Ixx 
APPENDIX. 
CHAPTER VI. 
The Subject continued — Course of the River Niger, at large — has no Com- 
munication with the Nile — Ptolemy's Description of it consistent. 
Th e course of the Niger (or Joliba) as we have seen, is established, by 
ocular demonstration, as far as Silla ; and may, I conceive, be admitted, 
as far as Houssa, about 400 miles farther to the east, on the foundation of 
tbe information collected by Mr. Park ; since it agrees with the ideas com- 
municated to Mr. Beaufoy, by an intelligent Moorish merchant, who had 
navigated the river: and as it agrees no less with the report of Mr. Magrah, 
obtained from Moorish merchants at Tunis ; and of Major Houghton from 
Bambouk. Thus, the first 700 G. miles of its course are from West to 
East; or rather from WSW to ENE. There remains then, a space of 
7nore than double that distance, between Houssa and the nearest part of the 
Egyptian Nile, near Dongola: and yet more, to the known parts of the 
White river, or Abiad, the SW branch of the Nile. 
I shall divide the matter respecting the course of this river, into three 
heads. 1. Respecting the continuity of its waters, from Houssa on the west, 
to Wangara on the east ; without regard to the direction of the stream. 
2. Respecting the positive direction of the stream. And, 3, concerning its 
termination. 
1. Respecting the Continuity of its Waters. 
Edrisi gives the most positive information concerning the course of the 
Niger, or Nile of the Negroes, from east to west ; deriving it from the same 
lake through which the Egyptian Nile paases ; and describing it to terminate 
at 16 journies west of Sala (that is, a litde to the west of the position occu- 
pied by Tombuctoo) ; and near the supposed island of Ulil before men- 
tioned.* He thus cuts off about 1000 miles of the breadth of Africa. This 
* Page 7 of Edrisi. 
