410 
THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER* 
seems to have taken any deep interest in the pre* 
sent question, was Francis Moore, the traveller. 
He had adopted, with enthusiastic zeal, the deri- 
vation of the Niger from the extremities of Africa, 
while, as an Englishman, he held the Gambia, the 
seat of the English settlements, to be the main chan- 
nel by which it entered the ocean. Upon this river, 
he finds all the principal positions mentioned by 
Edrisi. Ulil is Joally, an island at the mouth of the 
river, whence its banks, it seems, are actually sup* 
plied with salt. Sala is Bur-salum, and Gana is 
Yani. Unfortunately there is no name which can 
be tortured into Wangara ; but this might arise 
from Europeans not having penetrated so high. 
These speculations were much discomposed by the 
arrival of Captain Stibbs, from his voyage to the 
upper parts of the Gambia. This personage re- 
ported, that " its original, or head, is nothing near 
" so far in the country as by the geographers has 
" been represented ; nor does it arise from any 
" other lake, nor hath it a communication with 
" any other river ; — that the natives say the Gam- 
" bia comes from near the gold mines, twelve days' 
" journey from Barraconda, and that there fowls 
" walk over it." He admitted, indeed, " that the 
" Gambia is a river of the longest course of any 
<s that falls into the Atlantic Ocean, and that it is 
t( the Niger, if any." " But it seems," says 
Moore, " as if he thought there was no Niger at 
5 
