But M. Walckenaer does not estimate the other two denominations of days’ journeys, those of the medium and of the light caravans. I shall only remark that the result of his arguments seems to be, that the real and effective progress is considerably more than 15’, and about equal to 18’ or 19’: the average of a day’s journey reduced to measures taken in a straight line upon the map. But will the diversity of elbows and inflexions, resulting from that of the obstacles which produce them, allow us to work a uniform reduction, and to apply a uniform factor to every distance travelled over? Let us, for instance admit that part of the route amounts to sixty miles, and that the straight line between these extremities is forty-eight miles; can the same rule be adopted with regard to the whole route, which may be three hundred miles or five times as much? would the total direct line amount to two hundred and forty miles? The longer the route, the greater should be the variation in the rate of the reduction. The following table contains a summary of these observations upon the amount of the hours’ and days’ marches of caravans, and the different computations which have been made of them.
| AUTHORITIES. | MARCH OF THE CARAVAN | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HEAVILY laden. | MODERATELY laden. | LIGHTLY laden. | ||||
| per hour. | per day of 8 hours. | per hour. | per day of 8 hours. | per hour. | per day of 10 hours. | |
| Geograph. miles. | Geograph. miles. | Geograph. miles. | ||||
| Egyptian expedition. | 2 | „ | „ | „ | „ | „ |
| Major Rennel. | „ | 16⅙ | „ | „ | „ | 17⅛ |
| Captain Lyon. | „ | „ | „ | above 17 | „ | „ |
| M. Walckenaer. | „ | 15[98] | „ | „ | „ | above 22 |
| M. Caillié’s travels. | 1⁹⁄₂₀ | „ | 2³⁄₁₀ | „ | „ | „ |
| Computation from miscellaneous data. | 1¾ | 15 to 16 | 2³⁄₂₀ | 18⁴⁄₁₀ | 2⁴⁄₁₀ to 2⁶⁄₁₀ | 24[99] |
N.B. To reduce these numbers into English miles, theymust be worked by the proportion of 60:69.[100] | ||||||
I had at first intended to construct separately each of M. Caillié’s routes, taking into consideration in each particular case the difficulties of the ground, the composition of the caravans, and the physical condition of the travellers; but, as it was impossible to perform this work correctly, it would also have been useless. Besides, the reflections which I have already made tend to shew that, by following a uniform plan of reduction from one end of the route to the other, one must arrive at a result nearly approaching to the truth.
All that I have hitherto advanced relates solely to that part of the general map, which represents the space travelled over by M. Caillié; I have now to speak of the remainder, namely, the extremity of the map towards the north, and that towards the S. W. The former portion, or the country of Morocco, has been chiefly extracted from the fine map of M. Brué,[101] but reduced to much fewer details; we know that he sought his data in the best Spanish and English maps, and in the works of Badia, Jackson, Walckenaer, Ritter, &c.; authorities which furnish excellent materials, but which, the former especially, must not always be employed without the assistance of criticism.
The second part, to the south of the Rio-Nuñez, has been drawn from the Senegambie of M. Dufour, who has skilfully combined the materials of Major Laing with those of preceding English travellers: it will be seen by comparing our two maps, that I have been obliged to differ from him with respect to the situations and names of several countries. I have also been necessitated, as well for the sake of perspicuity on a map upon a very small scale, as on account of uncertainty, to retrench many details. I shall conclude with the table of geographical positions, forming the foundation of the general map, independently of the coast of Africa, which is pretty accurately known.[102]
| N. Latitude. | Longitude W. from Paris. | AUTHORITIES. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timé | 9° 3’ 0’’ | 9° 2’ 0’’ | Construction of the map. |
| Sources of the Dhioliba at Mount Loma | 9 25 0 | 12 5 0 | Major Laing. |
| Timbo | 10 25 0 | 12 54 0 | Major Laing. |
| Kakondy | 11 10 0 | 16 17 0 | Construction of the map. M. Brué’s map, long. 16° 24’ |
| Djenné | 13 0 0 | 9 0 0 | Park. |
| Yamina | 13 15 0 | "" "" "" | Idem. |
| Sami | 13 17 0 | "" "" "" | Idem. |
| Bakel | 14 13 30 | 14 41 40 | Dussault. |
| Elimané | 15 2 50 | 12 36 0 | De Beaufort. |
| Timbuctoo | 17 50 0 | 6 0 0 | Construction of the map. |
| Ain-Salah | 27 12 30 | 0 29 0 | Major Laing. |
| Morocco | 31 37 30 | 9 56 0 | Badia. |
| Fez | 34 6 0 | 7 18 0 | Idem. |
§ III
OF THE NOMENCLATURE.
I shall not here offer to the reader a general list of the names of towns and villages, or of the different nations, states and districts visited by M. Caillié during his travels; this duplicate labour is rendered quite unnecessary by the minute list of the Itinerary[103] contained in this volume, and by the journal itself, both of which I recommend it to the reader to consult upon this subject. My object is merely to make some remarks upon the method of retracing these names and upon a few other relative points. The nomenclature is so much the more important in the compilation of African maps, as inattentive travellers frequently confuse generic appellations with proper names and vice versa; or they spell the same name in several different ways, or in writing various names they lose sight of the trifling differences by which they are distinguished. Hence the faulty multiplication upon the maps of places which do not exist, and on the contrary the suppression of many which do. The difficulty is great, particularly with respect to countries recently explored and the language of which is unknown. I have chiefly confined myself to obtaining the names from the mouth of the traveller as his memory furnished them, and comparing them in his presence with his journal.
Among other generic terms which have been considered as proper names, I shall particularize two, on account of the confusion which they have introduced, and which involves in obscurity some important geographical questions, namely the situation of a considerable chain of mountains to the south of the 8th degree of latitude, and the still unknown outlet of the great central river. Kong, is the name given, particularly since Mungo Park, to a great chain of transverse mountains which he reports to have seen at a distance to his right, when travelling from the Gambia to the Dhioliba. Now, M. Caillié learnt from the natives that Kong is a generic word, and that in the Mandingo language it signifies a mountain; the mountain or chain of mountains in question is accordingly far from being the only one of its name. I remark also, that the English traveller in his Mandingo vocabulary explains the word Kong by head; whence perhaps the signification of Kong; and himself translates Konko by hill.[104]