APPENDIX No. II. 
Pagexix. 
Ma JOB Rennell, in his Geographical Illustrations of Park's travels, has done 
ample justice to the knowledge and judgment^ so eminently displayed by 
D'Anville in the investigation of several important points relative to the geo- 
graphy of North Africa, which have been elucidated by this writer from very 
imperfect materials with extraordinary sagacity and success. In the 26th 
volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, there are two very 
important Dissertations by this distinguished Geographer; the first, On the 
sources of the Nile ; and the second, Concerning the rivers of the interior of 
Africa, with reference to the opinions of the ancient and modern writers who 
have treated on that subject. The latter is the most immediately connected 
with the particular questions alluded to in the text ; and it is remarkable that 
the principal opiijions,or rather conjeclHres,of D'Anville (of which the opinion 
relating to the course of the Niger is the most important), although deduced 
from very uncertain and discordant sources of information, have been con- 
firmed in a great degree by the discoveries of modern travellers, especially by 
those of Park. It appears that D'Anville was well acquainted with the exist- 
ence of Tombuctoo, and had even ascertained the situation of that city, as well 
as the general course of the Niger with a considerable degree of precision. He 
had also formed a plan for sending a person, properly qualified, on an expe- 
dition from the French settlement of St. Joseph on the river Senegal, to Tom- 
buctoo ; but owing to some circumstance which he does not explain, the 
scheme did not take effect. As the Dissertation here alluded to may not be 
in the hands of every reader, the passage relating to this subject may be worth 
transcribing. — After mentioning Ghana as the principal Mahometan city of 
Nigritia, spoken of by Edrisi, he says that many of the Fatimites, who escaped 
from the power of the Califs, took refuge in l*he interior of Africa, where they 
formed various stales. He then proceeds as follows : 
" Tombut ou Tombouctou, est actuellement entre les villes de la Nigritie, 
celle dont on parle davantage. On ne doit point etre surpris qu'Edrisi n'en 
