12 Journey of a Mahomedan Priest 
I put many questions to the Priest, respecting matters on 
which I was already well informed, to ascertain what degree of 
credit I might be authorized in attaching to his narrative ; and 
Ihad much gratification in finding that the result proved to me 
that he was not only a man of strict veracity, but of intelligence, 
acuteness, and extraordinary correctness in his observations, 
for I frequently endeavoured, in the course of my several con- 
versations, to confuse him, by altering the nature of the ques- 
tions, but I generally found that his answers led to one con- 
clusion only. After my first interview with him, I drew a map 
of his route from Pendy’s large map of four feet square, and 
coloured it, to mark more distinctly the limits of the countries ; 
at a second, I produced the map, which (as he understood it 
perfectly) enabled me to go over his journey with more precision 
than before*. He made several remarks on it, observing that 
the windings of the Nile were too numerous in Dongola ; that 
Dar Bergoo was too confined, it being more than double the 
breadth from east to west; that the capital town of Bomors 
should be placed farther to the southward ; that the river which 
falls into the lake Fitri takes its rise more to the northward and 
eastward ; and that Kashara is a more considerable country 
than the map delineates. 
The Priest supposes his day’s journey might average about 
twenty miles, the whole giving a distance of 2720 miles, from 
Misrah to Sego, and as we know that Sego is about 700 miles 
distant from the colony of Sierra Leone, the whole extent of his 
journey may aggregate about 3620 miles, from which, if we de- 
duct 400 miles completed for the deviation of the courses which 
he has himself given from the straight course between Misrah and 
Sego, 3020 miles will be left for the journey, had it been possible 
to perform it in a direct line ; this at once exhibits a very extraor- 
dinary and satisfactory coincidence, for it will be found to differ 
but little from the straight measurement on the map, which is 
about 2925 miles. The attention is here naturally arrested to 
* The accompanying chart, which I have copied exactly from Mahomed’s 
- own, may not be deemed superfluous, as it shews what idea he entertained 
of his course, having nothing to direct him but the sun. See Plate I. 
