An Account Of Timbuctoo And Housa Territories In The Interior Of Africa Part 34

Page 189. "Mr. Beaufoy's Moor says, that below Ghinea is the sea into which the river of Timbuctoo discharges itself."

This might have been understood to signify the Sea of Sudan, if the Moor had not said below Ghinea, (by which is meant Genowa, or as we call it Guinea,) which implies, that the _Neel El Abeed_ (Niger) discharges itself in the sea that washes the coast of Guinea; this, therefore, corroborates Seedi Hamed's, or rather Richard's hypothesis.

Page 190. "This branch of the Niger pa.s.sing Timbuctoo, is not crossed until the third day going from Timbuctoo to Houssa."

This quotation from "Dapper's Description of Africa," is corroborated by L'Hage Abdsalam, Shabeeni, whose narrative says, "Shabeeni, after staying three years at Timbuctoo, departed for Houssa, and crossing the small river close to the walls, reached the Neel in three days, travelling through a fine, populous, and cultivated country."

The confusion of rivers, made mere equivocal by every new hypothesis, receives here additional ambiguity. If there were (as Mr. Bowdich affirms) three distinct rivers near Timbuctoo; viz. the 477 Joliba, the Gambarro, and the Niger, (_i. e_. the _Neel El Abeed_) how comes it that they have not been noticed by Leo Africa.n.u.s, who resided at Timbuctoo; by Edrissi, who is the most correct of the Arabian geographers; or whence is it, that these rivers have not been noticed by the many Moorish travelling merchants who have resided at Timbuctoo, and whom I have repeatedly questioned respecting this matter[278], or whence is it that Alkaid L'Ha.s.sen Ramy, a renowned chief of the Emperor of Marocco's army, with whom I was well acquainted, and who was a native of Houssa, knew of no such variously inclined streams. This being premised, I am certainly not disposed to relinquish the opinion I brought with me from Africa in the year 1807, viz. that the _Neel El Abeed_ is the only mighty river that runs through Africa from west to east; but I admit that its adjuncts, as well as itself, have different names; thus, in the ma.n.u.script of Mr. Park's death, a copy of which is inserted in "Mr. Bowdich's Account of Ashantee," it is called Kude; many hundred miles eastward it is called Kulla, from the country 478 through which it pa.s.ses; but Kude and Kulla are different names, and ought not to be confounded one with the other; neither ought Quolla (_i. e._, the Negro p.r.o.nunciation of Kulla) to be confounded with Kude, the former being the Negro term for the same river, in the same manner as Niger is the Roman name for the _Neel Elabeed_, which is the Arabic name for the same river. There is a stream which proceeds from the Sahara, the water of which is _brackish_; this stream hardly can be called a river, except in the rainy season. It pa.s.ses in a south-westerly direction near Timbuctoo, but does not join the _Neel Elabeed_. I could mention several intelligent and credible authorities, the report of respectable merchants, who have resided, and, who have had establishments at Timbuctoo, in confirmation of this fact; but as the authorities which I should adduce would be unknown, even by name, to men of science in Europe, I would refer the reader to the interesting narrative of an intelligent Moorish merchant, who resided three years at Timbuctoo, and who was known to the committee of the African a.s.sociation; this travelling merchant's name is L'Hage Abdsalam Shabeeny, and his narrative, a ma.n.u.script of which (with critical and explanatory notes by myself) I have in my possession, has the following observation:[279]--"Close to the town of Timbuctoo, on the south, is a small rivulet in which the 479 inhabitants wash their clothes, and which is about two feet deep; it runs into the great forest on the east, and does not communicate with the Nile, but is lost in the sands west of the town: its water is brackish; that of the Nile is good and pleasant."

[Footnote 278: The Arabs who conduct the _cafelahs_ or caravans across the Sahara, are often seen at Agadeer or Santa Cruz, and sometimes even at MoG.o.dor; and if there was a river penetrating to the north through the Sahara, would it not have been noticed by them? Is it possible that such a prominent feature of African geography, as a river of sweet water pa.s.sing through a desert, could fail of being noticed by these people, who are, in their pa.s.sage through the Desert, continually in search of water?]

[Footnote 279: See page 8.]

Page 199. Mr. Murray recently observes, "Joliba seems readily convertible into Joli-ba, the latter syllable being merely an adjunct, signifying river; this I was also given to understand."

This is an etymological error. The Joliba is not a compound word, if it were it would be Bahar Joli, not Bajoli, or Joliba; thus do learned men, through a rage for criticism, and for want of a due knowledge of African languages, render confused, by fancied etymologies, that which is sufficiently clear and perspicuous.

Page 191. "The river of Darkulla mentioned by Mr. Brown."

This is evidently an error: there is probably no such place or country as Darkulla. There is, however, an alluvial country denominated _Bahar Kulla_, (for which see the map of Africa in the Supplement of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 88. lat. N. 8, long. E. 20). I apprehend this Darkulla, when the nations of Europe shall be better acquainted with Africa and its languages, will be discovered to be a corruption of _Bahar Kulla_, or an unintelligible and ungrammatical term: _Deaar Kulla_ is grammatical, and implies a country covered with houses! _Dar Kulla_ 480 is an ungrammatical and an incorrect term, which being literally translated into English, signifies _many house_. This being premised, we may reasonably suppose, that _Bahar Kulla_ is the proper term which, as I have always understood, forms the junction of the Nile of the west with the Nile of the east, and hence forming a continuity[280] of waters from Timbuctoo to Cairo.

[Footnote 280: See my letter in the Monthly Magazine for March, 1817, page 128.]

191. In this geographical dissertation the word Niger is still used, which is a name altogether unknown in Africa, and calculated to contuse the geographical enquirer. As this word is unintelligible to the natives of Africa, whether they be Arabs, Moors, Berebbers, Sh.e.l.luhs, or Negroes, ought it not to be expunged from the maps?

P. 192. In the note in this page, "Jackson's Report of the source of the _Neel el Abeed_, and the Source of the Senegal," is confirmed by the Jinnee Moor.--See Jackson's Appendix to his Account of Marocco, enlarged edition, p. 311.

"It is said, that thirty days from Timbuctoo they eat their prisoners!" Does not this allude to Banbugr[281], and has not this 491 word been corrupted by Europeans into Bambarra. See Mr. Bowdich's MS. No. 3, p. 486; Banbugr, who eat the flesh of men. Jackson's translation.

[Footnote 281: The Gr in Banbugr, is the Arabic letter, grain.

Richardson, in his Arabic Grammar, renders this letter gh; which demonstrates, that his knowledge of the Arabic was only scholastic, not practical. It has no resemblance or affinity to gh, and would be unintelligible if so p.r.o.nounced to an Arab.]

Page 193. The government of Jinnee appears to be Moorish; because _Malai Smaera_, which should be written _Mulai Smaera_, signifies in the Arabic language, the _Prince Smaera_: the term does not belong to Negroes, but exclusively to Muhamedans. _Malai Bacharoo_ is a Negro corruption of the word; it should be _Mulai_, or _Muley Bukaree_; i.e. the _Abeed Mulai Bukaree_, or _Abeed Seedi Bukaree_.

They are well known among the Negroes of Sudan; the Negroes of this race form the present body-guard of the Emperor of Maroceo's troops, consisting of 5000 horse. They are dexterous in the management of the horse, are well-disciplined troops, and are the only military in the Emperor's army that can cope with the Berebbers of the Atlas.

Note, p. 194. Dapper's description of Africa is here quoted in confirmation of the decay of Timbuctoo; and Jackson is accused of extravagance. The latter I shall pa.s.s over, it being an a.s.sertion unsupported by any substantial testimony; but immediately afterwards is the following pa.s.sage.

"The three last kings before Billa (_i.e. Billabahada_) were Osamana, (_i.e._ Osaman; Osamana being the feminine gender,) Dawoloo, and Aba.s.s. Mr. Jackson says there was a King Woolo reigning in 1800; and a Moor who had come from Timbuctoo to Coma.s.see ten years ago (viz. about 1807, or ten years before Mr.

482 Bowdich visited Ashantee), did not know King Woolo was dead, as he was reigning at the time he left Timbuctoo."

With regard to Dapper's a.s.sertion, it should be remembered, that if Timbuctoo was decaying in his time, that is about the period that Muley Ismael ascended the throne of Marocco, viz. in 1672; it revived very soon after, that is before the close of the 17th century. This powerful and warlike prince had the address to establish and to maintain a very strong garrison at Timbuctoo; and accordingly, during his long reign of fifty-five years, viz. from 1672 to 1727, Timbuctoo carried on a constant, extensive, and lucrative trade with Marocco, Tafilelt, and Fas, in gold dust, gum-sudan, ostrich-feathers, ivory, and slaves, &c.

_Akkabahs_[282], and _cafilahs_, or caravans, were going continually from Timbuctoo to Tafilelt, Marocco, Fas, and Terodant.

Travelling across the Desert was then as safe as it is now in the plains of Marocco, or on the roads in England; the only months during which the caravans did not travel were July and August, because the _Shume_, or hot wind of the Desert, prevails during these two months. It is reported, that Muley Ismael was so rich in gold, that the bolts of the gates of his palaces, and his kitchen utensils, were of pure gold. Timbuctoo continued to carry on a most 483 lucrative trade with Marocco, &c.; during the Feign of the Emperor Muley Abd Allah, son and successor of Ismael, and also during the reign of Seedy[283] Muhamed ben Abd Allah, who died about the year 1795, a sovereign universally regretted, and hence aptly denominated the father of his people: since the decease of Seedy[284] Muhamed ben Abd Allah, the father of the reigning emperor, Muley Soliman, the trade of Sudan has rapidly decreased, because the policy of the present emperor is, to discourage commerce, but to encourage the agriculture and the manufactures of his own country, so as to make them sufficient for itself, and independent of foreign supplies!

[Footnote 282: An Akkabah is an acc.u.mulation of many _cafilahs_ or caravans.]

[Footnote 283: It should be observed, that an emperor having the name of the Arabian prophet, is called Seedy; but having any other name, he is called Muley; the former signifies master, the latter, prince.]

[Footnote 284: If therefore the trade with Timbuctoo declined in Leo's time, _i.e._ A.D. 1570, it unquestionably revived in Ismael's reign, and also continued with but little diminution during the reign of his son Abd Allah, and his grandson Muhamed.]

Da Woolo is a reverential term, and is synonymous with Woolo, signifying King Woolo.

484 Park says, Mansong was king of Timbuctoo in 1796, and in 1805, implying that he reigned from 1796 to 1805. The Moor before mentioned, who came from Timbuctoo to Coma.s.sie in 1807, told Mr.

Bowdich, that Woolo was then reigning at Timbuctoo. Isaaco says, Woolo was predecessor to Mansong; consequently, according to this Jew, Woolo was king before the year 1796; therefore, if Mr. Park's testimony be correct, Woolo must have been predecessor and successor to Mansong; otherwise, Mr. Park was incorrect in saying that Mansong was king of Timbuctoo in 1796, and in 1805. Adams says, Woolo was king of Timbuctoo in 1810, and was old and grey-headed. Riley's narrative also confirms his age and grey hairs. With regard to my testimony, viz. that Woolo was king[285]

of Timbuctoo in 1800, I had it from two merchants of veracity, who returned from Timbuctoo in 1800, after residing there 14 years: they are both alive now, and reside at Fas; their names I would mention, were I not apprehensive that it might lead to a reprimand from the emperor, and create jealousy for having communicated intelligence respecting the interior of the country. I should not have entered into this detail _in confirmation of my a.s.sertion that Woolo was king of Timbuctoo in_ 1800, if the editor of the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica (article Africa), had not a.s.serted, that I have committed an anachronism in a.s.serting, that he was king in that year; thereby insinuating that Park was right, and that I was wrong.

[Footnote 285: See my Letter on the Interior of Africa, in the Anti-Jacobin Review for January, 1818, p. 453.]

485 Page 195. The Editor of Adams's Narrative is, I apprehend, incorrect in a.s.serting, that the name Fatima affords no proof that the queen, or the wife of Woolo, was a Muhamedan. Fatima is incontestably an Arabian proper name; and it would be considered presumption in a Negress unconverted to Muselmism, to a.s.sume the name of Fatima. She must, therefore, have been necessarily a Mooress, or a converted Negress; the name has nothing to do with a numeral, as Mr. Bowdich suggests, and above all not with the _numeral five_, for that is a number ominous of evil in Africa, and as such, would never have been bestowed as a name on a beloved wife.

Page 196. Note of W. Hutchison, "The four greatest monarchs known on the banks of the Quolla, are Baharnoo, Santambool, Malisimiel, and Malla, or Mallowa."

Baharnoo should be written _Ber Noh_; i.e. the country of Noah the patriarch; it is called in the maps Bernoo, and the whole pa.s.sage is calculated greatly to confuse African geography. The information is unquestionably derived from Negro authority, and that not of the most authentic kind. Santambool is the Negro corruption of _Strambool_, which is the Arabic name for Constantinople: _Malisimiel_ is the Negro corruption of Muley Ismael.[286] The first signifies the empire of Constantinople; the second signifies the empire of Muley Ismael, who was emperor of Marocco in the early part of the 18th century, and whose authority was acknowledged at 486 Timbuctoo, where he maintained a strong garrison, and held the adjacent country in subjection, where his name is held in reverence to this day. This being premised, it follows of course, that one of these four great monarchies here alluded to, viz. that of Santambool is certainly not on the Quolla, unless the Quolla be considered the same river with the Egyptian Nile, and that Egypt be considered a part of the empire of Santambool; then, and then only, can it be said, that the empire of Santambool is situated on the Quolla.

[Footnote 286: See Jackson's Marocco, chap. xiii. p. 295, and note, p. 296.]

Page 198. Two large lakes were described close to the northward of Houssa; one called Balahar Sudan, and the other Girrigi Maragasee; the first of these names is a Negro corruption, or an European corruption of the term _Bahar Sudan_[287]; the other is a Negro name of another, if not of the same lake or sea. The situation of the _Bahar Sudan_ is described by me in the 13th chapter, in my account of Marocco, to be fifteen journeys east of Timbuctoo, and the _Neel El Abeed_ pa.s.ses through it. I had this information from no less than seven Moorish merchants of intelligence and veracity; the same is confirmed by Ali Bey[288], the Shereef Imhammed, Park, and Dr. Seitzen; all these authorities must therefore fall to the 487 ground if Mr. Bowdich's report is to overturn these testimonies, which has placed it three degrees of lat.i.tude north of the _Neel El Abeed_, or [289]_Neel a.s.sudan_, and in the Sahara[290], _unconnected with any river_! I doubt if any, but a very ignorant Pagan Negro (for the Muhamedan Negroes are more intelligent), would have given the Sea of Sudan this novel situation.

[Footnote 287: See Jackson's Marocco, chap. xiii.]

[Footnote 288: For an elucidation of these opinions, see my Letter on the Interior of Africa, in the European Magazine, Feb. 1818, page 113.]

[Footnote 289: Neel Sudan and Neel a.s.sudan are synonymous, the _as_ being the article.]

[Footnote 290: See Mr. Bowdich's Map, in his Account of a Mission to Ashantee.]

Page 200. The Quolla appears to be the Negro p.r.o.nunciation of the Arabic name _Kulla_; i.e. the _Bahar Kulla_, to which the _Neel a.s.sudan_ is said to flow. _Bahar Kulla_ is an Arabic word signifying the sea altogether, or an alluvial country. The _Neel a.s.sudan_ here joins the waters of a river that proceed westward from the Abysinian Nile, and hence is formed the water communication between Cairo[291] and Timbuctoo.

[Footnote 291: See Jackson's Account of Marocco, enlarged edition, p. 313. See also his Letter to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine for March, 1817. p. 125.]

Page 201. Quolla Raba, or Kulla Raba, signifies the Kulla forest, as the Negroes express it; the Arabs call it _Raba Kulla_, i.e. the forest of _Kulla_, If any further proof of the accuracy of this interpretation be necessary, it maybe added, that the position agrees exactly with Major Rennell's kingdom of _Kulla_, for which see the Major's map in proceedings of the African a.s.sociation, vol.

i. page 209, lat. N. 9, long. W. 10.

488 Page 203. The lake Fittri is a lake, the waters of which are said to be filtered through the earth, as the name implies. The Nile is here said to run under ground. The Arabs and Moors have a tradition, that the waters of Noah's flood rested here, and were absorbed and filtered through the earth, leaving only this large lake. I never understood this sea to be identified with the Bahar Heimed[292]; i.e. the Hot or Warm Sea. The Hot Sea and the Filtered Sea are distinct waters; the former lies about mid-way, in a right line between Lake Fittri and Lake Dwi. (See Laurie and Whittle's Map of Africa, published in 1813.) This is another inaccuracy of Mr. Hutchison; who appears, indeed, to have collected information from natives, without considering what t.i.tle they had to credibility. Another error is added to the note in page 203 and 204, viz. what he calls sweet beans are unquestionably dates, which have not the least affinity in taste, shape, growth, or quality, to beans. The Arabic name correctly converted into European letters, is _timmer_, not _tummer_. The Arabic words designating sweet beans, is _Elfool El h.e.l.lue_. The pa.s.sage signed William Hutchison here alluded to, is this: "The Arabs eat black rice, corn, and _sweet beans called tummer_."

[Footnote 292: _Heimed_ is an Arabic term, signifying that degree of heat which milk has when coming from the cow or goat.]

Note, page 204. I do not know whence the Quarterly Review has 489 derived its information respecting the derivation of the word Misr (a corruption of Ma.s.sar); the word Ma.s.sar is compounded of the two Arabic words Ma and Sar; i.e. Mother of Walls. Possibly some Arabic professor versed in bibliographic lore, to favor a darling hypothesis, has trans.m.u.ted Ma.s.sar into Misr, to strengthen the plausibility of the etymology of Misr from Misraem!!

Note, page _205_. _Bahar bela ma_ is an Arabic expression, importing it to be a country once covered with water, but now no longer so. In the note in this page, I recognise the word Sooess to designate the Isthmus of Suez. The Bahar Malee, and the Sebaha Bahoori, are Negro corruptions of the Arabic words _Bahar El Maleh_, and _Seba Baharet_: the former does not apply particularly to the Mediterranean, but _is a term applicable to any sea or ocean that is salt_ (as all seas and oceans a.s.suredly are); the latter term signifies literally, the Seven Seas or Waters: neither is this a term applicable to the Mediterranean, but to any sea supplied by seven rivers, as the Red Sea: these, therefore, are evidently other inaccuracies of Mr. Hutchison. I apprehend Mr. Hutchison's Arabic tutor at Ashantee was not an erudite scholar. The term, and the only term in Africa, applicable to the Mediterranean Sea, is the _Bahar Segrer_ (literally the Small Sea); and _El Bahar El Kabeer_ (is the Atlantic Ocean, or literally the Great Sea); the latter is sometimes figuratively called the _Bahar Addolum_, i.e. the Unknown Sea, or the Sea of Darkness.

490 Note, p. 206. Is it possible that the author doubts that w.a.n.gara is east of Timbuctoo? It should seem that he did, as he quotes Mr.

Hutchison as authority for making it to contain Kong, a mountainous district many journeys south of the _Neel a.s.sudan_. Mr. Park's testimony is also called in support of this opinion, but they are both erroneous. w.a.n.gara is as well known in Africa to be east of Timbuqtoo, as in England York is known to be North of of London.

Oongooroo is a barbarous Negro corruption of w.a.n.gara; therefore, this note, if suffered to pa.s.s through the press unnoticed, would be calculated to confuse, not to elucidate, African geography; neither can it be called, according to Mr. Horneman's orthography, Ungura: the name is _w.a.n.gara_ which cannot be converted accurately into any word _but_ w.a.n.gara. Ungura Oongooroo, &c. are corruptions of the proper name, originating in an imperfect, and but an oral knowledge of the African Arabic.

Page 210. I apprehend the reason why Wa.s.senah was not known at Ashantee by the traders, is because it was out of their trading track. I have no doubt of the existence of Wa.s.senah or Ma.s.senah (for when the names of African towns and countries are recorded, we should not be particular about a letter or two, when we find so many orthographical variations are made by different authors); neither is there any reason (that I know of) to doubt the 491 description of Wa.s.senah given in Riley's Narrative; but it is not extraordinary, that this place should be unknown at Ashantee, if there were no commerce or communication between these countries respectively; it is certain, that the Africans neither know, seek, or care, for places or countries with which they have no trade or communication.

It appears well deserving of observation (for the purpose of rendering Arabic names intelligible to future African travellers), that Mr. Bowdich has demonstrated that, what is called in our maps, 1. Bambarra, 2. Gimbala, 3. Sego, 4. Berghoo, 5. Begarmee, being written in the Arabic language, with the guttural letter _grain_, would be quite unintelligible, if p.r.o.nounced to an African _as they are written_ by our letters, the nearest approximation to the Arabic words would be as follows, taking _Gr_ for the nearest similitude that our alphabet affords to the guttural letter [Arabic ? ] _grain_.

Correct p.r.o.nunciation. African Orthography. Called in the Maps.