portuguese, and an utter repudiation of more recent information. Accordingly he makes a series of blunders such as one could scarcely think possible unless they were wilfully made. As we are not aware that Mr. Cooley has ever been corrected, we shall presume upon an attempt to do so in the course of our remarks.
