GEOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. CHAPTER I. Concerning the Ideas entertained by the Ancient Geographers, as well as the Moderns, down to the Times of Delisle and D ’Anville, respecting the Course of the River Niger. T h e late jo u rn e y o f M r . P a r k , into the interior o f W e s t e r n A f r i c a , has brought to ou r knowledge more important facts respecting its G eo g rap h y (both moral and physical), than have been co lle cted b y any former traveller. B y pointing o u t to us the positions o f the sources o f the great rivers S e n e - g a l , G a m b i a , and N i g e r ,* we are instructed where to lo o k fo r the elevated parts o f the country ; and e v en fo r the most elevated point in the western quarter o f A fr ic a , b y the p lac e from whence the N ig e r and G am b ia turn in opposite directions to the east and west. W e are taught, m o r eo v e r , the com mon boundary o f the desert and fruitful parts o f the co u n t ry , and o f the • I here use the word N i g e r , as heing the best understood by Europeans; but the proper name o f this river in the country seems to be Gum or Jin. (Hartmann’s Edrisi, p. 32. 48. 5 1.) A t the same time, it is more commonly designed by the term J o l i b a , meaning the Great Waler, o r great river. In like manner, the G a n g e s has two names, Padila, the proper name ; Gonga, the great river. The Moors and Arabs call it N e e l A b e e d , the River o f Slaves ; but they have also a name to express the great water, that is, N e e l K i b b e e r . Neel, appears to be employed hr. Africa, as (io'/igu in India, to express any great river. ; By Niger, the anciènts. meant merely to express the River o f the Black People, or Ethiopians. The term was Roman: for the Greeks,believed it to be the head, or a branch, o f the Egyptian Nile. a 2
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