236 REMARKS ON TRAVELS 
have but uncertain accounts, transmitted by Marmol and 
Barros, the first European who reached Timbuctoo was 
Francis Paul Imbert, born at Sables- d'Olonne^ in the native 
province of Rene Caillie; his journey was anterior to the 
year I670. He accompanied his master, a Portuguese 
renegado, sent to Timbuctoo by the governor of Tafilet. 
From the little that is known of his travels, we learn that 
the distance from Morocco to Timbuctoo is four hundred 
leagues, and that it is considered a two months' journey. 
This route was nearly the same as that followed by M. 
CaiUie, at least as far as Tafilet: the time also is the 
same. Again, the calculation of four hundred leagues agrees 
very well with that of M. CaiUie. Three other routes 
have been attempted by Europeans for penetrating to the 
centre of Northern Africa 3 that of the Senegambia, that of 
Tripoli, and that of Egypt and the Upper Nile. The first 
is certainly the shortest ; the second is full of obstacles 3 and 
the last, though the longest, will probably be one day pre« 
ferred by the intelligent traveller, as the most instructive, 
the most fruitful in discoveries, and for other reasons. I say 
nothing of a fourth course, that of the Gulph of Benin, 
which at this time engages the attention of England, but 
which, notwithstanding the numerous rivers terminating 
in that part, seems to offer very little prospect of success. 
To penetrate into the interior by the Rivers of Senegal, 
Gambia, or Sierra-Leone, was the most natural enter- 
prize, not only on account of the proximity, but also 
with a view to the necessity of tracing to its source that 
vast stream which runs near Timbuctoo : a question of no 
