246 DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 
Maberia, and reaching a place called Barakota, it 
divided into two branches, one of which formed 
the Gambia, which was represented as passing 
through a large lake filled with canes before it 
reached Barraconda. The other branch was the 
Senegal, and to it the name of Niger was more 
peculiarly applied. The Faleme was supposed to 
be another branch, which, after separating from 
the Senegal, again rejoined it, and formed the 
intermediate country into a species of island. 
Others of the Mandingo merchants made an en- 
tirely opposite report. They positively asserted, 
that the Niger flowed eastward in passing by 
Tombuctoo. Of these two opinions, Labat, who 
wrote the discoveries of Brue, decidedly adopts 
the former ; and the same may be said of almost 
all the travellers in this part of Africa, till the 
time of Park. On the other hand, the two great 
French geographers, Delisle and D'Anville, had, 
on solid grounds, as it afterwards proved, adopted 
the second report. In all their maps, with the 
exception of the earliest ones of Delisle, the 
Niger is represented as a separate river from 
either the Gambia or Senegal, and as flowing 
eastward by Tombuctoo. Labat expresses him- 
self much at a loss as to the grounds on which 
they had founded this construction ; and nothing 
certainly can better illustrate the excellent infor- 
mation possessed by these geographers. On this 
