18 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
appears now impossible to conjecture. He next pro¬ 
ceeded eastward by Kakaw, Barclama, and Nakda, 
where he seems to have been near Nubia, but gives no 
further details till he again arrived at Fez. 
As we have said, about two centuries after Ibn 
Batuta, a very full description of Africa was furnished 
by a geographer named Leo who was even honoured 
with the surname of Africanus. He was a native of 
Granada; but, after the capture of that city by 
Ferdinand, repaired to Fez, and in that once-eminent 
school applied himself to acquire a knowledge of Arabic 
learning and of the African continent. He afterwards 
travelled through a great part of the interior, and, 
having repaired to Rome, wrote his description of Africa 
under the auspices of Leo X. It appears that, since 
the time of Edrisi, one of those revolutions to which 
barbarous states are liable had greatly changed the 
aspect of these countries. Timbuctoo, which at the 
former period either did not exist, or was not thought 
worthy of mention, had now risen to be the most 
powerful of the interior kingdoms, and the great centre 
of commerce and wealth. Ghana, once possessed of 
imperial greatness, had already changed its name to 
Kano, and was ranked as tributary to Timbuctoo. 
Bornon appears under its old appellation ; and several 
kingdoms which have since held a conspicuous place 
are mentioned for the first time—Casena or Cassina 
(Kashna), Zegzeg, Zanfara, and Guber. Gago, repre¬ 
sented as being four hundred miles south-east of 
Timbuctoo, is evidently Eyes, visited by Clapperton. 
Gliinea or Gheneoa, described as a city of great com¬ 
merce and splendour, has been supposed to be Ghana; 
but more probably it is Jenne, which Park found to 
be the largest and most flourishing city of Bambarra. 
At Timbuctoo many of the merchants were extremely 
opulent, and two of them had obtained princesses 
in marriage. Literature was cultivated with ardour, 
and manuscripts bore a higher price than any other 
commodity. Izchia, the king, who had been suc¬ 
cessful in subduing all the neighbouring countries, 
