French Kat'wnal Institute. 359 



antients had acquired in regard to the interior parts of 

 Africa, and to furnish. some information useful to new tra- 

 vellers, and to the learned who are interested in the progress 

 of discovery. By allowing to the knowledge of the antients 

 much more extent than is generally supposed, he is ohliged^ 

 bv the irross errors which he corrects, and of which he 

 shows the cause, to deny the exactness ascribed to ihem by 

 some authors. As we cannot here give an idea of this la- 

 bour, we shall confine ourselves to the principal results. 

 According to the opinion of M. Buache, the knowledge of 

 the antients along the western coasts of Africa extended as 

 far as the Cape of Palms, and to the commencement of the 

 Gulph of Guinea : they had only a vague idea of that gulph, 

 because they durst nut enter it; but they sailed without dif- 

 ficulty as far as Sierra Leone and the banks of St. Anne, 

 which represent to us the Hijpodromos ^thiopice ; and all 

 the coast to that place was well known to them. On this 

 first point Al. Buache agrees with Danville and major Ken- 

 uq\. 



In regard to the interior of that country the antients di- 

 stinguished two laroc rivers, the Niger and the Gir. Ac- 

 cordino- to Danville, whose opinion has been hitherto 

 adopted, the Niger was that great river which waters Ni- 

 gritia, directing its course from west to east ; and the Gir, 

 that which waters the kiuiidom of Bournon from north to 

 south, and which then proceeds to the Nile. According 

 to M. Buache, the Niger of Ptolemy is composed of the 

 river Senegal and that part of the Joliba discovered by 

 Muniio Park, and the Gir is a river which waters Nigritia 

 alonir with the Joliba. M. Buache, therefore, establishes 

 on the Joliba and the Senegal the people and towns which 

 Ptolemy has placed near the river Niger ; and transports to 

 Ni'Titia, on the Niger of Danville, the people and towns 

 which Ptolemv indicates on the Gir. 



It appears to IM. Buache, that the antients carried on 

 alonp- the coasts and into the interior of Afr.ca the same 

 trade that they do at present, and in the same manner. 

 They had establishments on the coast, and on the great ri- 

 vers which proceed thither, such as the Senegal and the 

 Gambia : they extended their commerce as far as the banks 

 of the Gir, but thcv did not penetrate beyond that river to- 

 wards the south. I'tolemy speaks of no town beyond the 

 Gir, but gives only the names of different tribes. 



A very curious observation, which is worthy of further 

 research, is that of several tribes whose names arc twice 

 inenlioued, and which arc at considerable distances in Pto- 



luicy's 



