TOMBUCTOO. 



Africa. It was alfo twelve days' journey from the city of 

 Nun, or Non, which city, by Ben AUi's account, is two 

 days from the fea-coaft, and well known to be oppofite to a 

 cape of the fame name. Thefe authorities, fays the major, 

 enable us to place Tatta 170 miles S.S.E. from Mo- 

 rocco. Thus, 50 days from Tatta to Tombuftoo, at 

 13 miles each day, produce 650 miles. By Ben AlU's 

 report, Tombuftoo is 48 days from the capital of fultan 

 Fullan, lying within the diftri£l of Gallan, on the river 

 Senegal : 48 days, at 13 each day, produce 620 miles ; and 

 this fine of diftance meets that from Tatta in lat. 19° 40', 

 and nearly midway between Gallan and Caflina, In this 

 pofition it falls only 28 miles to the N.W. of D'Anville's 

 Tombudloo. 



The country north of Tombufloo is inhabited by a power- 

 ful tribe of Arabs, called Brabeefha, whofe original ftock 

 emigrated in the eighth century, and took pofteffion of a 

 trafl of country bordering on Egypt vveftward : they are a 

 turbulent, reftlefs, and warlike tribe, but much afraid of 

 fire-arms, as they have no fuch, being armed only with 

 the lance, and occafionally with knives or daggers. There 

 is another nation, fituated many journies fouth-caft of 

 Tombuftoo, who worfhip the fun, and abftain from ani- 

 mal food, fubfifting on milk and vegetables. In a part 

 of the country between Tombuftoo and Cafhna is dif- 

 covered a race of people, compared by the Arabs to the 

 Englifli, who fpeak a language different from all the others 

 known in Africa, and refembling the whillliiig of birds, to 

 which they compare the Englifli language. They ride on 

 faddles like thofe ufed in England, and wear rowelled ipurs, 

 which are peculiar to themfelves. Their faces are covered 

 by turbans, and their weapons are fwords, bows, arrows, 

 .ind lances. They are faid to be a grofsly fuperftitious 

 people ; their bodies, as well as their houfe-!, being covered 

 with charms or amulets. It is faid that there is a water com- 

 munication between Tombuftoo and Cairo ; but the expence 

 of land-carriage by camels being more moderate, the other 

 is not ufed. 



Tombuftoo has, from time immemorial, been the great 

 emporium of Central Africa ; an extenfive and profitable 

 trade having been carried on with the various maritime ftates 

 of North Africa, i)is. Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, 

 Egypt, &c. by means of akkabaahs, or accumulated ca- 

 ravans, which crofs the Sahara, or Great Defert, generally 

 between the months of September and April : thefe akka- 

 baahs confdt of feveral hundred loaded camels, accompa- 

 nied by the Arabs who let them to 4^he merchants. The 

 articles tranfported from Fez to Tombuftoo are principally 

 the following ; viz. various kinds of German linens, Irifli 

 linens, muflins, cambrics, fine cloths, coral beads, amberbeads, 

 pearls, Bengal raw filk, brafs nails, coffee, fine hyfon teas, 

 refined fugar, and various manufaftures of Fez and Tafilet, 

 luch as {hawls and fafties of filk and gold, hayks or pieces 

 of filk, of cotton and filk mixed, of cotton and wool : to 

 which may be added red woollen caps, turbans, Italian filks, 

 nutmegs, cloves, ginger, and pepper, Venetian beads, 

 cowries, tobacco and fait. The produce of Soudan in re- 

 turn for thefe articles, confifts principally in gold-duft, 

 twiiled gold rings of Wangara, gold rings made at Jinnie, 

 bars of gold, elephants' teeth, gum ,of Soudan, grains of 

 Sahara, or grains of paradife, odoriferous gums, and a 

 great number of flaves purchafed at Tombuftoo of the 

 flatcea or (lave merchants, and brought from thofe regions 

 which border on the mountains of the Moon. To thefe we 

 may add oftrich-feathers and ambergris, collefted on the 

 confines of the Defert. The circulating medium at Tom- 

 buftoo is (t'lTibcr) gold-duft, which is exchanged for mer- 



8 



chandize ; a plattilia being worth 20 niizaiis of gold, and the 

 value of a mizan being about i is. fterhng. Jackfon's 

 Morocco. 



To the account above given of Tombuftoo, we fhaU 

 fubjoin a few extrafts from the narrative of Robert Adams, 

 a failor, who was wrecked on tlie wellcrn coaft of Africa, 

 in the year 18 10, and detained three years in flavery by the 

 Arabs of the Great Dt-fert, and refided feveral months in 

 the city of Tombuftoo, 4to. London, 1816. 



Tombuftoo, according to this narrative, flands on a level 

 plain, having a river about two hundred yards from the 

 town on the S.E., named La Mar Zarah, three quarters of 

 a mile in width, appearing to liave but little current, and 

 that little flowing to the S.W. The city feemed to Adams 

 to cover as much ground as Lilhon : but the houfes were 

 not continuous, had a ground-floor only, were built of 

 fticks, clay, and grafs, and were furnifhed merely with the 

 rudefl domeftic implements : the town had no exterior 

 walls, or fortifications ; and the population, of which our 

 informant could not make a regular eflimate, bore no cor- 

 refponding proportion to the area of the place, if compared 

 with European towns, as indeed we may infer from the 

 nature of the houfes. The river-water, although fomewhat 

 brackifh, is conflantly ufed for drink ; and Adams does not 

 believe that there were any wells at Tombuftoo. The 

 natives have no larger boats or veffels than canoes, of about 

 ten feet in length, made very inartiticially. Of the natural 

 produftions, vegetable and animal, we will fpecify a few. 

 The principal fruits are cocoa-nuts, dates, figs, pine-apples, 

 and fweet fruit of the peach kind : the vegetables are, carrots, 

 turnips, fweet potatoes, negro-beans, and fmall cabbages : 

 the grain confilts chiefly of rice and guinea-corn ; and the 

 cultivation of the land is performed folely with a kind of 

 lioe, the only implement of hufbandry that Adams obferved. 

 The animals are elephants, cows, goats, affes, camels, dro- 

 medaries, dogs, antelopes, rabbits, and a creature called 

 heirie, refembling a very fmall camel, and ufed only for riding. 

 Befides thefe, there is, in the vicinity of Tombuftoo, a moft 

 extraordinary animal named courcoo, fomewhat refembhng a 

 very large dog, but having an opening or hollow on its back 

 like a pocket, in which it carries its prey. It has fhort- 

 pointed ears and a fliort tail. Its fkin is of an uniform reddifh- 

 brown on its back, hke a fox, but its belly is of a light- 

 grey colour. It will afcend trees with great agility, and 

 gather cocoa-nuts, which Adams fuppofes to be a part of its 

 food. But it alfo devours goats and even young children, 

 and tlie negroes were greatly afraid of it. Its cry is like 

 that of an owl. The natives of Tombuftoo are a ftout 

 healthy race, and are feldom fick, although they expofe 

 themfelves by lying out in the fun at mid-day, when the 

 heat is almofl infupportable to a white man. It is the 

 univerfa! praftice of both fexes to greafe themfelves all over 

 with butter produced from goats' milk, which makes the 

 fltin fmooth, and gives it a fhining appearance. This is 

 ufually renewed every day ; when neglefted, the fltin becomes 

 rough, greyifh, and extremely ugly. They ufually fieep 

 under cover at night ; but fometimes, in the hottefl weather, 

 they will lie expofed to the night-air with little or no cover- 

 ing, notwithftanding that the fog wliich rifes from the river 

 defcends like dew, and, in faft, at that feafon, fupphes the 

 want of rain. 



All the males of Tombuftoo have an incifion on their 

 faces, from the top of the forehead down to the nofe, from 

 which proceed other lateral incifions over the eye-brows, 

 into all of which is inferted a blue dye, produced from a 

 kind of ore which is found in the neighbouring mo.mtains. 

 The vrcmen have a'.fo i.icificns on their faces, but in a dif- 



ferent 



