Having read, with considerable satisfaction, your very able and judicious dissertation respecting Africa, in the new Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, I will take the liberty to offer some animadversions that have occurred to me in the perusal of that very interesting article.
Bahr Kûlla I conceive to be an immerged country, of considerable extent, similar to Wangara; for the name, which is Arabic, implies as much. The correct orthography, translated literally into English is Bahr Kûlha, which signifies the sea, wholly or altogether, implying, therefore, an alluvial country.
Respecting goat-skins dyed red or yellow, these are not brought by caravans from central Africa to Marocco, but are manufactured at Marocco, Fas, Mequinas, and Terodant the metropolis of Suse, from which manufactories they are conveyed to the interior regions for sale. Goat-skins, with the hair, in the raw state only, are exported from Mogodor to England.
When Moore asserted that there was no such river as the Niger, he evidently meant that the natives of Africa knew it not by that name; which is undoubtedly correct; for the word being an European word, it would not be known in Africa: but its translation into Arabic is Bahar El Abeed, i. e. the river of Negroes. Edrissi called it Niger, from the same motive, viz. because it was so named by Europeans, and by them only.
I conceive that the hypothesis which has been credited by some, viz. that there is no receptacle for the two Niles, between Cashna and Timbuctoo, must now necessarily fall to the ground; since the sea of Sudan, first declared by me to be between Cashna and Timbuctoo, and since confirmed by Ali Bey, and by Park, in his second journey, can (as I apprehend) no longer be doubted: and it is not improbable that this is the common receptacle of the Nile of the West and the Nile of the East. This hypothesis is strengthened by the testimony of the Shereef Imhammed, who has said, that he himself saw the Nile, at Cashna, flowing so rapidly westward, that vessels could not stem the current. If this be true, the [295]Ba Sea Feena of Park, which is only another name for the Sea of Sudan, must lie west of Cashna, and, probably, about the same point that it is stated by me to be situated, viz. fifteen journeys of horse-travelling, or from 400 to 450 British miles east of Timbuctoo.
Footnote 295:[ (return) ] The Arabic orthography is Bahar S'feena which being literally translated into English, signifies the Sea of Ships.
The word Djinawa is the African word that denominates Guinea, but I cannot imagine that it was ever intended to signify Gana. (See Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica, p. 104.)
You say there are, in Africa, two rivers to which the name of Niger has been given: this is evidently an error, but possibly of the press only. There are, however, two rivers in Africa to which the name of Neel has been given.
The Proceedings of the African Association, vol. i. p. 540, declare that the Nile is a name applied in Africa to any great river; but as this assertion is calculated to produce confusion in the geographical elucidation of the interior of that continent, and as it certainly is not the fact, I must here beg leave to contradict it, and declare that there are absolutely but two rivers in Africa, that bear the name Neel or Nile, viz. the Neel El Kabeer, Neele Sudan, or Neel El Abeed, i.e. the great Nile, the Nile of Sudan or the Nile of the Negroes; and Neele Masser, i.e. the Nile of Egypt. [296]
Footnote 296:[ (return) ] Nile is a French term, and loses its proper pronunciation and is unintelligible when pronounced by an Englishman to an African; but if written Neel, and pronounced by an Englishman, it is intelligible.