GEOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
OF
MR. HORNEMAN’S ROUTE;
AND
ADDITIONS TO THE GENERAL GEOGRAPHY
OF AFRICA.
BY
MAJOR RENNELL.
CONSTRUCTION
OF THE
GEOGRAPHY OF MR. HORNEMAN’S EXPEDITION
IN AFRICA.
CHAPTER I.
In the discussion of the construction of this Geography, I shall confine myself, as much as possible, to general statements; reserving more particular details to a future time, when more materials may arrive: for it is to be observed that although Mr. Horneman has transmitted much valuable matter, yet that it is not altogether of the kind required for the construction of mathematical geography. Fortunately, however, the observations of Mr. Browne and others, enable me to derive more advantage from those of Mr. Horneman, than could have been obtained from them, alone.
The geographical positions of Cairo, Alexandria, and Fezzan, have undergone some small change in the present maps,[14] in consequence of recent, and it may be supposed, more accurate information. Cairo is placed 2 min. and Alexandria 13, more to the west, in consequence of the French observations: and Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan, 39 G. miles more to the south-east, on a general result of the authorities; amongst which Mr. Horneman’s is allowed its due weight. Some other trifling changes have been made, in the positions of Siwah, and of El Bareton, or Parætonium: but none of them are more than shades of difference, in respect of the geography at large.
The chief alteration is that of Mourzouk, which, by the former accounts, was said to lie directly south from Mesurata: and this alteration is grounded on the line of distance of Mr. Horneman, which does not allow of so great an interval between Egypt and Fezzan, as that position requires, by nearly 25 G. miles; which after all, is no great proportion, in more than 800. It is conceived that Mr. Horneman’s time, although kept in a coarse way, ought still to be preferred to the mere report of the bearing from Mesurata, on a distance of seventeen or eighteen journies.