ILLUSTRATIONS (16). DESERT OF SAHARA. 93 



(whose dominions are independent of the Emperor of Mo- 

 rocco). It was explored, in the months of July and August, 

 1840, by the French Count, Captain de Bouet-Villaumez, under 

 the orders of his government. From manuscript and official 

 reports it would appear that the mouth of the Quad-Dra is at 

 present so much blocked up by sand as to have an open chan- 

 nel of only about 190 feet. The Saguiel-el-Hamra, — still very 

 little known, — which comes from the south, and is supposed to 

 have a course of at least 600 miles, flows into the same mouth 

 at a point somewhat farther eastward. The length of these deep, 

 but generally dry, river-beds is astonishing. They are ancient 

 furrows, similar to those which I observed in the Peruvian 

 desert at the foot of the Cordilleras, between the latter and 

 the shores of the Pacific. In Bouet's manuscript narrative*, 

 the mountains which rise to the north of Cape Nun are esti- 

 mated at the great height of 9,186 feet. 



It is generally supposed that Cape Nun was discovered in 1 433 

 by the Knight Gilianez, despatched under the order of the ce- 

 lebrated Infante, Henry, Duke of Viseo, and founder of the 

 Academy of Sagres, which was presided over by the pilot and 

 cosmographer, Mestre Jacome, of Majorca; but the Portulano 

 Mediceo, — the work of a Genoese navigator of the year 

 1351, — already contains the name of " Cavo di Non." The 

 doubling of this Cape was as much dreaded as has been 

 since then the passage round Cape Horn ; although it is only 

 23' north of the parallel of Tenerifie, and might be reached 

 by a few days' sail from Cadiz. The Portuguese adage, 

 " Quern passa o Cabo de Num, ou tornara. ou nao," could not 

 intimidate the Infante, whose heraldic French motto of 

 " Talent de bien faire," well expressed his noble, enterprising-, 

 and vigorous character. The name of this Cape, which has 

 long been supposed to originate in a play of words on the 

 negative particle, does not appear to me to be of Portuguese 

 origin. Ptolemy placed on the north-west coast of Africa a 

 river Nuius, in the Latin version Nunii ostia. Edrisi refers 

 to a town, Nul, or Wadi Nun, somewhat further south, and 

 about three days' journey in the interior, named by Leo Afri- 

 canus Belad de Non. Several European navigators had pene- 

 trated far to the south of Cape Nun before the Portuguese 

 squadron under Gilianez. The Catalan, Don Jayme Ferrer, 

 in 1346, as we learn from the Atlas Catalan, published at 

 * Relation de V Expedition de la Malouine. 



