APPENDIX. 
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 
Tombuctoo 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; and denied the practicability of a continu- 
ous 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 the 
Joliba, or Niger, in or near the country of Manding; as well as its easterly 
or north-easterly course, towards Tombuctoo; the position of Bammakoo, 
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 observations do 
not contradict, but establish these positions ; drawing them out of the ob- 
scurity in which, by the very nature of the information, they were neces- 
sarily involved ; and fixing, in some degree of just relative position and 
proportion, those particulars which before remained at large, considered in 
a geographical sense. 
Concerning the errors of former geographers, they are more easily de- 
tected than the ^causes of them. They must, however, be ascribed, partly 
* 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 
