Page 190. "This branch of the Niger passing Timbuctoo, is not crossed until the third day going from Timbuctoo to Houssa."
This quotation from "Dapper's Description of Africa," is corroborated by L'Hage Abdsalam, Shabeeni, whose narrative says, "Shabeeni, after staying three years at Timbuctoo, departed for Houssa, and crossing the small river close to the walls, reached the Neel in three days, travelling through a fine, populous, and cultivated country."
The confusion of rivers, made mere equivocal by every new hypothesis, receives here additional ambiguity. If there were (as Mr. Bowdich affirms) three distinct rivers near Timbuctoo; viz. the Joliba, the Gambarro, and the Niger, (i.e. the Neel El Abeed) how comes it that they have not been noticed by Leo Africanus, who resided at Timbuctoo; by Edrissi, who is the most correct of the Arabian geographers; or whence is it, that these rivers have not been noticed by the many Moorish travelling merchants who have resided at Timbuctoo, and whom I have repeatedly questioned respecting this matter [278], or whence is it that Alkaid L'Hassen Ramy, a renowned chief of the Emperor of Marocco's army, with whom I was well acquainted, and who was a native of Houssa, knew of no such variously inclined streams. This being premised, I am certainly not disposed to relinquish the opinion I brought with me from Africa in the year 1807, viz. that the Neel El Abeed is the only mighty river that runs through Africa from west to east; but I admit that its adjuncts, as well as itself, have different names; thus, in the manuscript of Mr. Park's death, a copy of which is inserted in "Mr. Bowdich's Account of Ashantee," it is called Kude; many hundred miles eastward it is called Kulla, from the country through which it passes; but Kude and Kulla are different names, and ought not to be confounded one with the other; neither ought Quolla (i. e., the Negro pronunciation of Kulla) to be confounded with Kude, the former being the Negro term for the same river, in the same manner as Niger is the Roman name for the Neel Elabeed, which is the Arabic name for the same river. There is a stream which proceeds from the Sahara, the water of which is brackish; this stream hardly can be called a river, except in the rainy season. It passes in a south-westerly direction near Timbuctoo, but does not join the Neel Elabeed. I could mention several intelligent and credible authorities, the report of respectable merchants, who have resided, and, who have had establishments at Timbuctoo, in confirmation of this fact; but as the authorities which I should adduce would be unknown, even by name, to men of science in Europe, I would refer the reader to the interesting narrative of an intelligent Moorish merchant, who resided three years at Timbuctoo, and who was known to the committee of the African Association; this travelling merchant's name is L'Hage Abdsalam Shabeeny, and his narrative, a manuscript of which (with critical and explanatory notes by myself) I have in my possession, has the following observation: [279]--"Close to the town of Timbuctoo, on the south, is a small rivulet in which the inhabitants wash their clothes, and which is about two feet deep; it runs into the great forest on the east, and does not communicate with the Nile, but is lost in the sands west of the town: its water is brackish; that of the Nile is good and pleasant."
Footnote 278:[ (return) ] The Arabs who conduct the cafelahs or caravans across the Sahara, are often seen at Agadeer or Santa Cruz, and sometimes even at Mogodor; and if there was a river penetrating to the north through the Sahara, would it not have been noticed by them? Is it possible that such a prominent feature of African geography, as a river of sweet water passing through a desert, could fail of being noticed by these people, who are, in their passage through the Desert, continually in search of water?
Footnote 279:[ (return) ] See page 8.
Page 199. Mr. Murray recently observes, "Joliba seems readily convertible into Joli-ba, the latter syllable being merely an adjunct, signifying river; this I was also given to understand."
This is an etymological error. The Joliba is not a compound word, if it were it would be Bahar Joli, not Bajoli, or Joliba; thus do learned men, through a rage for criticism, and for want of a due knowledge of African languages, render confused, by fancied etymologies, that which is sufficiently clear and perspicuous.
Page 191. "The river of Darkulla mentioned by Mr. Brown."
This is evidently an error: there is probably no such place or country as Darkulla. There is, however, an alluvial country denominated Bahar Kulla, (for which see the map of Africa in the Supplement of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 88. lat. N. 8°, long. E. 20°). I apprehend this Darkulla, when the nations of Europe shall be better acquainted with Africa and its languages, will be discovered to be a corruption of Bahar Kulla, or an unintelligible and ungrammatical term: Dëaar Kulla is grammatical, and implies a country covered with houses! Dar Kulla is an ungrammatical and an incorrect term, which being literally translated into English, signifies many house. This being premised, we may reasonably suppose, that Bahar Kulla is the proper term which, as I have always understood, forms the junction of the Nile of the west with the Nile of the east, and hence forming a continuity [280] of waters from Timbuctoo to Cairo.
Footnote 280:[ (return) ] See my letter in the Monthly Magazine for March, 1817, page 128.