£0$ riley's narrative. 
" people who had been down the river to see the 
" great water, with slaves and teeth, and came back 
" again : they said, the pale people lived in great 
" boats, and had guns as big as their bodies, that 
" made a noise like thunder, and would kill all the 
" people in a hundred negro boats, if they went 
" too near them." 
During Sidi Hamet's stay, which was in March 
and April, it rained almost daily. He returned by 
the same route to Tombuctoo. 
This narrative, if authentic, is certainly of very 
great importance. It affords, for the first time, 
a positive testimony in favour of the Congo hy- 
pothesis, and exhibits peculiarities of physical 
structure, which remove some of the most for- 
midable objections to it. * It displays also a de- 
gree of populousness, and some features of civi- 
lization, surpassing what have hitherto been obser- 
ved in any of the native states of Africa. We may 
instance the building of large walls and houses of 
stone, and the taming of the elephant. The au- 
thenticity of this relation becomes therefore a very 
important question. The testimonies to the worth 
and veracity of Riley are so respectable, and he is 
so liable to be checked by Mr Willshire, and by 
the yet living evidence of Sidi Hamet, that we con- 
* See some further remarks on this subject. Book III. end 
of Ch. II. 
