miles of course); but he is silent,, otherwise than by .implication,
respecting its future course.: But of a second river (the Batta)
whose course lies between the Misseliid and Darfoor, and very near
to the former, he says, that it flows from the south, and then, deviating
to the west, it falls into .the Babr-el-Fittre. (P. 464). It re-,
mains to be added, that, following the western road from Wara to
Bagherme (in his Appendix, p. 464, 465), we come to the Bahr
Fittr6 itself: but without any notices respecting the crossing of the
Misselad river, by the way. This matter, however, will be made
clearer, presently, by the aid of Horneman and Edrisi.
Mr. Browne continues to say, (p. 4,65,) that “ the people on the
banks of the Bahr Fittr6 use little boats, for the purpose of passing
from one place to another, on the river.” The w°rd Bahr indicating
equally a lake or a river, is here understood for the latter, by Mr.
Browne; but we learn from Mr. Horneman, that the dominions of
the sultan of Fiddri, (as he writes it,) are situated round a large freshwater
lake, which bears the same name : and that, into this lake
flows a river which, comes from Darfoor; and whose banks are very
rich in sugar-canes. (See above, p. 115.)
This account o f the lake is strengthened by several circumstances.
Horneman says, that the district of Fiddri, although, so named by
its own inhabitants, is called Couga, or Cugu, by the people who
dwell eastward; (the Arabs ;) Luffe, by those on the west. Now,
Couga, or Kauga, is noted by Edrisi, as a country and city near a
large lake of fresh water, situated at 30 journies westward, or south-
westward, from Dongola; 36 eastward from Gana: and here we
have the very position. Moreover, Mr. Browne describes, jn the
¡before-mentioned western route, at 3 ! journies short of the Bahr
Fittré, Dar Cooka,* doubtless the country of Couga or Cugu in
question.
The circumstance of boats plying on the Bahr Fittré (Browne's
Travels, p. 465,) also accords with the idea of a lake. Nor can
there be a doubt that the Misselád of Browne, is the river from the
quarter of Darfoor, intended by Horneman : and that it, as well as
the river of Batta, falls into the lake of Fittré. -f-
It may be remarked, that what Edrisi describes as the upper part
of the course of the Niger, (Nilus Nigrorum) is evidently intended for
this river : but he describes it as originating from the same source
as the Egyptian Nile, and flowing westward. There also appears
in Ptolemy, the same river springing from about the 10th degree of
north latitude; as the Misseldd does.
It appears certain then, that the ground declines, from the quarter
of Darfoor, towards the interior of Africa, to the north-west and
west: and the descriptions of Edrisi, (page 13,) go equally to prove
that the ground also declines from the NE to SW, towards the
lake of Fittré ; because he describes the river of Kuku to run
southward. J
* Here we have a proof that the Eastern people call Filtré by the name of Kauga,
(or Corjha,) as Horneman says.1 Dar > has been explained by Mr. Browne to mean
country ; as Dar-Fur, the country of Fur, or Foor.
t This lake is said by Mr. Horneman, page 118, to be from four to eight journies
in circuit; varying its dimensions with the dry or the rainy season ; thus increasing
threefold with the rains, and leaving, in the dry season, ;an enriched soil to the
husbandman.
t This seems to be the river mentioned by Ibn al Wardi, (in Hartman’s Edrisi,
p. 62,) as coming from the east, and passing by Ghama (read Begama, or Begarmé;)
into the Nile; meaning the Nile of the Negroe¡¡, (our Niger.)