GEOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 
CHAPTER I. 
Concerning the Ideas entertained by the Ancient Geographers, as well as 
the Moderns, down to the Times of Delisle and D' Anville, respecting the 
Course of the River Niger. 
The late journey of Mr. Park, into the interior of Western Africa, has 
brought to our knowledge more important facts respecting its Geography (both 
?noral and physical'), than have been collected by any former traveller. By 
pointing out to us the positions of the sources of the great rivers Senegal, 
Gambia, and Niger,* we are instructed where to look for the elevated parts 
of the country ; and even for the most elevated point in the western quarter of 
Africa, by the place from whence the Niger and Gambia turn in opposite di- 
rections to the east and west. We are taught, moreover, the common boun- 
dary of the desert and fruitful parts of the country, and of the Moors and 
* I here use the word Niger, as being the best understood by Europeans; but the 
proper name of this river in the country seems to be Giiin or Jin. (Hartmann's Edrisi, 
p. 32. 48/51.) At the same time, it is more commonly designed by the term Joliba, 
meaning the Great Water, or great river. In like manner, the Gai\ ges has two names, 
Padda, the proper name ; Gonga, the great river. 
The Moors and Arabs call it Neel Abeed, the River of Slaves ; but they have also 
a name to express the great water, that is, Neel Kibbeer. Neel appears to be employed 
in Africa, as Gonga in India, to express any great river. 
By Niger, the ancients meant merely to express the River of the Black People, or Ethio- 
pians. The term was Roman : for the Greeks believed it to be the head, or a branch, of 
the Egyptian Nile, 
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