[180] (p. 232). Fernandez.—[As to João Fernandez, see ch. xxix, and the note on the stay of this traveller at the Rio do Ouro in 1445, and also ch. xxxii.]—S.
[181] (p. 232). Went with them.—[Though this account of João Fernandez is very important, because anterior by almost a century to the description of the well-known Leo Africanus, yet the most important part of it is wanting: namely, the route he followed, and the places he visited during the seven months he spent with the caravans. Despite the omission of these details, however, his description which this chapter contains, and its exactness, is confirmed by the later writings of Leo Africanus, Marmol, and other travellers, to whom we refer the reader.]—S.]
[182] (p. 232). All of sand.—Here is another note of the original MS.: [Of this land speaketh Moses in the 15th chapter of Exodus, and Josephus and Master Pero (Peter), who commented on it, where they write of the troubles of the people of Israel for want of water, and of how they found a well of pure water; where he relateth how Moses, by God's command, threw in the piece of wood and made it sweet. And this took place before they arrived at the place where God sent them the manna.] See note 148 (to p. 183).
[183] (p. 232). Tagazza (Tagaoz).—[This land is the Tagaza of Cadamosto (ch. xii, p. 21), and Tagazza of Jackson, on the way from Akka to Timbuctoo.]—S. See Leo Africanus, Hakluyt Soc. ed., 117, 798, 800, 816, 829; Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo, 43; Dr. Barth, Reise, iv, 616.
[184] (p. 233). Palms.—[See Denham and Clapperton.]—S.
[185] (p. 233). Water.—[See the Itineraries already cited and published in M. Walckenaer's Recherches, etc., and also the Description of Africa, by Leo Africanus.]—S.
[186] (p. 233). Write.—[This detail is very curious, because it indicates that in the fifteenth century, when João Fernandez journeyed with the caravans, some of those tribes which we suppose to be Berbers had not yet adopted the Arabic characters. It is to be deplored that Azurara is not more explicit in this place, seeing that Arabic authors mention books written in this language. Oudney tells of various inscriptions, written in unknown characters, which he saw in the country of the Touariks. Very few of this tribe speak Arabic, which he was surprised at, because of the frequent communication between them and nations that only speak that tongue.—Vide Clapperton's Travels, and Leo Africanus in Ramusio, etc.]—S. See the Hakluyt Soc. Leo Africanus, pp. 133, 165-7.
[187] (p. 233). Berbers.—[According to Burckhardt, Trav., pp. 64 and 207, these are the Berbers. Our author includes here the Lybians. Compare with Leo Africanus in Ramusio.]—S. See the Hakluyt Soc. Leo Africanus, pp. 129, 133, 199, 202-5, 218.
[188] (p. 233). These last.—[It appears from this passage that the Touariks are treated of, and their conflicts with the Negro Fullahs, or of the Foullan.]—S. On the Tuâreg, see Leo (Hakluyt Soc. ed.), pp. 127, 151, 198, 216, 798-9, 815-6; also Dubois, Tombouctou la mystérieuse, and Hourst, Sur le Niger.
[189] (p. 233). To sell.—[It was this trade in Negro slaves which the Christian merchants carried on with North Africa that led to the singular claim of Zuniga and other Spanish writers, that the Castilians—and in particular the Andalusians—trafficked in the Negroes of Guinea before the Portuguese; and by a confusion, either ignorant or intended, they tried to dispute with us the priority of our discovery of Guinea, and our exclusive commerce with this part of Africa which we were the first to find. See our Memoria, already cited, § xvii.]—S.