IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 245 
elephants are to be seen there; M. Caillie scarcely saw 
traces of one during the whole course of his travels. 
Nevertheless these differences which may be partly attri- 
buted to his ignorance, as well as to a want of memory, 
are not sufficient motives for absolutely denying the 
journey of Adams, or rejecting all the information 
which he procured. The same may be said of the 
words of the language spoken at Timbuctoo, which 
Robert Adams has given to the number of sixteen, eight 
of which are common to the Kissour vocabulary of M. 
Caillie,* but totally differing from them. 
Was it easy, in a country where so many different 
languages and dialects are spoken, to ascertain the 
genuine words of the Timbuctoo idiom ? The words 
published by well informed travellers, such as Lyon, 
Bowdich and others, do not agree better with those col> 
lected by M. Caillie. If Adams really visited Timbuctoo, 
it is possible that he may have interrogated strangers 
instead of natives. f Major Denham alone till the present 
day has learnt the true words of this language. Other 
features again of Adams's descriptions are confirmed by 
certain Arabian travellers and geographers, even what he 
says of the river flowing in the neighbourhood of Tim- 
buetoo.| Yet, supposing him to have seen the river, which 
* See below. Chapter II, and Nouveau Voyage, &c. p. 79. 
f It has been already observed, that he gave five Arabic words, 
as those of Timbuctoo, Nouveau Voyage, page 175. 
