228 REMARKS ON TRAVELS 
interior navigation, industry, and agriculture; the man- 
ners, customs, religious worship, superstitions, and lan- 
guage of the people, or the physical conformation of the 
inhabitants ; in short, provided it is calculated to interest 
the geographer or the naturalist, the historian or the 
person engaged in commerce and manufactures. The 
merit and usefulness, indeed, of a narrative of travels 
consists in these positive results. The attentive reader 
will discover in the simple journal before him more than 
one such result, especially in matters of geography, the 
nomenclature and position of places, the course and im- 
portance of rivers, the situation of mountains, and gene- 
rally speaking, every thing relating to the accidents of 
the soil. The various tribes, also, visited by M. Caillie, 
and in the midst of which he lived, presented so many 
subjects of observation that it was impossible he should 
not attempt, at least, to sketch their portraits. To the 
well-informed public it belongs to appreciate whatever 
is new and interesting in this simple and inartificial 
picture of nations and tribes scarcely known in Europe, 
even by name. I must not, however, rest here, but 
will turn my undivided attention in the first place to 
examining and discussing all the points of geography 
connected with M. Caillie's route. Before I proceed to 
this discussion, for which I shall need all the indulgence 
of the reader, I shall take leave to cast a glance upon 
the explorers who preceded him, and the information 
we possessed anterior to his travels. Notwithstanding 
the advantage which M. Caillie has over all his prede- 
cessors, in having brought to Europe a description of the 
city of Timbuctoo, written on the spot, several motives 
