Muli; thence to Yuwi (Bowy of Burckhardt) the principal seat of Negro government, and which no white person can approach. From Yuwi it flows into the country of the Nubians, who are Christians, and onward to Donkola (Dongola) their chief city; thence to Jenadel, (the second cataract,) the last place in the country of the blacks, and the first of the province of Eswân (Essuan) in Upper Egypt. Returning to his own travels, he goes on to say that, leaving the town of Karsekku, he came to the river Sausara, and thence (in ten days, according to Burckhardt) to Muli, the seat of a negro sovereign, where he took up his abode in the khan of the white men. (This answers to the Melli or Lamlem marked, in some charts, on Arab authority, as containing one of the missing tribes of Israel.) Here he resided two months, and then returned to Timbuctoo, distant, according to him, four miles from the Nile. From this place, he proceeded, in a boat formed from the trunk of a single tree, down the river, and paid daily visits to the towns on its banks until he reached Kúku, the largest and handsomest town belonging to the Negroes; thence he passed on to Burdâma, inhabited by a tribe of Berbers, and Tekedda. This last place is described as built of red stones; and here the waters also, by running through veins of copper, had acquired a reddish colour and a bitter taste. The inhabitants trade with Egypt, and carry thither slaves and copper in exchange for articles of clothing. If Kûku and Burdâma be Kouga and Baghermi, as there can be little doubt they are, Tekedda cannot be far distant from the Abiad, where copper has always been said to abound. Ibn Batouta left Tekedda with the caravan, and proceeded towards Tewat or Twât, which is seventy stages distant. He next visited Kahor, belonging to the Sultan of Karkan; and after a journey of eighteen days, reached a place where the roads separate, the one leading towards Egypt, and the other to Tewat. In ten days more he arrived at Dekkår, belonging to the Berbers; and, after travelling a month through this country, found himself once more at Sedjelmassa, whence he proceeded to Fez, where, he says, he threw away his traveller's staff, and gave thanks to God for his safe return. Although we have yet only the mere abstract of an abstract of curious travels, (which however agrees with the preceding authorities in carrying the Niger to the second cataract of the Nile of Egypt,) we have more than sufficient to assure us that the details will be highly interesting; and we are not without the hope of procuring that complete copy which eluded the search of Mr. Burckhardt. Much still remains to be done to settle the geography of Sou dan dan and the course of the Niger. Death has deprived the cause of discovery of two of its most promising, efficient, and intelligent promoters. The expedition under Major Gray, we fear, does not hold out any sanguine prospect of success; it had returned to: Galam, on the Senegal, in Angust last, after a most harassing journey through the country of the Foolado, in which the party were insulted, plundered, attacked, and we believe some of them slain. Of a favourable result from Major Peddie's attempt, of which that of Major Gray is the sequel, our expectations were never raised very high: The countries through which they had to pass are so populous, and the people so well armed and so resolute, that nothing short of a little army could hope to succeed in traversing them. A small body of men is not sufficient for that purpose, though enough to awaken the jealousy of the 'chiefs, as to its designs; and the baggage which accompanies it more than enough to inflame their cupidity." As a proof how much easier it is for individuals to pass through the African tribes than a small armed party, it may be stated that Mr. Docherd, a surgeon in the above-mentioned expedition, with a few attendants, reached Yamina, on the Niger, without any difficulty. Here, however, he was obliged to stay till he received permission from the King of Sego, to proceed. After waiting nearly six months, he was advised to retire higher up the river to Bammakoo, in Bambarra, from which the last accounts received from him are dated in May, 1819, when he was still in the hope of procuring the necessary permission, though several untoward circumstances operated against this expectation. In the first place, the King of Sego was at war with his eastern neighbours, (these neighbours, we suppose, are the Fellata tribes mentioned by Ritchie and Burckhardt), his minister had died just about the time that he heard of Mr. Docherd's arrival; a few days afterwards, his treasurer and receiver of customs departed this life; and, as ill luck would have it, the chief of Bammakoo also died just after he reached that place. These fatal circumstances tended to confirm the blacks in their notions of the evil influence which the presence of the whites exerts on their countrymen, and especially on their rulers, whom they are supposed to have the power of destroying by charms and secret spells. In the present instance, they were more convinced of the effect of this baneful influence on recollecting that Mansong, Moodie, Bennie, and other chiefs who had dealings with -- * Mr. Burckhardt thinks that a body of about 100 armed men might be able to penetrate Africa from the eastward towards. Bagharmi; such a body might, perhaps, succeed among the Berbers and the blacks, but certainly not among the numerous tribes of the half-civilized Arabs on the western side. VOL. XXIII. NO. XLV. Mungo Mungo Park, had died the same year in which he passed through their country. Mr. Docherd had invariably received the kindest treatment both at Yamina and Bammakoo, and on complaining of delay was assured it was entirely owing to the custom of the country; as to make ambassadors wait was only meant to shew the king's dignity, and that it might not be supposed he was in any hurry to get rid of his guests. He seems to think that, once fairly embarked, there would be no difficulty in reaching the termination of the Niger; but we are not aware on what information this opinion is grounded. The highest navigable point of the river in the dry sea son is at Marraboo, where it expands into a vast sheet of water, but is full of shallows. Markets were held at Sansanding and Yamina, twice every week, where provisions were reasonable, and every sort of European merchandize in great demand, especially articles of finery for the dresses of the females, who are fond of showy colours; among other wares were Manchester prints in great abundance, which seemed to meet with a ready sale. These must have crossed the desert of Zaahra, in the caravan from Morocco, which we suspect is, after all, the best and safest way to reach Timbuctoo. With all the respect we feel for those who sacrifice ease, health, and every comfort in the promotion of African discoveries, we are compelled to say that M. Mollien has done less than any preceding traveller, and has no pretension whatever to rank in the list of those who have enlarged the narrow sphere of African geography. He is evidently a very young man, and wholly unfit for travelling with credit to himself or advantage to his employers. His intellectual acquirements are of the lowest order, and he possesses not a single qualification in any branch of science that a traveller could turn to advantage. His utter ignorance of natural history, of astronomy, and as it would seem of the common process of obtaining the latitude of places, renders the account of his travels unavailing for any scientific purpose, and leaves the accuracy of all his positions more than questionable. It was not necessary to visit the sources of the Senegal and the Gambia, merely to set down how the negroes of this village, and the Mahommedans of that, were disposed to treat travellers; the simplicity of the one, the cunning of the other, and the avarice of both, have long been known to be pretty much the same on every part of the western coast of Africa. The object of M. Mollien's mission was to discover the sources of the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Niger; to ascertain if there exists a communication between the first two rivers, and the distance which separates them; to determine the space between the Senegal and the sources of the Niger, and the means of traversing traversing it; and on reaching the Niger to collect every information as to the possibility of descending it to its mouth: in the event of obstacles preventing the execution of such a project, he was to ascend this river, which would of itself be an important discovery.' Of these 'judicious instructions,' as M. Mollien terms them, he fulfilled no single point, except that of reaching (if he did actually reach them) the sources of the Gambia and Senegal. The Rio Grande, he says, proceeds from the same reservoir which gives birth to the Gambia, but then, he adds, they have separate springs, each concealed in a thicket. In speaking of that of the Gambia, he tells us that trees coeval with the river render it invisible;' the other spring is at a little distance, and issues out of a kind of arch. Between the two thickets, his attendant, Ali, stamped on the ground, and the earth echoed in a frightful manner. Underneath,' said he, are the reservoirs of the two rivers; the noise thou hearest proceeds from their being empty.' The virtues of Lady Noel's divining rod would here have been suspended. A thicket of tufted trees concealed likewise the sources of the Senegal, which are said to be three, and situated about the middle of the side of a mountain-rather an unusual situation for the sources of a great river. The source of the Niger he did not visit; but he intended to do so: nay, more;-'I purposed,' he says, 'descending this river in a canoe, as far as Timbuctoo, where I flattered myself I should arrive without much difficulty, by passing myself off as a slave of my Marabout.' Unluckily, howa tremendous clap of thunder' put an end at once to the whole project, and suggested to him the propriety of facing about and making the best of his way homewards :—and really, if there be any truth in his piteous situation, as delineated for the embellishment of Mr. Bowdich's translation, where he appears to be dying in the arms of his black Marabout, the young gentleman was quite right in giving up all idea of descending the Niger as far as Timbuctoo!' ever, One piece of information, however, we have extracted from M. Mollien's journey:-namely, that the sources of the Gambia and the Senegal are much higher than we had suspected, and that of the Niger on a higher level than either of them. The country rises towards the south and south-east in parallel terraces, and forms chains of mountains which increase in height in proportion as they advance to the south, attaining the highest point of elevation between the eighth and tenth degrees of north latitude; at least we assume it to be about these parallels, for, as we said before, M. Mollien employed no means of ascertaining the latitude of any one point on his journey. It is on the second terrace that the sources of the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Rio Grande are found the source of the Niger is on the third; and that the elevation of this is very considerable may be inferred from the Negroes having told. M. Mollien that the highest of these mountains was constantly covered with a white hat. } These mountains are situated at so short a distance from the sea coast about the Rio Nunez, and so close behind Timbo, to which Watt and Winterbottom proceeded without difficulty, that we hope some of our colonists of Sierra Leone will be found to possess sufficient zeal and activity to proceed to the source of the Niger with a barometer, and ascertain its elevation above the sea: this would be a great point gained. In the mean time, we are fully satisfied that, whatever the fall may be between the source and Bammakoo, where the stream becomes navigable, the elevation of the latter place exceeds 4000 feet, which we have already proved to be more than sufficient to carry its waters through Egypt into the Mediterranean. The information obtained by M. Mollien on this particular point may be added as a mite to the general testimony. He learned from a Marabout, or black priest, who had performed a pilgrimage to Mecca and crossed Africa, that, on this side (N. W.) of the river and beyond Timbuctoo, there are countries entirely peopled by Pouls; that the Dijaliba (Joliba) discharges itself into the Nile, and that its waters, after mingling with those of the river of Egypt, pursue their course to the sea.' From two Pouls, who agreed in their accounts of the course of the Niger, he also learned that this great river takes its rise between Kouranko and Soliman; that in the season when the water is low they could not descend further than Marabout, where a ridge of rocks obstructs the navigation; and they added ، that, after passing through Sego, it forms, at a vast distance from that city, an immense lake communicating with the Nile, which they called the great river of Egypt.' When we add to all this the information obtained by M. Dupuis* at Cape Coast Castle, and when we see that, in every part of Africa, there is but one opinion among the Arabs on this subject, we know not how to refuse subscribing to the probability as well as the possibility of the identity of the Nile of Soudan and the Nile of Egypt. * This gentleman, after being shut up for nearly twelve months in Cape Coast Castle, has at length proceeded to Ashantee, to endeavour to repair the mischief occasioned by the thoughtless conduct of Mr. Bowdich and his young companions, and by his famous treaty which was to last for ever.' ART. |