APPENDIX. 
ix 
moreover, (although these are not expressly said to communicate) a conti- 
nued navigation from Gallam to Tombuctoo. But it must surely have struck 
those on the spot, to inquire whether any boats ever descended from Tom- 
buctoo to the falls of Govinea ? 
It is certain that Delisle, (as well as D'Anville, whose general ideas are 
much the same, in this particular *) regards the river Guien, as having no 
communication with the lake Maberia, but makes it flow from a different 
lake, at no great distance to the northward ; so that these geographers so 
far understood the matter right j and denied the practicabiUty of a con- 
tinuous navigation to Tombuctoo : but then, they erred very greatly in 
placing the head of the Senegal, either so remotely, or in the eastern 
quarter ; since it rises in the south-east. 
We must regard the geography of M. D'Anville, as the most perfect of 
all, previous to the inquiries made by the African Association. The 
researches made under the direction of this Association, have already 
established on record, from the reports of Major Houghton, and of Mr. 
Magra, although in a vague way, the general position of the sources of (he 
Joliba, or Niger, in or near the country of Manding ; as well as its east- 
erly or north-easterly course, towards Tombuctoo; the position ofBamma- 
koo, situated near the highest navigable point of its course ; of Sego, and 
Jenne, along its banks; the separation of its waters, into two channels, in 
the quarter of Tombuctoo ; together with a vague idea of the position of 
that city itself. It will be shewn, in the sequel, that Mr. Park's observa- 
tions do not contradict, but establish these positions ; drawing them out of 
the obscurity in which, by the very nature of the information, they were 
necessarily involved ; and fixing, in some degree of just relative position 
and proportion, those particulars which before remained at large, consi- 
dered in a geographical sense. 
Concerning the errors of former geographe.s, they are more easily de- 
* D'Anville differs from Delisle in extending very greatly, the distance between Gal- 
lam and Tombuctoo ; and by representing the Maberia lake, as one source alone, and 
that the least distant, of those of the river Senegal. 
b 
