4. Ama. This tribe is said to live five or six journies to the eastward
of the Burgu; and must therefore border on the sandy Desert
of the Lebetce. Mr. Horneman appears to have known them only
by name. „
5. Bilma. This is the principal tribe of the Tibbo. They occupy
the middle space, between Fezzan and Bournu, adjacent to the
great Desert of Bilma. Their capital of Dyrke is said to be one
journey from Bilma; which may be the Balmala of Edrisi. They
carry on a commerce between Bournu and Fezzan. (See above,
p. 106.) The Billa of Ptolemy may possibly be meant for Bilma;
but is too far to the eastward.
Mr. Beaufoy states the distance to be 45 days of the salt caravans
from Agadez to the lake of Dumboo; which is situated within the
Desert of Bilma. These, at 13 G. miles per day,* give a total of
585 miles. The interval on the construction is about 60 less. Either
then, Agadez is more to the west, or Dumboo more to the east. Two
circumstances render it probable that Agadez should be more to the
west: Mr. Magrah was told that it lay S 30° W from Fezzan: and
that it lay N from Kashna. That part of the General Map of 1798»
has not' been altered.
that even the public regulations are framed with a v iew to the entrapping of individuals
for slaves. (308.) So that the slave trade exists much in the same manner, in
this quarter of Africa, where none of the slaves are purchased by European traders,
as in the west.
# It has appeared that the caravan travellers in stating the time between distant
places, are apt to give the whole time that elapses between their leaving one place,
and arriving at another. Hence the days of halt, have often been added to the days
of march ; and a faulty route of travelling has them e been adopted. This, no doubt,
occasioned the low rate adopted, soon after the institution of the Association : and
which nothing but actual experiment can effectually correct.
6. Nomadic Tibbo. These are the most southerly of the tribes;
and are seated in the Babr-el-Gazel, which, Mr. Horneman was told,
was a long and fruitful valley, 7 journies north of Begarmi. Of the
Babr (or JVad)-e 1-Gazel, I have already spoken, in page 168. The
distance of 7 journies N of Begarm6 would place the Nomadic Tibbo
within the empire of Bournu. Perhaps, in Bournu, as in Persia,
both ancient and modern, Nomadic tribes find plenty of room:*
but whether so far southward, may be a doubt, for a river of the
name of Wad-el-Gazel, is said to flow even into the Desert of Bilma.
Antelopes are found in the neighbourhood of Dumboo; and there
may be a river denominated from them, in that quarter, as well as
in that of Begarme.
Of the TuARicK.-f-
These, whom Mr. Horneman styles a mighty people, appear to
occupy the habitable parts of the Great Sahara, situated to the west
of the meridian of Fezzan. They must necessarily be widely dispersed
; and they are also divided into many tribes. Mr. Horneman
very properly confines himself to what he knew, concerning
them: and this knowledge related to little more than to the tribes
of Kolluvi and Hagara, who live the nearest to Fezzan; and carry
on a commerce between that place, Soudan, and Gadamis.
The Kolluvi possess (from recent conquest, it would seem,) the
* Th e proof of this fact is most satisfactorily established, by Herodotus, and by
I bn Haukel, a geographical writer of the tenth century, whose work, has been lately
translated by Sir William Ouseley ; to whose labours the science of Geography is
much indebted.
+ Mr. Horneman regards this nation as the Terga of Leo, situated in the western
quarter o f the Great Desert. (Leo, page 245.)