GENERAL RETROSPECT OF THE PUBLISHED INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT PRIOR TO M. CAILLIÉ’S TRAVELS.
A powerful interest is attached to travels in central Africa: any attempt, therefore, to explore this part of the world can scarcely fail to excite curiosity, provided, at least, that it makes some addition to the knowledge previously acquired and supplies one of the deficiencies of geographical science; that is to say, if it furnishes authentic documents concerning the respective situations of places, their topographical positions, and relative distances; concerning the natural productions and physical geography of the country; the population, commerce, interior navigation, industry, and agriculture; the manners, customs, religious worship, superstitions, and language of the people, or the physical conformation of the inhabitants; in short, provided it is calculated to interest the geographer or the naturalist, the historian or the person engaged in commerce and manufactures. The merit and usefulness, indeed, of a narrative of travels consists in these positive results. The attentive reader will discover in the simple journal before him more than one such result, especially in matters of geography, the nomenclature and position of places, the course and importance of rivers, the situation of mountains, and generally speaking, every thing relating to the accidents of the soil. The various tribes, also, visited by M. Caillié, and in the midst of which he lived, presented so many subjects of observation that it was impossible he should not attempt, at least, to sketch their portraits. To the well-informed public it belongs to appreciate whatever is new and interesting in this simple and inartificial picture of nations and tribes scarcely known in Europe, even by name. I must not, however, rest here, but will turn my undivided attention in the first place to examining and discussing all the points of geography connected with M. Caillié’s route. Before I proceed, to this discussion, for which I shall need all the indulgence of the reader, I shall take leave to cast a glance upon the explorers who preceded him, and the information we possessed anterior to his travels. Notwithstanding the advantage which M. Caillié has over all his predecessors, in having brought to Europe a description of the city of Timbuctoo, written on the spot, several motives induce me to recapitulate here the prior attempts which have been made by others, each of which enterprises has formed an additional step in the career which he alone has been enabled to pursue to its accomplishment. After this examination of the discoveries and relations of preceding travellers, I shall analyse the map of the route annexed to this work. It has been constructed from the materials furnished in minute detail by the journal of the French traveller, and which also form the basis of the general map of the journey. I shall then treat of the nomenclature of the countries through which he has travelled, of the course of the great river, which, like Mungo Park, he has navigated, and of the acquisitions for which science is indebted to him, without neglecting the questions connected with the theatre of his discoveries.
Whoever studies the history of the discoveries in the interior of Africa is obliged to go back to the learned cosmographer el-Edricy, who may be styled the Prince of Arabian geography. Till now, an extract only of his description has been known, but a learned oriental scholar[23] has just discovered a much more complete manuscript than that which was translated into Latin at the commencement of the 16th century, and which the learned Hartmann has commented upon. While waiting for the benefit of the translation preparing by M. Amédée Jaubert, I shall quote from the Latin version[24] the description of the countries which M. Caillié has visited, but which form only a very small portion of the theatre of his peregrinations. According to el-Edricy, Segelmassa or Sidjilmessa, a town in the country of Tafilet, is forty days’ journey from the Soudan, that is to say, from the inhabited districts and fertile soil of this immense region; it is also computed to be forty days’ journey to Tocrur or Takrour, to Salla or Sala, and to Ouhl. Sala is on the northern and Takrour on the southern bank of a river called Nile. Sala is two days’ journey from Takrour whether by land or water.
The place named Oulil, described as an island properly so called, is the great mart for salt in those parts, and is situated sixteen days’ journey from Sala. Eastward of Takrour are several large towns; Ghana, at a distance of twenty four days, and Berissa of twelve; from the latter Aoudeghest[25] is twelve days’ journey towards the north and the district of Lamlem six to the south; this contains Wangara, Maleb, and Dau, four days’ journey from each other; to the west is Meczara, to the east, Vancara, to the north Ghana, and a desert to the south.
Many of these statements agree sufficiently with M. Caillié’s marches across the desert; I can here only slightly mention this conformity, because it would be necessary otherwise to enter into details on the extent of a day’s journey and on the different kinds of days’ journeys; an important question which shall be discussed elsewhere. Takrour corresponds perhaps with the locality which has since become the seat of Timbuctoo[26]: the importance of this ancient town is proved by the name of Takrour, then given to the whole of the Soudan, and applied to it by the natives even to the present time. Sala is a point known to M. Caillié, but to the right of the route from Timbuctoo to Tafilet, and not to the west of Timbuctoo; and it must not be confounded with Ain-Salak, the oasis of Agably.
May not the Oulil of el-Edricy, so long sought, be an island in the sense understood by the word oasis, as surrounded on all sides by an ocean of sand? this place would then correspond well with Tychyt, celebrated for its salt-mines; it is true however that the Arabian geographer seems to place Oulil upon the sea itself.[27]
With respect to Ghana, which is thought to answer to Kano, visited by the last English travellers, its position in el-Edricy appears too much towards the west; unless these travellers (as has been already suspected) have placed Kano and other points of the Soudan between Bornou and Saccatoo, too far to the east.
Above two centuries before el-Edricy, Ebn-Haukal, another not less esteemed Arabian writer, had fixed the relative positions of Sidjilmassa, Oulil, and Ghana; these equally agree with the itinerary of our traveller; every well informed reader will inquire whether the same agreement exists with the marches of the celebrated Ben-Batouta. His travels are known by the fragments which Messrs. Kosegarten and Burckhardt have translated from the extract given by el-Bilouni.[28]
It is known that, in 1352, Ben-Batouta quitted Sidjilmessa for Timbuctoo and central Africa: in twenty-five days he reached the salt mines of Teghazza;[29] ten days afterwards, Tas-hal; ten or twelve days farther on Aboulaten (Ejulat or Eiwelaten);[30] beyond that, Maly, at a distance of twenty-four days; from Maly to Zaghary (or Sagher), ten days; and thence to Karsendjou (or Karseckou).
This place is washed by the great river, which is the Nile, and runs to Kabera and Zaghah (or Sagha); from Zaghah, the Nile flows towards Timbuctoo, Koukou (Kok), Mouly the last place of the country of Maly and Bowy (or Youy), one of the largest towns of the Soudan. Thence the Nile descends to the country of Nouba and passes Dongolah. From Karsendjou, Ben-Batouta proceeded to the river of Sansarah, ten miles from Maly, which he left after a residence of two months; some days afterwards he reached Timbuctoo on the Nile, Koukou, Berdammah, and Takadda (or Nekda). On his return to Sidjilmessa, he visited Touat, Kahor, Dekha, and Bouda; a journey of more than twenty-eight days or stages.