tion where he possessed no means of keeping a minute
account of the lapse of time ; and it is reasonable to presume,
that when he speaks of having resided six months at
one place, eight at another, and ten at a third, he has, in
each of these estimates, somewhat over-rated the real
duration of these tedious and wretched portions of his
existence.
When this discrepancy in his statements was pointed out
to him, and he was led to reconsider in what part of his
Narrative the error lay, it did not appear to change his
persuasion of the accuracy of any detached portion of his
estimates. He did however express his peculiar conviction
that he was at least accurate in the number of days occupied
in his journeys from place to place. On this occasion, as
on many others in the course of his numerous examinations,
it was impossible not to derive from the indisposition
which he evinced to conform to the opinion of others, upon
points on which he had once given an opposite deliberate
opinion of his own, a strong impression of his general
veracity and sincerity.
It was at Wed-Noon that the first opportunity occurred
to him after his shipwreck, of correcting his reckoning of
time ; his arrival at which place, (as he was informed by
the French renegade whom he found there) having occurred
155
about the middle of August, 1812, or about eight months
earlier than his own computation would have made it.
Assuming therefore the Frenchman's account to have been
correct, and deducting Adams’s excess of time in relative
proportions from his stationary periods at Tombuctoo,
Woled D’leim, and other places, the following will be the
probable dates of the several stages of his travels.
1810, October 11-—Shipwrecked at E! Gazie.
December 13.—Set out on die expedition to
Soudenny.
1811, February 5.—Arrived at Tombuctoo.
June 9-—Departed from Ditto.*
August 11.—Arrived at Woled D’leim.
1812, March 7*—Departed from Ditto.
June 20.—Departed from El Kabla.
August 23.—Arrived at Wed-Noon.
1813, September 2S.—Departed from Ditto.
October 6.—Arrived at Mogadore.
1814, April 22.—Departed from Ditto.
May 17.—Arrived a t Cadiz.
To this statement with respect to time, we may add the
* He says they had a few drops of rain before his departure, which in some
degree confirms the accuracy of this date; since the tropical rains in the latitude
of Tombuctoo, may be supposed to commence early in June.