At the meeting of the Central Committee of the 3rd of December 1824, an anonymous donor, a member of the Society, presented a thousand francs, to be offered as a reward to the first traveller who shall have penetrated as far as Timbuctoo by the way of the Senegal, and fulfilled the following conditions pointed out in the minutes of the said meeting: “To furnish 1st., some positive and exact observations upon the situation of this city, the course of the rivers which run in the neighbourhood, and the commerce of which it is the centre; 2ndly, the most satisfactory and precise information respecting the country comprised between Timbuctoo and the lake Tsad, as well as concerning the direction and the height of the mountains which form the bason of the Soudan.” Immediately upon being made acquainted with this offer, Count Orloff, Senator of Russia, consented that the donation of a thousand francs, which he had made of the sum at the general meeting of the 26th of November 1824, for the encouragement of geographical discoveries, should be applied to the same purpose.
On being informed of the object of these donations, his Excellency the Count Chabrol de Crousol subscribed, on the 15th of December following, the sum of two thousand francs, in the name of the Ministry of the Marine, for the same undertaking; by his letter, dated the 22nd of January last, his Excellency the Baron de Damas subscribed also, in the name of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the sum of two thousand francs; and by another letter dated the 19th of March his Excellency the Count de. Corbière subscribed, in the name of the Ministry of the interior the sum of one thousand francs. Many other subscriptions have been received or announced for the same object.
The Society of Geography, charged by the donors to decree the reward, and wishing to take a direct part in the encouragement of so important a discovery, has resolved moreover to offer a gold medal of the value of two thousand francs to the traveller who, independently of the conditions already declared, shall have satisfied, as far as possible those which are explained below.
The Society demands a manuscript narrative, with a geographical map, founded upon celestial observations. The author shall endeavour to study the country with reference to the principal points of its physical geography. He shall observe the nature of the soil, the depth of the wells, their temperature and that of their sources, the width and the rapidity of the rivers, the colour and the clearness of their waters, and the productions of the countries which they irrigate. He shall make remarks upon the climate, and determine in various places, if possible, the declination and inclination of the magnetic needle. He shall strive to observe the different breeds of animals, and to make some collections in natural history, such as fossils, shells, and plants.
When he shall have arrived at Timbuctoo, if he cannot go further, he shall acquaint himself with the routes leading to Kachnah, Haoussa, Bournou, and lake Tsaad, to Walet, Tischit, and even the coast of Guinea. He shall collect the most accurate itineraries he can procure, and consult the best informed inhabitants upon that part of the course of the Dhioliba which he cannot see for himself.
In observing the people, he shall take care to examine their manners, ceremonies, customs, weapons, laws, religion, food, diseases, the colour of their skin, the form of their face, the nature of their hair, and also the different articles of their commerce. It is desirable that he should form vocabularies of their idioms, compared with the French language; finally, that he should make drawings of the details of their habitations, and take plans of the towns wherever it is possible to do so.
REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE M. CAILLIÉ’S TRAVELS TO TIMBUCTOO AND IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.
Gentlemen,
You have appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. Eyriés, Cadet de Metz, Amédée Jaubert, Larenaudière, Baron Roger, and myself, to ascertain the facts resulting from the travels of M. Auguste Caillié in the interior of Africa. This committee has assembled, and I am charged by it to make you the following report. Our first care was to satisfy ourselves on the points of the traveller’s departure, the routes which he had followed, and the countries and places which he had visited. Interrogated on these various questions, and on all the circumstances of his travels, he replied in the clearest and most satisfactory manner. The committee is struck with the tone of simplicity and sincerity which reigns throughout his narrative, and which will not admit a doubt of the reality and authenticity of his different excursions; namely the crossing of the Dhioliba, his route to the east of the districts of Soulimana and Kissi, his navigation on the great river, his residence at Timbuctoo, and his journey across the great desert to the empire of Morocco. Baron Roger had positive information of his departure from St. Louis, and of his arrival the following year at Kakondy, whence he sent intelligence to the Senegal of his departure for the interior. Thus the point of his departure is proved: it is the same with the point of his arrival, since he was received, almost immediately on issuing from the desert, by our colleague M. Delaporte, vice-consul-general at Tangier. With regard to Timbuctoo, besides the very circumstantial details related by our traveller, and the sketches which he took during his stay, we have a guarantee of another kind in his account of the catastrophe of the unfortunate Major Laing, who had reached this city in 1826. Notwithstanding the variety of rumours relative to this melancholy event, M. Caillié’s story agrees with that of a Moor who arrived at Saint-Louis in March last, coming from Timbuctoo, and who saw amongst the Touariks the books which had belonged to the Major. Moreover, our countryman resided in a neighbouring house to that which had been occupied by the English traveller, and there obtained exact information, the source of which seems to be incontestable.