168 CONCLUDING REMARKS.
different periods : and we find him, after an interval of more
than two years, adhering in every material point to the
story which he told on arriving from the Desert.
But a difficulty arises in the course of his Narrative: he
states a fact which his hearers did not expect, and respecting
which they had previously received evidence of a contrary
tendency. Nevertheless this unexpected fact contains
nothing marvellous in itself, nothing even extraordinary;
nothing which can be conceived to afford the slightest
temptation to such an individual to invent i t : but it occurs
simply, and in some measure even indirectly, in the chain
of his evidence.
If this is admitted to be a fair statement of the circumstances
under which Adams informs us that Tombuctoo is
a Negro state: and if there is nothing suspicious in the
internal character of this part of his evidence, we are not
at liberty lightly to disbelieve it, because we think it
improbable, or because it happens to want those collateral
proofs by which other parts of his story have accidentally
been confirmed: but, a manifest preponderance of unexceptionable
evidence to the contrary, can alone justify us in
rejecting it.
For this evidence we must again have recourse to Park's
first Travels (for the Journal of his Second Mission contains
only one incidental notice on the subject) and we ^iall
therein find a general description of Tombuctoo as a
Moorish state, which he prefaces in these words (p. 213).
“ Having thus brought my mind, after much doubt and
“ perplexity, to a determination to return westward, I
“ thought it incumbent on me, before I left Silla, to collect
« from the Moorish and Negro traders, all the information
“ I could, concerning the further course of the Niger
“ eastward, and the situation and extent of the kingdoms
“ in its vicinage;"—and the following account of Tombuctoo
is part of the information which he says he thus
collected at Silla (p. 215).
“ To the north-east of Masina is situated the kingdom of
“ Tombuctoo, the great object of European research; the
“ capital of this kingdom being one of the principal marts
“ for that extensive commerce which the Moors carry on
“ with the Negroes. The hopes of acquiring wealth in this
“ pursuit, and zeal for propagating their religion, have filled
“ this extensive city with Moors and Mahomedan converts;
“ and they are said to be more severe and intolerant in
“ their principles than any other of the Moorish tribes in
“ this part of Africa. I was informed by a venerable old
“ Negro, that when he first visited Tombuctoo he took up
“ his lodging at a sort of public inn, the landlord of which,
Z