We have seen above that Major Peddie and Captain Campbell took the way of the Rio-Nuñez, to penetrate into the interior: the second alone was able to advance to within a short distance of Timbo; but he could not reach that place. Both swelled the list of victims to the climate and martyrs of science. Captain Campbell, and M. Caillié, as well as Watt and Winterbottom, travelled in nearly parallel lines: their accounts, far from contradicting, mutually confirm each other; but the marches of the French traveller present a multitude of instructive details, and local circumstances which the others had not the opportunity of observing. The rivers and rivulets crossed by these travellers, some of which flow northwards and fall into the Rio-Nuñez, and others south towards the district of Sousou, are distinguished. By combining the observations of all the four a complete idea may be formed of the tract which separates Kakondy from the Fouta-Dhialon and the mountains of Timbo.[45]
We are indebted to the expedition of M. Mollien for some interesting particulars of the unknown parts of the Senegambia, and of the plain of the Fouta-Dhialon. Nothing was wanting to this expedition of discovery but mathematical observations, which it would be unjust to require from him who traverses, for the first time, unknown countries, inhabited by a fanatical population. Geography is a great gainer when it can obtain any positive information, either respecting the lines travelled over, with their bearings, or the relative situation of places, and their nomenclature; or even a view of the importance and population of the country, and the state of agriculture, commerce and industry. A learned geographer, M. Eyriés, has shewn the merit of M. Mollien’s travels, and the acquisitions for which science is indebted to him; it only remains therefore, for me to notice that part of his journey, which coincides with that of M. Caillié. Both crossed the Fouta-Dhialon, but in different directions. The first went from Labé to Timbo; the second passed between those two towns. Their lines of route intersected each other at a point nearer to Timbo than to Labé, but where there is no village; at least the list given by M. Mollien does not present, at the point of meeting which results from the construction of the two routes, any name in common with the much more extended list of M. Caillié. But the latter, in giving the position of Labé with regard to Teleouel, and that of Timbo with regard to Dité, will be found to agree with the itinerary of M. Mollien. In the list of the latter, we find indeed Cambaya and Bandeia; but Bandeia, placed far north of Labé, is a totally different place from Bandeya, which is south west of it. The same may be observed of Cambaya to the north and near Labé, while the Cambaya of M. Caillié lies south-east of that place, and at a considerable distance. The description of the mountains, the cataracts or falls of rivers, the physical aspect of places amid those lofty mountains, (which in some respects may be called the Central Alps of Northern Africa), are features common to both narratives.[46] This spot, as will be seen farther on, is a line of division between immense streams which flow from it in every direction. There is no less analogy between the observations of the two travellers respecting the Foulahs, the Mandingoes, and the various tribes inhabiting those countries.[47]
I now come to a traveller whose recent loss is regretted throughout Europe, the unfortunate Major Laing. A first journey made him advantageously known to the friends of science; a second rendered him illustrious; and both are more closely connected with that of M. Caillié than all the expeditions I have just reviewed. It is fortunate for the French traveller, that he has these points of contact with Major Laing, especially since their discoveries upon comparison appear in perfect accordance. No one is ignorant that, in 1822, Major Laing, after having explored the Timmanie, the Kouranko, and the Soulimana, determined the situation of Timbo and Falaba, the sources of the Mongo and the Rokelle, and penetrated nearly to the source of the Dhioliba, or at least but a short distance from that point so long sought after. He assigned the position and elevation above the level of the sea of Mount Loma, whence this great river takes its rise; and he marked on his map the first part of its course northwards, to the extent of about twenty-five leagues. Amongst these observations are two which serve to verify those of the French traveller: the situation of Timbo and that of the Dhioliba. Now this confirmation, as a single glance at the general map of the travels will shew, leaves nothing to be desired. I placed Timbo there from the documents of the Major, and M. Caillié’s route perfectly coincides. The French traveller met with the Dhioliba, for the first time, at Couroussa, and observed its course. This point and this course, from the mere construction of the new map of the route, are found to continue that traced by the English traveller. At the point of meeting, there appears to be a very small interval left, and I have therefore had no difficulty in supplying this hiatus. Henceforward our knowledge of the thirty-five or forty first leagues of the course of this great river may be considered as perfectly established.
The second expedition of Major Laing, as all the world knows, had for its object the city of Timbuctoo, which he endeavoured to reach by way of Tripoli, not across the Bornou, like his immediate predecessors, but by the direct route of the oasis of Agably. The work, which, in the course of this paper, I have had frequent occasion to quote, has made the reader acquainted with l’Itinéraire de Tripoli, de Barbarie à la ville de Temboctou, by the sheik Hagg-Cassem, revised by M. Delaporte, vice-consul of France; an itinerary which I congratulate myself upon having submitted, in 1818, to the Institute, since my learned colleague M. Walckenaer, declares that it induced him to favour the public with his Recherches géographiques sur l’Intérieur de l’Afrique septentrionale. This document places Timbuctoo at eighty-one days’ distance from Tripoli, and the oasis of Ain-Salah and Agably at thirty-three days, or three sevenths of the way. We are yet ignorant what observations Major Laing made on this route; we only know that he passed Ghadamès and Ain-Salah, and we possess his observation made in the latter place. This observation carries much farther west the position admitted on the maps; but for several reasons I have felt necessary to make use of it: 1st, Major Laing proved himself a correct observer, in his travels in the Timannie; 2ndly, the situation of Timbuctoo, being more westerly than it has hitherto been considered, should carry with it that of the oasis of Touat, which is in the direct line; 3rdly, there is nothing in the itinerary of the sheik Hagg-Cassem, in opposition to the more westerly tendency of this line of route; 4thly and lastly, the computation of the day’s journey appears to me too low, when reduced to fifteen geographical miles. The reasons, which induce me to estimate it at eighteen miles and four tenths, will be found elsewhere: it follows from this calculation, that the oasis of Touat should be brought nearer to the ocean. This result agrees with the more westerly position of the route from Timbuctoo to Tafilet, as shewn by the journey of M. Caillié. Till some of the papers of Major Laing are discovered, (and this hope is not altogether lost, since M. Caillié himself, in traversing the great desert saw a compass, and heard mention of a sextant which had belonged to him), it is impossible to make further comparisons between the travels of the French discoverer and the second expedition of the Major, although both resided in the city of Timbuctoo, almost in the same house, and though the latter nearly reached el-Arawan.
§ II.
ANALYSIS OF THE ITINERARY MAP, AND OF THE GENERAL MAP OF THE TRAVELS.
In constructing the maps here submitted to the reader, I was unable to avail myself of the information procured by our adventurer in his preceding travels, either in the Bondou, amongst the Brakna Moors, or amongst the people in the neighbourhood of Kakondy, the Nalous, the Bagos or the Landamas: these excursions present no continuous progress susceptible of being traced on a map. The fourth excursion alone, therefore, can enter into the present discussion, namely the great journey from the Rio-Nuñez to Tangier, commenced on the 19th of April 1827, and concluded on the 7th of September 1828; I shall consequently confine myself to a mere glance at the former travels. The examination of this route will be divided into three parts.
1st, Journey from Kakondy to Timé, beyond the Dhioliba.
2nd, Journey to Djenné, and navigation of the river thence to Timbuctoo.
3rd, Journey from Timbuctoo to Arbate, and thence to Tangier.