Chapter II: Part 2

Going eastward from Ghánah, through Aúghám, a fertile and well- cultivated district, the traveller arrived in five days at Rás el má, or the Water-head, “where the Nile issued from the land of the Blacks.” On the northern bank of the river dwelt the Merásah, a Zenágah tribe. Pagan blacks inhabited the opposite side. Six days further down the river stood Tírḳa, a market frequented by the people of Ghánah as well as of Tádmekkah. From Tírḳa the Nile turned southwards, and in three days entered the territory of the Seghmárah, a tribe depending on Tádmekkah. “On the side of the river opposite to them,” observes our author, “is Kaúkaú, which belongs to the Blacks.”[53]

Tádmekkah was a town situate, like Aúdaghost, on the southern frontier of the Great Desert. According to El Bekrí, it was fifty days eastward from Ghánah, fifty from Wérgelán, and forty from Ghodémis.[54] Another author, whose measures of distance are not so easily appreciated, places Tádmekkah forty days westwards from Tajúah (in the northern part of Darfur), through the country of the Molaththemún—that is, the people who muffle up or conceal their faces (the Tawárik), and thirty days eastwards from Ghánah, beyond which is the ocean.[55] These intimations combined will place Tádmekkah in the hilly country north of Aghades. It owed its name, signifying the Likeness of Mekkah, to its situation between two hills, in the manner of the Holy City.[56] In the miscellaneous composition of its mercantile population, and in dissolute manners, it was the counterpart of Aúdaghost. Our author adds, that it was nine days from Kaúkaú; but as he appears to be involved in the general mystification enveloping that name, it will be more convenient for the present to waive the consideration of so embarrassing a particular, and to avoid touching on the difficulties attending Kaúkaú till we can make them the immediate subject of discussion.

The route from Ghánah to Tádmekkah leads us again expressly eastward, in the following manner: three days to Safnaḳú, a town on the Nile, and the limit of Ghánah in that direction. Thence along the river to Búgrát, a town of the Merásah. From Búgrát to Tírḳa, and thence over the desert to Tádmekkah.[57]

From all this it appears that the capital of Ghánah was three days distant from the river (at Safnaḳú); and five days from Rás el má, or the Head of the Water, where the river issued from the land of the Blacks—that is to say, where it emerged, in its course northwards, from the marshes and dark forests, and laved the open plains of the desert. It thence flowed eastwards, for six days, to Tírḳa, where it turned southwards towards Kaúkaú.

Thus we find the river called by El Bekrí the Nile of the Blacks, described by him throughout its course for above thirty days with a distinctness and completeness of detail quite sufficient to enable us to recognize it with certainty at the present day. If we assume, as we may reasonably do, that Safnaḳú and Ghánah were equidistant from Silla, then from this town to the first-named place was a distance of twenty days. Rás el má stood at least two days further down the stream towards the east or north-east; Tírḳa was therefore twenty-eight days, and the commencement of the country of the Seghmárah thirty-one from Silla.

This winding of a great river, in such a compass, from Negroland northwards to the desert and down again, is a remarkable feature, which cannot be overlooked or mistaken; and it is one which we find in the river of Tomboktú at the present day, exactly as it was described in the river of Ghánah eight centuries ago. And that which renders it more easy to identify the Nile of Ghánah with the Nile of Tomboktú, is the circumstance, that the towns situate at the extremities of the great circuit of the stream comprised within the descriptions of Arab writers, and near the apex of which the emporium of Negroland has always stood, still bear the same names as in ancient times. From the modern Silla, which is evidently identical with the ancient town of that name, a journey of twenty-two days will conduct to the place where the Great River gets clear of the greenland or inundated country and touches the desert, which point is near Tomboktú; thence it flows eastward for six days, and then turns southward or south-eastward to Kaúkaú.[58] Ibn Baṭúṭah, who descended the river from Tomboktú to Kaúkaú, omits indeed to describe the course of his voyage; but Leo Africanus, who likewise visited those countries, says that Gago, as he writes the name, is four hundred (Italian) miles south by east from Tomboktú.[59] Nor can we doubt that the Gago of Leo is identical with the Kaúkaú of Ibn Baṭúṭah, for Ibn Khaldún expressly informs us that the Kaúkaú here spoken of was also called Kághó.[60]

The exact parallelism of the rivers of Ghánah and Tomboktú, throughout such a length of course, the compared portions being in each case terminated by a Silla on the west, and a Kaúkaú on the east, is of itself quite sufficient to establish their identity with one another. There is, in fact, but one great river on the south side of the Ṣaḥrá to which such descriptions will at all apply. But their resemblance may be traced much further, through a long series of particulars. The Nile of Ghánah was navigated in large boats or barques, just as the river between Jenni and Tomboktú is navigated at the present day.[61] The Berbers inhabiting the shores of the Ṣaḥrá carried their salt and other merchandise in the eleventh century to the Sínghánah, who dwelt on the Great River between Silla and Ghánah: and now they resort in like manner to the banks of the Great River between Silla and Tomboktú.[62] A part of the river between Silla and Ghánah was remarkable as the haunt of hippopotami or river-horses, which animals were killed by the natives, with javelins attached to cords, for the sake of their skins;[63] and Ibn Baṭúṭah, while travelling north-eastward to Tomboktú, probably not far from Jenni, had his attention called to the multitude of those animals frequenting the river in the vicinity, and gives a similar account of the means used to destroy them.

Tekrúr, the town or community of Negroland first converted to the Mohammedan faith, was in the neighbourhood of Silla, as already stated, and probably eighteen or twenty days south-west, or south-south-west from Ghánah. It would be, therefore, a decisive proof that this capital stood not far from the position of Tomboktú, if it could be shown that the original site of Tekrúr was near the modern Silla. But to touch this argument here, would be to enter prematurely on the discussion of a question of some magnitude. The application of the name Tekrúr may be more conveniently examined further on, when the historical connexion between Ghánah and Western Negroland shall have been disclosed. For the present it will be sufficient to observe, that the early history of Tekrúr seems to be in a great measure appropriated by the Mandingoes;[64] that the date usually assigned to the conversion of Ghánah, exactly coincides with the epoch of conversion adopted by the Mohammedan nations of western Guinea; and that the glory of the first acceptance of the faith is conceded by undisputed tradition to the country on the Joliba immediately below Silla.[65]

The Nile of Ghánah turned eastward at Rás el má, the most northern part of the river, and not more than five days from Ghánah. Towards that point, therefore, may be said to have been directed the great caravan route from Sijilmésah to Negroland; and now the frequented route from the same quarter conducts to the most northern point of the Great River flowing by Tomboktú, and which, in like manner there turns eastward. It might be added that since the Kaúkaú and Gago, visited from Tomboktú by Ibn Baṭúṭah and Leo, are shown to have been the same place, the distance of 400 Italian miles between that place and Tomboktú, according to the latter writer, agrees perfectly with the distance of fifteen journeys between Ghánah and Kúghah, according to El Bekrí, assuming that Kúghah is here written for Kaúkaú or Kághó; but until the peculiarly equivocal character of these names be discussed, no reliance can be placed on any argument involving either of them separately. But they may be dealt with safely when taken together, and where it is not necessary to discriminate between them. Now both El Bekrí and El Edrísí mention Kaúkaú and Kúghah; and if it be conceded that either of these places was identical with the Kaúkaú or Kághó, which, from the 14th to the 18th century, ranked as the most important city in Negroland (a supposition which seems highly probable), then it follows that Ghánah was at least fifteen days higher up the stream, or, according to the construction of the Arab geographers, westward from the same place, which was 400 miles lower down than Tomboktú; and, consequently, was either near the site of the latter city, or, if remote from it, must have been still further westward.

Again, the rivers of Ghánah and Tomboktú closely resemble each other in this respect, that on turning eastward, after attaining their most northern point, they both approach the limits of the Zenágah, whose eastern boundary sloped south-eastward from the road to Ghánah, till, near the river, it reached a distance of ten or twelve days from that capital; and now its relation to Tomboktú may be described in nearly the same terms.[66]

The Nile of the Blacks has been thus traced from Silla, a distance of twenty days north-eastward towards Ghánah; then to a distance of eleven days eastward from the latter place, and then three days southward, where our author’s continuous account of its course unfortunately terminates. But we are again led to it by a route through Negroland, so obscure and uncertain indeed as to be in itself of little value; but the discussion of which, as a means of comparing authors, may be indirectly turned to advantage. We are informed by El Bekrí that much of the gold collected in Ghánah was brought from Ghaïárú, eighteen days distant from the former capital, and near the Great River. It is manifest that Ghaïárú did not lie south-westward from Ghánah, for, in that direction, a journey of eighteen days near the river brings us into the vicinity of Tekrúr and Silla, of which our author has already spoken. It must therefore have been situate down the river, below Kaúkaú, or south- eastward from Ghánah; and the described route, not following the stream, must also have gone directly through the interior, till it met the river after its circuit eastward. It seems necessary to suppose that the route does not begin from the capital of Ghánah, but from its frontiers and the opposite side of the river; and also that the day’s journey in Negroland was a conventional measure, founded perhaps on the speed of couriers or messengers on horseback, and exceeding that of the loaded caravan in the desert. The construction here given to this route, as described by El Bekrí, agrees in the main with that adopted by subsequent Arab writers, though their misconceptions have in some instances wholly perverted his meaning.[67] The route was as follows:

From Ghánah four days to Sámaḳanda, the inhabitants of which place were the most expert archers among the Blacks. Thence two days to Ṭáḳah; one day more to the branch of the Nile called Zúghú, fordable by camels, but which men were obliged to cross in boats.[68] Thence to Gharnatil or Ghúntil, an extensive and powerful country wherein Mohammedans experienced good treatment, but had no establishment.[69] Elephants and giraffes were there numerous. From Ghúntil the route went directly to Ghaïárú, a town twelve miles from the Nile. In the latter place, as well as in Bersana, a town on the Nile westward of Ghaïárú, were many Mohammedans, chiefly engaged, it would appear, in the slave trade.[70] “Beyond Bersana, and at the other side of the river,” says El Bekrí, “is a great country, eight days in extent, the king of which is called Daúr, and beyond it is Melil or Malelo, the king of which is a true believer, while his people are still Pagans.” We may suppose the countries here mentioned to be the Daúri and Mallawa of modern geography, the former northward of Kanó, extending towards the desert, the latter a large region, comprising apparently in the acceptation of the indigenous population, the north-western portion of the country called Houssa.[71] But it must be acknowledged that little confidence is due to conjectures guided only by such obscure and equivocal indications.

Among the countries depending on Ghánah, according to El Bekrí, was Sámah, four days distant from Ghánah. Its inhabitants, who were called the Bokmo, used poisoned arrows, and were reckoned the best archers among the blacks. In this circumstance, as well as in their distance from Ghánah, they resemble the people of Sámaḳanda; so that we are led at once to suspect that the latter place was the metropolis of Samah.[72] But it is a curious coincidence that a people named Bokmo should be at a short distance from Ghánah, towards the south, and that a district called Bagamo should have a similar position with respect to Tomboktú. For Marmol, copying the words of De Barros with a few slight additions, thus expresses himself respecting the various names of the rivers of Tomboktú, in conformity with the erroneous opinion prevalent in his time, that it flowed into the sea by the Senegal. “The Portuguese (he says) call it Zenega; the Zenagas, Zenedec; the Gelofes, Dengueh: the Tucorones, further in, call it Mayo; the Saragoles, higher up, name it Colle; and when it goes through a district called _Bagamo_, more to the east, they call it Zimbala; in the kingdom of Tombut it is called Yça.”[73] The name Zimbala or Jimbala has always hovered in the neighbourhood of Tomboktú and vicinity of the river. Its exact position has been matter of controversy. Yet there seems little reason for dissenting from the statement of Caillié, who says that a large tract of country south of Tomboktú bears that name.[74] The tract in question therefore must be on the eastern bank of the river between lake Debú and Tomboktú, and there also we must look for Bagamo.[75]

The King styled Ghánah, while residing in Aúdaghost, aided, we are told, the King of Másín in a war of the latter with the King of Aúghám. But it appears that the last-named place was close to Aúkár, subsequently the capital of Ghánah, and was passed through in going from that city to Rás el má. One of the belligerent parties being thus found near Ghánah and the river, it is natural that we should look for the other in the same neighbourhood; and the conjecture seems as unobjectionable as it is obvious, that the Másín of El Bekrí is the Másín or Maséna of the present time, situate on the western side of the Great River, not far north from Silla.[76] The same writer tells us that to the west of Ghánah was the hostile country of Anbárah, nine days from Kúghah, which was fifteen from Ghánah. This statement presents insuperable difficulties; inasmuch as it contradicts the general testimony which places Ghánah at the extreme west of the Black nations on the frontiers of Negroland, and because by referring to Kúghah it introduces the confusion accompanying that name. If, however, we boldly solve the problem by supposing Kúghah to be written for Kaúkaú or Kághó, and by placing Anbárah accordingly south by east from Ghánah, we shall then recognize it in the warlike state of Oonbori, situate in the Hajri or mountainous country south of Tomboktú.[77]

But an anonymous Arab writer expresses himself more intelligibly respecting the political relations of Ghánah; he says that twenty parasangs or leagues east of that city was Ráyún, or perhaps rather Ráyawen, the nearest city (on the southern border) of the desert, to Sijilmésah and Wergelán. Between Ráyawen and Ghánah were the encampments of the Morabites, with whom the people of the latter place waged war, as well as with the inhabitants of Amímah, a town, as has been already observed, not far from Tomboktú towards the west or south-west.[78]

Of the laws and usages of Ghánah, such as were capable of enduring after subjection to a foreign power and conversion to the Mohammedan faith, but scanty notices have been transmitted to us. It deserves to be remarked, nevertheless, that the law of inheritance in Ghánah gave the preference to the sister’s son, and that the same law remained in force in the fourteenth century in Waláta, as well as in the Mandingo kingdom of Málí, where, however, its existence need not create surprise.[79] But in Waláta, on the border of the desert, with a population chiefly of Berber origin, the existence of a law so singular, so characteristic of Guinea, and so exactly coinciding with the law of Ghánah, strongly argues the influence of Negro rule, and favours the presumption arising out of what precedes, that Waláta was comprised within the limits of Ghánah.

One of the customs of Ghánah, transiently mentioned by El Bekrí, calls for some remark. In the presence of the king, the people prostrated themselves, and sprinkled their naked bodies with dust. This agrees exactly with what Ibn Baṭúṭah witnessed and justly reprobated at the court of Málí.[80] Such slavish manners could never have originated on the border of the desert, nor where local circumstances give the least encouragement to the love of independence. They are the manners of Western Guinea, and cannot be supposed to have ever existed in Houssa, a hilly country, divided into petty states, each cherishing a rude spirit of liberty. Succession to power in Houssa, is said to be elective among the sons; the hereditary principle being thus blended with the exercise of a popular right.[81] In Bornú it has been always customary to consult the dignity of the sovereign by concealing him from the vulgar gaze, and not by debasing the subject. Those admitted to the presence of the king sit with their backs to the curtain which screens the royal person.[82]

In El Bekrí’s time the dominion of Ghánah extended toward the east but three days’ journey from the capital. Toward the south it could not have reached very far. The independent kingdom of Tekrúr was, at the utmost, eighteen or twenty days distant in that direction. Still nearer was Ṣínghánah, apparently an independent state, which carried on trade with the Benú Goddálah. This trade was guided in its channel, as must always be the case in the early stages of society, by natural circumstances. A branch of the desert penetrates south-eastward to the very banks of the Great River, in a tract of which we know not the exact width, but which embraces the western shores of Lake Debú.[83] Such a road, laid open by nature, could not fail to exert a great influence on the history of Negroland. And indeed, the fact that Tekrúr, situate near that part of the river, was the first converted of the Negro states; that the trade of the Berbers occupying the sea shore at Aúlíl, and subsequently their sway also, extended to the same quarter, might alone create a suspicion, that the tribes of the desert found in that tract of country a nature congenial to their habits. This suspicion is converted into certainty by the narrative of Alexander Scott, who crossed the tract in question.[84] The Berbers were actual possessors of territory south of Ghánah, where the desert approached the Great River between that country and Tekrúr. North of Ghánah, the dry desert of Tíser or Azawad was but eight or ten days distant. In that direction, however, as well as towards the west, the wilderness opposed no precise limits to the claims of empire, but allowed pretensions of sovereignty to expatiate freely over territories of two months’ journey in extent.

Thus we have seen that Ghánah was the frontier kingdom of the Blacks contiguous to the advanced portion of the Great River at its north-west angle; and extending in front of that portion of the desert, over which lay the commerce with Sijilmésah,—a commerce guided by a principle, which if not strictly unchangeable, at least fluctuates only within narrow limits,—namely, that of choosing the shortest and safest route across the desert. It comprised the country between Waláta and the Great River, near the future site of Tomboktú, and enjoyed the identical advantages of position which subsequently made the latter city so prosperous.

But what were the revolutions, it may be asked, which caused Ghánah to disappear? This question shall be fully answered hereafter; our inquiry at present regards the place where Ghánah existed, and not the events which led to its extinction. Yet it will not be alien from our purpose to observe, that although the name, or rather title, of Ghánah became politically extinct, and was erased from the list of sovereignties, yet it still adhered obscurely, in the sixteenth century, to at least one spot of the territory originally designated by it. For Marmol informs us, that in his time Walata was also called Ganata; and that he did not in this instance hazard an erudite conjecture, but spoke the plain language of habit and experience, is evident as well from the unostentatiousness of the remark, as from the frequency with which he indifferently employs these two names one for the other.[85]

Let the reader now recal the account of Negroland, and of Ghánah in particular, given in the preceding pages; let him fix his attention on those features of the description pointed out for the purpose of showing that Ghánah was near the site of Tomboktú; let him consider well that those features have a magnitude incompatible with the supposition of their being repeated, and a permanence derived from their dependence on the physical constitution of the African continent. Let him, in fact, figure to himself a great and navigable river, flowing from a town called Silla north-eastwards for three weeks, through the country of the Blacks who first embraced the Mohammedan faith, skirting the desert eastwards for six days, and then turning southwards to a place called Kaúkaú, or Kághó; let him place the emporium of Negroland near the north-western angle of that river, at a distance of two months’ ordinary travelling from the shores of the Atlantic, two months from Sijilmésah, and fifty days from Tádmekkah, not far from the modern Aghades. He may then trace the road from Sijilmésah to that emporium, dividing the whole distance into its distinct portions, viz.—eleven days south-westward to the border of the desert, then six days over the hills, about seventeen more to the zone of drifting sand, passing near the salt mines of Tagháza, and eight or ten over an utterly inhospitable tract near the southern limit of the Ṣaḥrá. Along this road he may distribute the tents of the wandering Masúfah; and, a little to the east of it, he may mark the boundary line of the great Berber nation, the Zenágah. Let him then write above Silla, on the left hand, this remark:—“Trade carried on with the Berbers on the sea shore;” and below Kaúkaú, on the right,—“Obscure and little known:”[86] and when, having finished this delineation, he finds that, though drawn in conformity with the descriptions of Ghánah, it is yet perfectly applicable to Tomboktú; and that it is equally true and faithful, whichever of these names be given to the emporium of the Blacks: then, even if he throw aside all other considerations, such as the relations of Ghánah with the Morabites and with Mímah, the town whence Tomboktú derived its Berber population, he certainly cannot refuse to admit that the Ghánah of Arab writers was contiguous to that part of the Great River where Tomboktú now stands.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when numerous accounts of Barbary were published in Europe, and when the trade of Morocco and Táfílélt (the ancient Sijilmésah) with Negroland was highly rated, we find that, besides Tomboktú, whither the routes from Táfílélt and Wád Nún conducted, no places of any importance in Negroland were mentioned, except Jenni near Silla, and Gago, which is the same as Kaúkaú. The caravans across the desert directed their march to the nearest point of Negroland, and the merchants, arriving there, never looked beyond the marts with which they could thence maintain a direct intercourse. In the same manner, and exactly within the same limits, was El Bekrí’s information circumscribed. He says nothing of the Mandingoes, Serakholies, Wolofs, Fellatah, or other black nations of the west. He is equally silent respecting Houssa, toward the south-east. Of Kánem, which was reckoned to be only forty days distant from Zawílah, he speaks in terms indicative of the faintness of his knowledge:—“The people,” he says, “are blacks and idolators; and the country is hardly ever visited by travellers.”—Thus the analogous modes in which Ghánah and Tomboktú present themselves respectively to the ancient and modern historians of Negroland, corroborate the opinion that the site of the former of those places was in the vicinity of the latter.[87]

In the attempt here made to demonstrate that Ghánah was near the site of Tomboktú, it will be perceived that no aid has been sought from etymologies or fancied resemblance of names; much less have such delusive lights been allowed to guide our investigations. The arguments urged in the foregoing pages rest wholly on necessary deductions from the obvious sense of our Arab authorities, without any attempt to wrest their meaning. The topics touched on in those arguments may be thus briefly recapitulated:

The description of Ghánah in respect to its bearing and distance from Sijilmésah—the details of the road to it, and characteristics of the desert—the relations of Ghánah with the Zenágah, and particularly with the Morabites—its intercourse with the tribes on the sea shore—the position of Genéwah—the course of the River—the relations of Ghánah with Mimah, Másín or Masena, Anbárah, &c.—the name Ganata remaining to Walata—the laws and usages of Ghánah.

There still remains an argument of no common weight, the substance of which, though belonging to another part of this inquiry, yet may, without impropriety, be briefly stated here. The Blacks of the country named Málí, who, it will be seen, were Mandingoes, issuing from the south-west, conquered Ghánah. Their empire (to use the words of their historian) extended from Ghánah in the east, to the ocean in the west. Nearly a century after that conquest, they advanced eastward (or rather south-eastward) to Kaúkaú, whence they marched into the desert and made themselves masters of Tekaddá. They subsequently relinquished, however, the possession of that place, and retired to Kaúkaú; so that the Great River formed the boundary of their sway towards the east, with the exception, perhaps, of a short space below Kaúkaú. Now there can be no uncertainty respecting the ground over which these conquerors marched. The celebrated traveller, Ibn Baṭúṭah, visited, in the fourteenth century, the capital of Málí, on the Joliba above Sego; he thence travelled to Tomboktú; thence descended the river to Kaúkaú, and from that place he went to Tekaddá, which was on the road from Kaúkaú to Ghát and Ghodémis. He thus appears to have followed exactly the course which had been taken by the Mandingo conquerors; the only difference in his described route being, that he found Tomboktú where they had found Ghánah.

* * * * *

[Footnote 5: Chénier (Recherches sur les Maures, tom. III. pp. 16 and 79) was the first to pronounce, Walckenaer (Recherches sur l’Afrique Septentrionale, 1822, p. 285) the first to prove, the identity of Sijilmésah سجلماسه with Táfílélt تافيلالت. The arguments of the latter amount to demonstration, and need no reinforcement. Yet we may be permitted to add, that all the Arab writers, without exception, make Sijilmésah contiguous to Darʿah درعه; and that the uncritical Marmol, although he subjoins to his description of Sijilmésah (vol. III. fol. 8) an account also of Táfílélt, denuded of every circumstance which could help to determine its geographical position, yet in copying Leo’s list of the provinces of Numidia, omits Sijilmésah, and substitutes for it Táfílélt (Leo Africanus, pt. I. c. 5. in Ramusio, 1554, vol. I. fol. 1 V, Marmol, I. fol. 12). The name Táfílélt seems to have come into use with the rise of the dynasty of the Fílélí sherífs. The tribe, ennobled by events, gave its name to the country in which it was established. M. Gråberg af Hemsö, therefore (Specchio di Marocco, 1834, p. 65), who refuses his assent to M. Walckenaer’s conclusions, and separates Táfílélt from Sijilmésah for reasons of comparatively little weight, cannot certainly vindicate his mode of using the former of these names, by showing that it occurs in the pages of any historian, native or foreign, anterior to the sixteenth century. The Fílélí tribe or family are however of ancient standing, for Ibn Baṭúṭah informs us that at Kaúkaú, in Negroland, in A.D. 1353, he became acquainted with the faḳíh or doctor, Mohammed the Fílélí الفيلالي.]

[Footnote 6: Ghánah غَانَة and غَانَةَ (MS. B.M.). The final _hé_ ﻪ of the Arabs, when pointed ﺔ, is pronounced as _t_ before a vowel; غَانَة and غَانَةَ therefore, when not immediately followed by consonants, are read Ghánat̤ and Ghánat̤a. But the suppression of the _t_ in this instance seems to be due altogether to the analogies of the Arabic language, and probably was not always imitated by the Berbers, in which language _t_ is a frequent termination. Hence it is not surprising that in an extract from El Bekrí, sent from Tripoli by M. Gråberg af Hemsö, to M. Jaubert (Recueil, &c. par la Soc. de Géogr. tom. II. 1825), we should find Ghánat غَانَتْ constantly written instead of Ghánah غانه. The importance of this remark will appear hereafter.]

[Footnote 7: The Arabic _wa_ و when it begins a word, is a consonant, like our _w_. Hence, when the Arabs would write a name beginning with a long _o_ or _u_, they are obliged to prefix an aleph ا to the wa و to preserve to the latter its vocal function; thus اودغست, اوليل, اوكار, would be written to express Odaghost or Udagost, Olíl or Ulíl, Okár or Ukár. The áú او may be also intended for a diphthong. But it must be observed that the prefixed aleph in the Berber language is a sign of case, and may have other offices; there is some temerity therefore in excluding the form Awadagost, and in reading Berber names according to the analogies of a foreign language.]

[Footnote 8: Not. et Extr. p. 642. The reasons for concluding that Aúkár lay to the south-west of Aúdaghost, will be shown hereafter. El Bekrí states more than once that Ghánah was the king’s title. Not. et Extr. pp. 630 and 642.]

[Footnote 9: Támedelt تَامدَلتْ (MS. B.M.) is read by M. Quatremère, Tamdoult. Sús el Aḳṣa, i.e. the remote Sús, is the most southern province of Morocco, on the confines of the desert.]

[Footnote 10: The routes to Ghánah and Aúdaghost went southward, according to Abulfedá, but this expression need not be strictly understood. (Abulfedá’s Geography, translated by Reiske in Büsching’s Magazin, vol. IV. 212, V. 354). Tomboktú is here spelt as dictated by Ibn Baṭúṭah. The river of Negroland, which, in the successive parts of its course is named Joliba, Issa, Quorra, &c., and which theory and false learning have styled the Niger, will be generally denominated, throughout the following pages, _the Great River_.]

[Footnote 11: Caillié reckoned fifty-seven days of actual travelling between Tomboktú and Táfílélt.]

[Footnote 12: Mabrúk is said by some (Itinerary of Ḥáj Ḳásim, in Walckenaer, Rech. p. 426) to be eleven days, by others (Mohammed of Tripoli, in the Quarterly Review, No. 45, p. 231) fifteen from Tomboktú.]

[Footnote 13: Since the intercourse between Fez and Támedelt need not be considered as merely commercial, it would be injudicious to measure the routes between them by the journeys of a loaded caravan. El Bekrí (Not. et Extr. p. 598) reckons eight days’ journey between Fez and Sijilmésah, but one of them was a long journey (across the desert of Angad) of sixty miles. Abulfedá makes the distance between these cities to be ten days’ journey. We reckon nine days, so as make the whole distance of Fez from Támedelt twenty days’ journey, and allow twenty-two geographical miles to each. The bearing of Támedelt from Iklí is said to have been in the direction of the Ḳibla بقبلي (MS. B.M. fol. 105), or temple of Mekkah, towards which the followers of Mohammed turn their faces when they pray. The direction of the Ḳibla is understood in Morocco, according to Windus (Journey to Morocco, p. 49) to mean east by south.]

[Footnote 14: The caravans from Sijilmésah to Ghánah, like those to Tomboktú, assembled on the confines of Sús, Darʿah, and the desert. Tatta, the gathering place of the merchants going to Tomboktú, as placed by Major Rennell, on information derived from the British consul at Mogadore (Proceedings of the African Assoc. 1810, vol. I. p. 254), is not more than two days distant from the site of Támedelt; and El Harib, the point at which Caillié, travelling northward, quitted the desert, was but four or five days distant from these places.]

[Footnote 15: Bír el Jemmálín بير الجمالين (MS. B.M. fol. 101), the Camel-keepers’ well. M. Quatremère (Not. et Extr. p. 612) reads Bír el Ḥammálín, that is, the Porters’ well. But as this name occurs in the route from Wádi Darʿah, it is fortunate that a pointed MS. enables us to distinguish clearly between those two places, the proximity of which would conduce to the embarrassment likely to result from their being confounded together.]

[Footnote 16: Azawwar أزَوَّرْ MS. B.M. fol. 102; Azour in Not. et Extr. p. 613. This name may, with much probability, be read Azawwad ازود, that is, the dry or sterile country.]

[Footnote 17: Tendefas تندفس MS. B.M. fol. 102; Tendefak, Not. et Extr. p. 613. Weínhílún وَيْنهيْلُون MS. B.M.; Wirhaloun, Not. et Extr.]

[Footnote 18: Tázḳa تازقَي MS. B.M.; Tarka, Not. et Extr. This word, written _Taskha_ by Capt. Lyon (Travels in North Africa, p. 315), is still retained in the dialect of the Tawárik.]

[Footnote 19: Weíṭúnán ويْطُونان MS. B.M.—Aúkázenta اوكازنْتَ MS. B.M.; Oukarit, Not. et Extr.]

[Footnote 20: Sidi Hamed, leaving Wád Nún, went six days round the mountains towards the south, that is, he cleared the hills on the sixth day. He then travelled fifteen days over hard ground, on which the camels left no trace; then three days on hard sand, and then entered the hills of drifting sand. Riley’s Narrative of the Shipwreck of the brig Commerce, p. 322.]

[Footnote 21: The Harib of Caillié, who was not fortunate in seizing the sounds of the Arabic and Berber languages, ought probably to be Gharíb غريب M. D’Avezac (Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog. 1834, tom. II. p. 169) proposes reading ʿArib; but since the tribe of the Gharíb is mentioned in M. Gråberg af Hemsö’s list of Berber names (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc. vol. VII. p. 255) and Marmol (tom. III. fol. 9,) places a tribe named Garib in the neighbourhood of Tatta, we cannot avoid concluding that the French traveller means to speak of the same tribe as the last-named author, and that its true name is El Gharíb. But in the map drawn by M. Jomard to illustrate Caillié’s journey, the position of El Harib is even more faulty than its orthography. It detracts little from Caillié’s merit to say, that under all the circumstances of his journey his observations of the compass were worth but little, and his estimates of distance are not to be implicitly relied on. Nineteen miles a day for the average of forty-three days between Tomboktú and El Harib, and twenty-nine miles daily during the worst part of the journey, over deep and burning sands, are rates of travelling much too high for a loaded caravan. By the undue lengthening of the early part of the route, El Harib has been carried about fifty miles too far north, so that Tatta, instead of being north-west of it, according to the traveller’s text, is made to lie to the south-west. All the other bearings described are in like manner displaced. M. D’Avezac has corrected this error of latitude, but has, at the same time, unfortunately introduced a new error of longitude, and carried all his positions too far eastward.]

[Footnote 22: Quart. Rev. No. 75, 1828, p. 102; Edinburgh Phil. Journal, vol. IV. p. 42.]

[Footnote 23: Wanzamín ونزمين MS. B.M.; Wabermin, Not. et Extr. p. 614.]

[Footnote 24: Wárán وارَان. The name of the inhabitants of this part of the desert has been read by M. Quatremère, Benú Hareth, instead of Benú Wareth وارث; but the restoration of this name is important; since we learn from another passage in El Bekrí that the Benú Wareth were to the east of the Lumtúnah; and are thus enabled to perceive that the road to Aúdaghost lay eastwards from the road to Ghánah.—Agharef أَغَرَفْ MS. B.M. 102 v.—Akríri اقرٮري Not. et Extr. p. 615. اقرٮٮدى MS. B.M.]

[Footnote 25: Azjúnán (pronounced Azgúnán) ازجونان MS. B.M.; Arkounat, Not. et Extr.]

[Footnote 26: In Nubia showers of rain are of rare occurrence north of the 18th parallel (Rüppell, Reisen in Nubien, &c. p. 75). Denham (Travels, &c. I. p. 164) fixed the first appearance of fresh vegetation and the limit of the tropical rains on his route to Bornú, near the 16th parallel, which is probably too low for the limit of rain. Tomboktú, we are told, has annually six weeks or more of rain (Proc. Afr. Assoc. I. p. 285; Narrative of R. Adams, p. 42)—and this blessing seems to extend some distance north-eastward of it (Riley’s Narrative, p. 346). Towards the coast the gum forests which extend as far north as the 18th degree of latitude probably do not fall far short of the limit of regular rains.]

[Footnote 27: Tarḳá ترقا Not. et Extr. p. 623; Tárga تارجي MS. B.M. 105 r.—Tezámt تزامت MS. B.M. 105 v; Baramet, Not. et Extr. p. 624.—Bir el Ḥammálín بير الحمالين—Máleki مالكي Not. et Extr. p. 264; Nálelli ناللِّي MS. B.M. 105 v.]

[Footnote 28: In the Parisian MS. the expression is “the mountains, the name of which, in Berber, signifies _the mountains of iron_.” Not. et Extr. 624. But the MS. B.M. gives the Berber name Adarérén wazzél ءَاَدَرَارَانْ وَزّالْ in which Adarérén is the plural of Adrar, a mountain, and wazzél, iron, corresponds with the _ouzail_ of Shaw’s vocabulary (Travels in Barbary, II. p. 382).]

[Footnote 29: Yentesír ينْتسِير, MS. B.M.; Belis, Not. et Extr.—Moddúken مُدُّوكَن MS. B.M.; Merouken, Not. et Extr. From the village of Moddúken, which belonged to the Zenágah, to the city of Ghánah مَدَينة غَانة was a journey of only four days. But for Ghánah in this place M. Quatremère proposes reading Akka, عاقه, being perplexed by the faultiness of his MS. which seems to conduct beyond Ghánah to the country of the Lumtúnah. The MS. B.M. p. 105 v, clears up the difficulty by these words; “and from the wells before mentioned, (viz. the wells of El Ḥammálín and Nálelli,) the water is carried a four days’ journey to Mount Aízal or Izal ايزَلْ in the desert,” &c. Thus the road to the desert (the Lumtúnah not being named in this passage) does not begin from Ghánah, but from “the before-mentioned wells.” Jebel Aízal may be suspected of being another form of Adarérén Wazzél.]

[Footnote 30: The name Tíser تيسر (Jaubert’s Idrísí. Recueil de Mém. &c. tom. V. p. 106) is extremely doubtful. Some of the MS. copies of Idrísí have Níser نيسر, others Nesír نسير. The epitome offers Bansar بنسر; Abulfedá writes Yasr يسر.]

[Footnote 31: El Bekrí (Not. et Extr. 624) gives to the absolutely waterless desert between Sijilmésah and Ghánah, an extent of eight days’ journey. Sheríshí, in his commentary on Harírí (Maḳámah 9) gives it a width of ten days. Ibn el Wardi increases it to twelve days, and El Idrísí (Jaubert’s Transl. p. 106) to fourteen. It was natural enough that the first of these writers, who may be supposed to have derived much of his information from the early Morabites themselves, should receive a less exaggerated account of the inhospitable nature of the western desert than those who followed him.]

[Footnote 32: The road to Aúdaghost passed through the territory of the Benú Wáreth. But this tribe were to the east of the Lumtúnah, through whose country was traced the road to Ghánah (see note 24). And Ghánah was at least four days south of the desert of Tíser, while Aúdaghost was east of that desert, according to Abulfedá (Büsching’s Magazin, vol. IV. p. 212). El Idrísí also places Aúdaghost in the northern part of the kingdom of Ghánah; and by stating its distance from Wergelán and Jermah, he plainly intimates that it was likewise in the eastern part. All these particulars combine to prove that Aúdaghost was to the north-east of Ghánah.]

[Footnote 33: Ibn Baṭúṭah travelled at the slow rate of a heavily laden caravan. Halts included, he was two months in reaching Aïwalátin, or Walata, on the southern border of the desert. His accounts of the pools of Táserahlá which shall be given hereafter, exactly correspond with El Idrísí’s description of the wells of Tíser. In Jaubert’s ‘Idrísí’ (p. 11), is the following passage: “Il y existe cependant des mares d’eau de pluie qu’on rencontre après deux, quatre, cinq ou douze journées de marche, semblables à celle du désert situé sur la route de Sedjelmasa à Ghana, et où l’on ne trouve de l’eau qu’au bout de quatorze jours de marche.” Instead of the word _desert_ in this place, the Epitome of El Idrísí has the name Bansar بنسر, evidently for Tíser تيسر.]

[Footnote 34: Leo Afr. pt. VI. c. 54. Marmol writes Azaoat. Beyond, or eastward of the desert of the Zenágah, Leo places that of the Zuenziga, “which extends from Segelmesse, Tebelbelt, and Benigorai, to the desert of Ghir, in the south, which faces the kingdom of Gubar. On the west it has Tegaza, and on the east the desert of Air, inhabited by the Targa tribe (the Tawárik).” It is manifest that the several divisions of the desert described by Leo (pt. VI. c. 54-8), all extend from north-west to south-east, conformably to the boundary line which we have ascribed to the country of the Zenágah on the east. It is plain also, that these people were not in the vicinity of the Houssa country. The desert of Ghir brings to mind the Káhir كاهر of Ibn Baṭúṭah; but we can have no doubt that the Air of Leo is the country of Ahír (Ḥáj Ḳásim in Walckenaer, Rech. p. 448) or Aáheer (ʿAhír?), which we learn from Sultan Bello (Denham’s Travels, II. 447, where Aáheer is erroneously said to be south of Bornú) to be the portion of the desert lying north of Houssa and Bornú. But it appears that the name in question has extended further southwards since Leo’s time, a proof that the Tawárik have been gaining ground.]

[Footnote 35: The account of Major Laing’s journey to Tomboktú (Quarterly Review, July 1828, p. 103-5), after stating that he was attacked by the Tawárik, makes frequent mention of _Azoad_, whence, on recovering from his wounds, he wrote his last letter. Caillié mentions “the tribe of Zaouât, who wander in the desert of _the same name_” (Voyage à Temboctou, tom. II. p. 349). It was the Sheikh of this tribe, Hamet aúlád Habíb, who put Major Laing to death, meeting him five days north of Tomboktú, on the road to Arawan. The name of this murderer brings to mind the fact that the chief wells on the roads to Aúdaghost and Ghánah were dug by a Sheikh of the Aúlád Habíb. It is plain that the tribe called Zaouât by Caillié, were so named from their country; and it is probable that he, or the editor of his volumes, deprived the name Azawad of its initial letter, in the belief that it was thereby freed from the Arabic article. The desert of Azawad is described by Lyon (Trav. in N. Afr. p. 148) under the name of ʿAsheríyah, or _the ten days’_ desert.]

[Footnote 36: Marmol, Descripcion de Africa, vol. I. fol. 34 r. In another place, however, (vol. III. fol. 16,) he uses the name Genéwah in a restricted sense, and says that the Zenágah have on the south, “the Benais, Gelofes, the kingdoms of Gualata, Geneúa, Meli, and Tumbuto”—Genéwah being here evidently identified, by hypothesis, with Jenni.]

[Footnote 37: Kitábu-l-Jʿaráfíyah (Book of Geography), &c. MS. in the collection of D. P. de Gayangos. This anonymous work, though ill written, contains much which is not to be found in El Idrísí and his numerous copiers.]

[Footnote 38: Arkí أَركِي MS. B.M. fol. 107; Azdji أَرجي Not. et Extr. p. 629.—The copies of El Idrísí present this name in a variety of forms. In M. Jaubert’s translation of this author (p. 206), there is the following passage: “La ville s’appelle Azoucaï ازقي en langue Berbère, et Cocadam قوقدم en génois.” By _génois_ we are here to understand the language of the Genéwah. But the name here read Cocadam, or, as we should write it, Ḳúḳdem, deserves a moment’s notice. Leo Africanus informs us (pt. VI. c. 55) that the caravans from Telemsén to Tomboktú, pass over a difficult tract of desert, where no water is found for nine days, and which is named Gogdem. It is probable that this desert, as well as the town further west, owed its name to wanderers from Goghidem, a mountain of central Atlas, in the province of Hascora, of whose emigration Leo himself furnishes the explanation (pt. II. c. 71). Arkí, the chief town of the Lumtúnah, is placed by El Idrísí, seven days from Wád Nún. As little reliance, however, can be placed on that author’s measures, we may allow Arkí to be even fourteen days from Wád Nún, and yet its site will not be eastward of the road to Tomboktú. But, according to El Idrísí (_ut supra_), those who went to Silla, Tekrúr, and Ghánah, passed near it of necessity. Our knowledge of the position of Mímah, or Amímah, we owe to Ibn Baṭúṭah, whose narrative shall be examined further on.]

[Footnote 39: Ghánah, in the country of Genéwah, من بلاد جناوه is an expression frequently used by the same author. Where others would have written Beléd es-Súdán, or land of the Blacks, he always writes Genéwah. This name, indeed, became in Morocco the general designation of blacks and slaves. Thus we are told that Muley Hamed grew rich “by husbanding his Maseraws (oil-mills) and Ingenewas (slave farms) where his sugar canes did grow. (A True Historical Discovery of Muley Hamet’s Rising, &c. 1609, c. 3.) The initial letter of the name Genéwah جناوه being pronounced hard by the Moors, the southern Europeans, in imitation of them, wrote Chinoia, Gheneoa, and Ghinéa; from which we, by throwing back the accent, made Guinea. “The kingdom, says Leo (pt. VI. c. 3), called by our merchants (the Moors) Gheneoa, is by the natives called Genni, and by the Europeans who have any knowledge of it, Ghinea.” It is certain that Ghinéa and Guinea are derived from Genéwah; but we see no sufficient reason to admit that the name of the city of Genni or Jenni has the same origin. But since general names, not merely appellations, are rare among a rude people, it is natural for us to inquire what was meant by Genéwah, or, to conform to the sound, Ghinéwah. Did it mean _the Blacks_? On the coast, the negroes contiguous to the Whites are, for contra-distinction, named in their own language Wolof, that is, _Blacks_. The name Jelofe (Wolof) is used in this general sense by Marmol (III. fol. 27 v). And why should not the people of the interior designate themselves according to the same universal and simple principle? Now, in the language of Tomboktú, _gnewa_, or, as Major Rennell, who had the original information, writes it, _genewa_, signifies Black (Proc. Afr. Ass. I. p. 124 and 428), so that we are justified in suspecting at least that we have here found the origin of the name Genéwah.]

[Footnote 40: Not. et Extr. p. 629.]

[Footnote 41: The extent of desert here assigned to the Benú Goddálah, may enable us, if carefully considered, to ascertain their interior limits towards Ghánah. Numerous authorities, which need not be here cited, agree in estimating the distance of Tomboktú from Táfílélt or Morocco to be, in general terms, a two months’ journey. The more circumstantial accounts reckon, between Tomboktú and Akka, Tatta, or El Harib, near the frontiers of Sús and the desert, thirty-six (Jackson’s Morocco, p. 241)—forty-three (Shabeeny’s Narrative, by Jackson, p. 7)—or thirty-nine days (Caillié, Journal, &c.), exclusive of halts. We find the distance of Tatta from Tomboktú estimated also at fifty days (Proceedings of the African Association, vol. I. p. 225). Davidson (Notes on a Journey in Africa, 1839, p. 101) learned that the courier’s track from Wád Nún to Tomboktú is travelled in forty days, and that from the same place to Jenni is usually reckoned a distance of sixty days, though frequently traversed in less time (Notes, &c. p. 113). But it must be observed, that, with respect to caravans, the time allowed for halting at the chief wells often exceeds that spent in travelling. Now to estimate the longitudinal dimensions of the western desert, we have the distance of forty days’ journey from Arguin to the French factory at Fort St. Joseph, on the Senegal, and from the latter point forty-eight days to Tomboktú, the latter distance being established by a concurrence of testimony which places it beyond dispute (D’Anville, Mem. de l’Acad. tom. XXVI. p. 73; Rennell in Proc. of Afr. Assoc. vol. II. pp. 225, 464). Circuits being allowed for, these distances combined will place Tomboktú about two months and a half from Arguin. In confirmation of this conclusion, we find that Sidi Hamet (Riley’s Narrative, p. 319), taking the road by the sea shore, travelled from Wád Nún southwards for four months to the borders of Negroland, and then went eastward two months to Tomboktú. On his return he travelled westward one month, and encamped at a little Negro town called Jathrow—probably the Dgazzara of M. Roger’s informant (Rec. de Voy. II. p. 62), whose estimate of distances, however, uniformly fall far short of the reality. Sidi Hamet then turned northward, and reached Wád Nún in three months and a half. Though the people dwelling on the margin of the desert are apt to talk of speedy journeys, as was experienced by Park and Davidson, yet the inhabitants of the wilderness itself, having little provision and weak cattle, which they pasture as they go, rarely travel at a rate exceeding twelve or thirteen miles a day. Alexander Scott (Edinburgh Phil. Jour. vol. IV.), a shipwrecked sailor, and captive in the desert, travelled from the vicinity of Cape Bojador two months and a half, to the line of gum forests, which lie chiefly between the 17th and 18th parallels, and then continued his march for another month before he reached Lake Dibbie, which is formed by the waters of the Great River. It is needless to collect more authorities to show that a desert of two months in extent and bounded by the Atlantic, must be supposed to lie wholly westward of Tomboktú.]

[Footnote 42: Aúlíl اوليل. It is also written Aúlílí اوليلي by Ibn el Wardi and others. It is probably a variation of the name Walílí وليلي, formerly belonging to a village near Fez, and also to Tangier.]

[Footnote 43: If the well-ascertained route of forty-eight days from Fort St. Joseph to Tomboktú, measured on Mr. J. Arrowsmith’s map, be taken as the scale, and sixty days be then measured along the shore from Wád Nún, it will exactly reach Arguin. But the Benú Goddálah, possessing a desert of two months in extent, were separated by a six days’ journey from the Ṣínghánah, who dwelt on the river between Silla and Ghánah. Now from Arguin to the nearest point of the Great River, towards the east, is a distance of about sixty-eight days’ journey, measured as above. It is necessary, therefore, if we would treat El Bekrí as a sensible and sober writer, to infer that Aúlíl was at Arguin, and that the Ṣínghánah dwelt near Lake Debú, between Silla and Tomboktú.]

[Footnote 44: At Cape St. Anne, in the bay of Arguin, where the beds of salt are found, is a small island which appears to answer El Bekrí’s description. Labat (L’Afrique Occidentale, tom. I. p. 58) says of it, “On trouve à la pointe de la Saline une petite isle qui ne se distingue presque pas du continent.” De Barros (Decad. I. liv. I. c. 10) explains why Arguin is the only inhabited spot on the shores of the Desert.]

[Footnote 45: El Bekrí in Not. et Extr. p. 630. It is Abulfedá, who, quoting Ibnu Sʿaïd, informs us (Büsching’s Mag. IV. 205,) that Aúdaghost was within the limit of the rains.]