journics westzvard from Sennaar; and Mr. Browne informs us, that
the people of Bergoo (adjacent to Darfoor) make a practice of going
a slave hunting into the quarter of Donga. (Travels, p. 473.) Another
person amongst those questioned by Mr. Ledyard f implied to
come from the same place,) said, that the head of the Nile was
situated in his country* If it be supposed that, in stating the distance
of Sennaar from the head of the Nile, they meant that the
road lay through 'Darfoor, (which is not improbable) the distance of
55 days would be fully made up. It is reckoned 23 days from'Darfoor
to Sennaar, and. somewhat more from Darfoor to the copper
mines of Fertit; which are yet very far short of the head of the
White River.
In the map of Africa, 1798, 1 had placed the head of the White
River, about 130 miles to the SE of the place now assigned by Mr.
Browne.
Mr. Horneman having again set afloat the idea of the junction of
the Niger with the Nile, it becomes necessary to examine, minutely,
the geographical materials furnished by Mr. Browne and Mr.
Horneman, as well as the notices found in Edrisi; in order to shew
the improbability of such a fact. Mr. Horneman was informed by
persons who had travelled to Darfoor, that the Niger (Joliba) passed
by the south of Darfoor, into the White River. It is certain that
Herodotus-j- collected much the same kind of information in Egypt:
but it is equally certain that the people whom Mr. Browne consulted
at Darfoor, were silent, respecting any such junction: on the contrary,
they report, not only that the White River is formed of sources,
springing from the mountains on the south, but also that the waters
between Darfoor and those mountains, run to the westward. It is
* See Proceed. Afr. Assoc, for 1790, chap. u. + Euterpe, c. 32.
proper to add, that the mountains in question, named Kumri, or
Komri, are, as the name imports, the Mountains of the Moon; in
which Ptolemy, and the Arabian geographers, place the remote head
of the Nile.*
In chapter vi. of the Geographical Illustrations, 1798, I have set
forth several facts, with a view to shew the probability of the termination
of the Niger, by evaporation, in the country of Wangara, &c.
To that, I shall beg leave to refer: but as many additional facts,
tending to strengthen my former ideas, have been furnished by
recent travellers, I shall have occasion to repeat some of the former
statements and arguments, in the course of the discussion.
Towards the west and SW, to the extent of several hundred miles
from the capital of Darfoor, Mr. Browne learnt, that the country
was intersected by a number of streams, whose courses pointed to the
west and north-west. He appears to speak, however, with less confidence
of the courses of all the other waters, save the Misselad, and
the small river Batta, its adjunct. - These, he unequivocally conducts
from SE to NW. (See pages 449— 464, and his map at page
180). But of the others, he merely says, “ the course of the rivers,
if rightly given, is, for the most part, from E to W.” But he also
says, p. 449, “ the country they flow through, is said to be, great
part of the year, wet and marshy; the heat is excessive, and the
people remark that there is no winter.” The principal, as well as
the most remote of these rivers, is the Bahr Kulla, denominated
from a country of the same name, described (p. 308), to abound
with water; and this Bahr Kulla is considerable enough to require
* Ptolemy, Afr. Tab. IV . Edrisi, p. i et seq. Abulfeda, Prologom. Article
stivers. Komri, or Kumri, means lunar.