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 
the information collected by Mr. Park; since it agrees with the ideas com- 
municated 10 Mr. Beaufoy, by an intelligent Moorish merchant, who had na- 
vigated 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 axe from West to East; 
or rather from WSW to ENE. There remains then, a space of more 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, 
©r 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 passes; and describing it to terminate 
at 16 journies west of Sala (that is, a little 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. 
