124 Account of Alexander Scott. [Feb. 



in which stood a building about the size and shape of a common 

 barn, the ends being placed to the north and south : at the south 

 end was a door : but there were not any windows in the building, 

 nor any chimney. This place Scott was told was the grave of 

 Seedna Mahomet, meaning of a great man connected with or 

 related to Mahomet, whose name amongst the Arabs is Ur-so- 

 ell. Here the party prayed, kissed a stone near the door, and 

 told Scott he must now become a Mahometan, or be killed. 

 He, however, steadily refused, and was not again urged, but 

 was not taken any more to the grave, though the party frequently 

 visited it during their stay at El Hezh, which was about a month, 

 when they left it in the same boat which took them there, and 

 had also during their stay carried many other parties for the pur- 

 pose of visiting the grave. On their return there was more 

 wind : a mast was therefore constructed of two oars placed 

 across each other, and a blanket was used for a sail ; so that, 

 leaving the shore about the middle of the day, and sailing all 

 night, they arrived at El Sharrag about six o'clock the next 

 morning. The whole party then set out on their return, traversed 

 the sandy district for about a month ; then came to the wood, 

 where they had a conflict with some black people, called Bam- 

 barras, who were quite naked, tattooed, and armed with bows 

 and arrows. Leaving the wood, they travelled for about a month 

 and a half over hard around ; came to a valley where there was some 

 vegetation ; stayed there about six moons ; then went three days' 

 journey to another place, where they remained two or three 

 months ; then set oft' again for El Gibbla, and for a week or two 

 went over hard ground ; then came to sandy valleys, which took 

 them a little more than a week to cross ; and in about a week 

 more they arrived at El Gibbla. They avoided going too far to 

 the northward, being afraid of the Moors. He was detained 

 with the tribe wandering about until the end of July, or begin- 

 ning of August, 1816, when he escaped and got to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Wadnoon, from whence he communicated with Mr. 

 Wiltshire, the British Consul at Mogadore who sent for him : 

 he arrived at that place on Aug. 31, left it Nov. 11, and got 

 to London Dec. 9, 1816." 



Upon the narrative, we may remark that the number of days 

 which Scott and his party occupied in their journey, was more 

 than 100, which at the rate of only 10 miles a day would make 

 a distance of 1000 miles. In rowing across the lake, they spent 

 about 30 hours, which at the rate of four miles per hour would 

 give a breadth of 120 miles. It may be conjected that the route 

 which they took was somewhat to the northward of the Niger, 

 and probably to the N.W. of the supposed situation of Tom- 

 buctoo. 



