3%4* THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 
which he was able to collect from the slatees, or 
slave-traders, and travelling Shereefs and Mara- 
bouts, he communicated to Dr Laidley, by whom 
they were forwarded to the African Association. 
From these, he appears to have entertained the 
most sanguine expectations of success. In his let- 
ter from Medina, of the 6th of May 1791, he 
says, " I have obtained the best intelligence of the 
" places I design visiting, from a Shereef here* 
" who lives at Tombuctoo, and who luckily knew 
" me when I was British consul to the Emperor 
" of Marocco, in 177^. I find, that, in the river 
" I am going to explore, they have decked vessels 
" with masts, with which they carry on trade from 
" Tombuctoo eastward to the centre of Africa. I 
" mean to embark in one of them from Genne, in 
" Bambara, to Tombuctoo." The information 
concerning the magnitude of the vessels by which 
the Niger is navigated in the vicinity of Tombuc- 
too and Houssa, depends upon different authori- 
ties, and is as old as the beginning of the last cen- 
tury. De la Brue, as we had formerly occasion to 
notice, was informed by the Mandingo merchants 
at Gallam, that, some leagues from Tombuctoo* 
the Niger was navigated by " masted barks/' 
From various testimonies, Dr Laidley of Pisania was 
induced to believe, that ships of 100 tons burden 
frequented Houssa ; and Mr Park, before his depart- 
ure from the Gambia, was informed by a priest who 
