place to Ain el Salah, (the fountain of Saints,) the frontier of the territory of Tuat, twenty days-and two more bring the traveller to Akably, the capital of the country. Tuat is an Oasis in the heart of the desert; it is a fruitful country, abounding with springs of excellent water, and producing corn, dates and every necessary for subsistence in great plenty. The people dwell in stone houses, similar to those of Tripoli. In thirty days from this town, the traveller will arrive at Mabrouk, a more considerable city than Tripoli, and built also of stone; the name, it seems, is given from the conductors of the caravans felicitating each other on having safely traversed the desert. The Tuarick inhabit all the neighbouring parts; they are nearly black, and live in tents; they wear the baracan or ola of the Arabs, the men wrapping up their faces in it as the women do in most Mahomedan towns, whilst the females expose theirs. The best meiheries* or dromedaries belong to these people, and constitute their principal riches; they give them different names, as khamasy, setasy, sabasy, and ashrasy, according to their ability to travel five, six, seven, or even ten times as far in one day as an ordinary camel. The Tuarick are a well disposed people; and a stranger who once ingratiates himself even with the least considerable among them, is sure of being protected by all the rest of the tribe. From Mabrouk to Timbuctoo, a journey of about fifteen days, the road lies across a country abounding with provisions and good water. Thus the whole journey from Tripoli to Timbuctoo is about eighty days, in which the longest time of travelling without finding water does not exceed six.

Timbuctoo is not a walled town: some of the houses are built of stone, others of mud; many of the former are two stories high. The palace of the king is like the castle of Tripoli; it is situated in the middle of the town, and is called the kusbé. The name of the king who governed about thirty years ago was Aboubek'r; he was not a negro, but a brown man; most of the people, however, are black, and all of them Moslems. The dress of the inhabitants consists chiefly of long shirts, dyed, in general, blue or black; of the red Moorish cap, turban, and sandals. The dress of the sovereign is highly ornamented with gold. The uniform of the soldiers, who are very numerous, is red, and they are armed with muskets brought by the way of the Great Sea. They manufacture cotton cloths, and gold trinkets at Tim

This species is no doubt the same as the herie, mentioned by Jackson and others, the existence of which has been called in question.

+ In Colonel Fitzclarence's lively and interesting narrative of his Route through India and Egypt' are figured some of these gold ornaments used by the natives of Timbuctoo, as necklaces, ear-rings, braids for the hair, &c. of very superior workmanship, and good taste in the design.

buctoo.

buctoo. The market days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is plenty of cocoa-nuts at Timbuctoo; the name given to them

by Mahommed is . The Nile is distant about

لوز المندي

half a day's journey from the city; the port is called Kabra: on going to Kabra from Timbuctoo, the river comes from the right hand and flows towards the left; it is here so wide that a gun would not take effect across it. In the language of the country, it bears the name of Issa.* There are many boats upon it, which are chiefly employed in trading to Jinnie. Mahommed had no doubt that they might proceed downwards to Kashua and Bornou. He was always taught to believe, he says, that the Nile of Soudan and the Nile of Egypt are the same river. From Timbuctoo to Wangara is about twenty-five days journey; the inhabitants bring gold dust to Timbuctoo. He had not been there, but understood it to lie in a southerly direction. He has no doubt that Christians might reside without danger or molestation at Timbuctoo; and he offered to accompany Mr. Ritchie thither.

Mr. Ritchie observes that this information was corroborated by so many respectable travellers, particularly by Sidi Hamet Tooghar, the present Cadi of Tripoli, who resided for many years in the interior, and by Sidi Mahommed Dghies, the late prime minister of the Bashaw, who kept up during his life an active commercial intercourse with Soudan, and possessed property at Timbuctoo, that he could not refuse entire credence to it. He seems to think, however, that it tends to discredit the narrative of Adams, the American sailor; in which he differs from Mr. Burckhardt. From what I have heard, the latter says, related in Egypt and the Hedjaz by several Fellata Bedouins coming, as Hadjis, from the neighbourhood of Timbuctoo, by the way of Tunis, I believe Adams's description of that town (Timbuctoo) to be correct. One of them told me it was half as large as Cairo, and built of low mud houses, such as are common all over Soudan.' Mr. Ritchie, however, admits the singular coincidence in the mention of the cocoa-nut growing there by Adams and his informant:-botanists had decided that this fruit could only thrive in the vicinity of the sea coast; and this circumstance was advanced as a main argument against the veracity of Adams!

The next piece of information was obtained from Hadji Hamet, a native of Bornou, who had performed the pilgrimage to Mecca about five years before. He was born in the capital of Bornou, which bears the same name, and not Birney:†-this last is not, as Mr.

*It is is thus named by D'Anville, and by several of the early writers.

All reports agree that there is a great fresh-water lake in the interior of Bornou,

nem.

Mr. Burckhardt was led to imagine, a proper name, but a word signifying city' in the language of the country. Hadji Hamet asserts that Grand Cairo is not so large as Bornou; and that to pass from one gate to another in a direct line, would take from morning till night. He adds that, in his journey to Mecca, he first went to Kanem, which is seven days journey to the eastward of Bornou, the stages between them being, 1. Bismillah; 2. Widu; 3. Beledonanby; 4. Sibdifafa; 5. Rigrigzime; 6. Fume; 7. KaKanem is about the size of Tunis. The great river, which is called Tshadi at Kano (or Gano) is called Birum in the country of Kanem, and flows to the south-eastward. It is never dry, and during the summer months overflows the neighbouring country. The name of the river in Bornou is Kamadkoo;* it passes to the eastward about half a day's journey to the south of the capital; at this place is a town or port called Gambarroo, where a young virgin, richly dressed, is precipitated into the stream every year at the period of its inundation; and it is firmly believed that if the victim selected were not a virgin, the town would be swept away. Burckhardt obtained the same information in Egypt.

At Gambarroo are still to be seen the remains of the castles and houses erected by the Christians, who, tradition reports, lived there many ages ago; and copper coins in use among them are said to be frequently dug up. Before the river reaches this town it flows through the country of Soudan. Hadji Hamet was at Gano, which is twelve days journey to the west of Bornou, and close to the river, there called Tshadi. Five days to the westward of Gano is Kashna, where the river is as broad, he says, as the distance from the gate of Tripoli to the bazaar on the sands (about one-third of a mile). It is here called the Gulbi. He had been at Timbuctoo when young, and believes the distance from Kashna to be about twenty-eight, and from Bornou about forty-five days. The places on the road are Goobur, Zamfara, Nyffé, Zegzeg, Melli and Foota, but he does not know their respective distances from each other. At Nyffe there is a large sea which is not salt but sweet. The river Tshadi comes out of this sea and flows on till it arrives in Egypt: he does not know whether the river of Timbuctoo runs into it or not. Wangara lies to the south between this sea and Timbuctoo. Kashna and all the neighbouring countries are at present in subjection to Bello, the Fellata chief, the son of Hatman

on the west side of which the city of Birney is said to be built. The name of the lake is Nou, and from it the country derives the name of Bornou, or the land of Nou.'—Burckhardt, App. No. 1. p. 477.

་

*Kamad koo appears from the vocabulary of the Bornou language, in Mr. Burckhardt's work, to be the general name signifying river.' It is applied to the river at Bornou in Faden's map of Africa,

Danfodio,

Danfodio, who overran the whole of that part of Africa some years ago. Bello's place of residence is Kashna.

The intelligence procured from the next person carries us somewhat farther to the eastward. It is from Sidi Mousa, a Tripolitan merchant who was just returned from Wara, the capital of Waday, (called also Dar Saley and Bergo,*) a journey of about forty-five days of the caravan, or about the same length as that from Bornou to Mourzouk. This man travelled from Waday, through Begharmi, to Bornou; he was twenty days in going from Wara to Begharmi, and ten from the latter to Bornou; which he describes as several times larger than Tripoli. The people of Bornou and of Waday live chiefly in huts of clay covered with grass, but those of Begharmi in houses of two stories high.

6

Waday,' says Mr. Ritchie, is a country which has been represented to me as one of the most considerable in the north-eastern parts of Africa. It was for a long time governed by a prince whose name was Abdel-Kerym, but more commonly called Saboon el Fakir, (literally, the poor man's soap,) a title which he took from the extent of his charitable actions. Since the death of this sovereign two of his sons have successively reigned. The present king is said to be very young, and the kingdom has consequently fallen into a state of civil confusion. I am told that a very large river flows through some districts of Waday, ́called the Batta, which my informant supposed to be the same as that of Bornou called the Tshad. Waday is a kingdom which no European has hitherto visited.'

The Nile flows both through Bornou and Begharmi, and passes to the eastward at the distance of four days journey south of the capital of the latter country, where it is nearly a mile broad and very deep. The direction which it there takes is to the southeastward. Sidi Mousa does not know where it goes after passing Begharmi, but he has always understood it to be the same river as the Nile of Egypt. There are vessels upon it at this place, but not very large.

Such is the substance of the information obtained from three intelligent Africans relating to the Niger and the neighbouring coun

Dar Saley is the name used by the natives; the people of Darfoor and Kordofan give to it the name of Bergo. Their northern neighbours of Bornou and Fezzan, and the Moggrebyn merchants, call it Waday.'-Burckhardt, App. No. 2. p. 484.

The King of Saley, Abd el Kerim, nick-named Saboun, soap,' is, next to those of Darfour and Bornou, the most potent prince in the eastern part of Soudan, and has conquered several of the neighbouring states'-Burck. App. No. 21. p. 480.

Again. 'Next to Bornou and Darfour, Dar Saley is the most important country in eastern Soudan. It is said to be a flat country, with few mountains. In the rainy season, which usually lasts two months, large inundations are formed in many places, and large and rapid rivers then flow through the country. After the waters have subsided, deep lakes remain in various places filled with water the whole year round, and sufficiently spacious to afford a place of retreat to the hippopotami and crocodiles which abound in the country.'-App. No. 2. p. 484.

tries;

tries; and the remarkable coincidence of most of it with that procured by Mr. Burckhardt in Egypt, stamps on it an additional value. Indeed Mr. Ritchie says, I have made many desultory inquiries of other persons from the interior; but I have never found them to contradict their testimony in any material point; they have in general fully confirmed it.'

It appears singular that the country situated immediately to the eastward of Timbuctoo, as far as Kashna, should be more imperfectly known to the Moorish traders than the rest of central Africa; but it is in some measure accounted for by the information of Mr. Burckhardt. Among the negro tribes,' says this celebrated traveller, is the great tribe of Fellata, of whom those who dwell in the neighbourhood of Bornou are Mussulmans; while others of the same tribe, who live farther west, are still pagans. This nation of Feilata appears to be in great strength throughout Soudan; they have spread across the whole continent, and I saw one of them at Mekka, who told me that his encampment, when he left it, was in the neighbourhood of Timbuctoo. The Fellata have attacked and pillaged both Bornou and Kashna, and the latter town is said to be at present half ruined. They are mostly horsemen. They fight with poisoned arrows, as do in general all the pagan tribes of this part of Soudan; the arrow is short, and of iron; the smallest scratch with it causes the body to swell, and is infallibly mortal, unless counteracted by an antidote known amongst the natives.'

Mr. Ritchie was not able to meet with any person who could assure him, from his own knowledge, that the river, which is called Issa, at Timbuctoo, is the same which, crossing the fresh water lake at Nyffe, flows through the kingdom of Kashna, where it acquires the name of Gulbi, and after washing successively Gano, Bornou, and Kanem, turns to the southward through Begharmi, where all authentic evidence of its course ceases. The general belief of every person with whom I have conversed,' says Mr. Ritchie, is, that they are one and the same river; and the concurrence of several persons on this point, when connected with the evidence furnished by Park and Hornemann, affords a rational presumption that this opinion is correct, and ought to overbalance any hypothesis founded on the insulated testimony of an individual.'

Mr. Ritchie observes that the position of Wangara, a name unknown to those natives of Bornou and Waday who furnished the information collected by Mr. Burckhardt, must be materially altered in our maps according to the notices which he received respecting it; so likewise must that of Bornou. Of the position of

App. No. 2. p. 486.

the