16 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
in another Ewelatin, I think there is no doubt of its 
being Walet, which lay completely in the route of our 
traveller, and is the only great city in that quarter of 
Africa. 
From Abu Latin the adventurer proceeded in twenty- 
four days to Mali, then the most flourishing country 
and city in that part of the continent. This Mali is 
evidently the Melli of Leo, who described it as situated 
on a river to the south of Timbuctoo ; but it is not so 
easy to identify it with any modern position. Our 
traveller makes heavy complaints of the cold reception 
and narrow bounty of an African potentate in this 
district. After waiting upon his majesty, he was in¬ 
formed that a present was on its way to him, and he 
feasted his imagination on the idea of some rich dress 
or golden ornament; instead of which, the whole 
consisted of a crust of bread, a dried fish, and sour 
milk. He had the boldness to remonstrate with the 
king on this donation, declaring that in course of 
travelling over the whole world he had never received 
the like ; and his majesty, instead of being incensed, 
began to extend to him some measure of bounty. Ibn 
Batuta, however, was disgusted by the abject homage 
paid to this monarch, as it still is to the native princes 
of Africa; the courtiers, as they approached, casting 
dust on their heads, throwing themselves prostrate and 
grovelling on the earth, a degradation which he had 
never witnessed in the most despotic courts of the East. 
Yet justice is admitted to have been most strictly 
administered, and property to be perfectly secure ; as a 
proof of which, merchants from the most distant country 
who died at Mali, were as assured of leaving their 
inheritance to their posterity as if it had been deposited 
at home. The traveller was astonished by the immense 
bulk of the trees of this region, in the hollow T trunk of 
one of which he observed a weaver plying his trade. 
Ibn Batuta on this part of his journey saw the Niger ; 
and the view necessarily led to a conclusion opposite to 
that hitherto entertained by his countrymen, who con¬ 
sidered it as flowing westward to the ocean. Destitute 
