174 
DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 
be navigable, they passed by Jaga, Bayogne, Kon- 
guru, Sabaa, Baramaga, Goury, and Galama, to 
Timbi. This journey occupied twenty-seven days. 
At Timbi, they quitted the river, and after a land 
journey of five or six days, arrived at Tombuctoo. 
Here the Niger was evidently quitted with the 
view of reaching Tombuctoo by a more direct 
route ; and was erroneously supposed to be dis- 
tant from it by the whole of that route. A lake, 
called Maberia, (the Dibbie of Park,) was also 
mentioned, from which the Senegal was generally 
said to issue. Beyond it lay the kingdom of Ghin- 
gala, (Jinbala of Park,) watered by the river Ghien, 
which passed by Tombuctoo. A large caravan of 
white men, whom the French justly conjectured to 
be the Moors of Barbary, with fire arms, arrived 
every year at Tombuctoo, for the purposes of trade* 
Large barks, with masts, had been seen near Tom- 
buctoo, which were conjectured, though erroneous- 
ly, to belong to the Tripoli merchants. 
With regard to the course and direction of the Ni- 
ger, two opposite statements were given. One, ac- 
cording to the prevailing European opinion, repre- 
sented it as derived from a source that lay far to the 
eastward. After passing through the lake Maberia, 
and reaching a place called Barakota, it divided in- 
to two branches, one of which formed the Gambia, 
which was represented as passing through a large 
lake filled with canes, before it reached Barraconda* 
