CORRESPONDENCE. 
463 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
[The following letter is an answer to the first letter written by 
M. Caillie, on his arrival at Arbate, to the Consul of France.] 
GENERAL CONSULATE OF FRANCE AT MOROCCO, 
To M. Caillie^ at Arbate. 
Tangier, 28th August, 1828. 
I have the honour to be a member of the Geogra- 
phical Society; you will therefore believe with what 
pleasure I must have perused the letter which you ad- 
dressed to me^ dated the 21st of this month, through the 
medium of the agent of France at Rabat, and how satis- 
factory to me must be the arrival in safety of such a 
traveller as yourself, Sir, who may have solved the great 
problem of the possibility of traversing Africa. It gives 
me pleasure to believe that you have visited the towns you 
mention in your interesting letter, and particularly the 
city of Timbuctoo, the rock upon which, for two or three 
generations past, so many intrepid travellers have been 
lost ; but the proofs which you furnish are not sufficient 
to confirm my faith : you know how far impostors are 
capable of deceiving us. Have the goodness, then, to 
