xxiv 
PREFACE. 
patam; and at that place, being attacked by an 
acute difeafe, breathed his lafl in the Francifcan 
convent there efl:abli£hed. More authentic and in- 
terefting materials refpecling this traveller, may 
pollibly have reached this country. Yet I thought 
it not improper to mention thefe few particulars, 
which may tend to illuftrate the nature of a voyage 
to AbyfTmia. 
The errors in African geography are numerous, 
and proceed from various caufes. Among thofe 
/ caufes, however, are particularly to be enumerated, 
That the fame province has often one name 
in the language of that province, and another in 
Arabic. Of the places called indifcriminately Perth 
by the Arabs, each little diftridt has an appropriate 
name. 
Again, the name of a fmall province is occa- 
fionally taken for a large one, and vice verfd. 
Bahr is applied to a great lake, as well as to a river. 
Dar is a kingdom, and is fometimes applied to a 
village, and often to a diftrid. 
Fur 
