158 African Discovtrics. [August, 



That indefatigable Scot, McQueen, had told tliem, nearly ten years 

 back, that they were blockheads, and had missed their way, and that 

 they must look for their river in the very spot where it has since been 

 found. A paper of his, printed in 1823, gives, step by step, the pro- 

 gress down the Niger, from Park's last discovery, to the place where it 

 cuts its way through the sands on the shore of the ocean. Of this fact 

 there can be no doubt ; for any one, who will take the trouble to turn 

 over the pages of Blackwood, will find it in the volume relating to 

 1823. So much for sagacity and hydrography, and the command of 

 information, and " a purer spirit of inquiry," and so forth ! Philoso- 

 phy, on this occasion, like Astrea or Cupid, was blind of both eyes. 



Timbuctoo, the other problem, has had its description in the pages of 

 the same Africanus, who was a IMoor, and, of course, had the power of 

 making his way through Africa without being detected by the gibbei-ish 

 W'hich our travellers must utter as genuine Joliba, or being flogged for 

 the w«".y-shape of his turban, or hanged for the colour of his skin. As 

 for ]\I. Caille, the Frenchman, we have the strongest possible doubts 

 that he ever saw the city of Timbuctoo. But in Leo we have the whole 

 detail ; and, after we have sacrificed some dozen more of our half-pay 

 captains, we shall find that the discovery has been only vt discovered. 

 Thus saith the Moor : — ^iat.i'u 



" The city of Timbuctoo — (the name of which was first given to the kingdom 

 of which it was the capital only about Leo's time) — is said to have been founded 

 in the 6lOth year of the Hejira, by a certain Meusa Suleyman, about twelve 

 miles from a small arm or branch of the Niger. The houses originally erected 

 here had now dwindled into small huts, built with chalk and thatched with 

 straw ; but there yet remained a mosque, built with stone in an elegant style of 

 architecture, and a palace, for which the sovereigns of Central Africa were 

 indebted to the skill of a native of Granada. However, the number of artificers, 

 merchants, and cloth and cotton weavers, who had all their shops in the city, 

 was very considerable. Large quantities of cloth were likewise conveyed thither 

 by the merchants of Barbary. The upper class of women wore veils ; but ser- 

 vants, market-women, and others of that description, exposed their faces. The 

 citizens were generally very rich, and merchants were so highly esteemed that 

 the king thought it no derogation to his dignity to givfe his two daughters in 

 marriage to two men of this rank. Wells were here numerous, the waters of 

 which were extremely sweet ; and during the inundation, the water of the Niger 

 was introduced into the city by a great number of aqueducts. The country was 

 rich in corn, cattle, and butter ; but salt, which was brought from the distance 

 of five hundred miles, was so scarce, that Leo saw one camel-load sold, while he 

 was there, for eighty pieces of gold." 



This would be incomparable news for the Liverpool salt-pans, and, if 

 ■we could but teach the IMoors to eat bacon, might be a means of un- 

 Mahometanizing the whiskered millions of the land of panthers. The 

 King of Timbuctoo was verj' kingly, and, excepting the difference in 

 clothing and complexion, might be mistaken for an emperor of Rus- 

 sia:-^ 



" The king was exceedingly rich for those times, and kept up a splendid court. 

 Whenever he went abroad, whether for pleasure or war, he always rode upon a 

 camel, which some of the principal nobles of his court led by the bridle. His 

 guard consisted entirely of cavalry. When any of his subjects had occasion to 

 address him, he approached the royal presence in the most abject manner ; then 

 falling prostrate on the ground, and sprinkling dust upon his head and shoulders, 

 explained his business ; and in this manner even strangers, and the ambassadors 

 of foreign princes, were compelled to appear before him. His wars were con- 



