45 
How is it possible to reconcile so great a contradic- 
tion? All that I heard, proved to me that the trade be- 
tween the southern countries of Morocco and Tom- 
bouctou is very active and continual; it is therefore, im- 
possible that these people should be mistaken or uncer- 
tain about the course of the Nile of Tombouctou, as 
thousands of the inhabitants of Morocco are perpetually 
seeing it. They all say that this river runs towards the 
west; at the same time Mufigo Park assures us that he 
saw it flowing towards the east. What must we con- 
clude? Giving to Mungo Park all the credit which he 
deserves, we must say that there passes to Tombouctou, 
towards the west, another river, which as yet we do not 
know, and which these people confound with the great 
western Nile, or Joliba, discovered by Mungo Park, 
who indeed, declares that this river does not pass ac- 
tually by Tombouctou. We must suppose that the 
Joliba makes at this spot a strange winding, which gives 
to the inhabitants of Morocco the opinion they express; 
or else we must believe that these people speak without 
having seen any thing, and only go by the notions of an- 
cient geographers. 
However, these circumstances, when separated from 
the errors which surround them, indicate two singulari- 
ties; viz: The union or communication of the two Niles 
at their source, in the same lake, and the loss of the west- 
ern Nile in another lake. We shall, upon another occa- 
sion, treat on this subject again.* 
The cannon of the batteries of Tangier announced, 
on the 5th October, the arrival of the sultan Muley Soli- 
* Ali Bei made a journey of two clays to Tetaouan, or Tetuan, 
towards the end of September; it is to be regretted that no des- 
cription of this excursion has been found among his papers. 
(Note of the French editor.) 
