238 
graved in 1508, to those by Forlani, 
Ortelius, Mercator, Sanson, Delisle. 
D’Anville, Rennell, Arrowsmith, and 
others. 
These two parts are an introduction 
to the third and last. In a geographi¬ 
cal analysis, I have been obliged to re¬ 
construct all that part of the empire of 
Morocco which lies south of Mount 
Atlas. In this part of Africa, a river 
had been placed, which I prove to have 
no existence, and the course of other 
admitted rivers has been ill-traced. I 
have rectified the positions of Tatta, 
of Akba, of Tafilet, of Gadames, whence 
the caravans set out that proceed to the 
Soudan. I have ascertained the posi¬ 
tions of all the places indicated in my 
two itineraries, in which number are 
the capitals of the Touats , and the 
Touaricks , two large tribes of Moors 
that predominate in the Desart. Also 
the position of Houssa, long famous as 
the capital of a great Kingdom in the 
Soudan; that of another city much 
more considerable, named Ouanomki, 
hitherto unknown to all the geogra¬ 
phers, and lastly, the position of Tim- 
booctoo. There can be little doubt, I 
conceive, as to the longitude and lati¬ 
tude assigned, in my chart, to this city, 
as they are the result of several large 
lines that cross and coincide at the same 
point. 
From what has appeared in some 
later relations, there has been a revolu¬ 
tion in that country, resembling that 
which took place at the beginning of 
the sixteenth century. The Negroes, 
idolaters, of the kingdom of Bambara, 
are reported to have expelled the Ma¬ 
hometan Moors. In this case, Euro¬ 
peans would expect to find an easier 
entrance into the country; but should 
such a state of things be durable, civil¬ 
ization will retrograde, and the com¬ 
merce of the Soudan decline. 
No part of the globe exhibits con¬ 
trasts more striking than what are found 
between the countries of Senegambia 
and those of the Soudan and Sahara, or 
the vast desart that stretches to the 
north. The natives of these two re¬ 
gions, notwithstanding the alliances 
they have contracted, together with 
their congenial relations in commerce 
and religion, after the lapse of several 
ages, remain as dissimilar as the lands 
which they inhabit. 
> The desart of Sahara, extending 1G00 
geographical miles, from east to west, 
and 800 from north to south, includes, 
at certain intervals, oases, or fertile 
[Oct. I, 
spots, altogether surprising, from their 
delectable aspect and luxuriant pro¬ 
duce. The other parts, however, sheiv 
nothing but a fiat, hard soil, or other¬ 
wise covered with moving sands, some¬ 
times carried away by the winds, or 
tossed upwards, in undulating lines, 
like the waves of the sea. Occasionally 
there appear hills of shells and pebbles 
that contain also enormous layers of 
mineral salt, white as snow ; and occa¬ 
sionally it is darkened by masses of 
basaltic stone, heaped one upon another, 
and intermixed with the trunks of trees,' 
carbonated and petrified; irrevocable 
proofs of the ancient revolutions of na¬ 
ture. No animal but the greyish os¬ 
trich and the spotted leopard interrupt 
the vast silence of these desarts. Soli¬ 
tudes of desolation, without verdure, 
without w r ater,—over' which the eye 
roams, and the sight is bew ildered, in¬ 
capable of reposing on a single object. 
The dazzling glare of the sun, reflected 
in these plains, as by a burning mirror, 
is only shaded, for momentary intervals, 
by those clouds of sand which some 
hurricane rolls through the air, in enor¬ 
mous columns, and which at times, 
condensing in the atmosphere, bury 
whole caravans in their descent, or 
driven, even over the continent and the 
waters of the ocean, seem to mariners, 
thick mists that conceal the views of 
the coasts, at many miles distance. At 
times, too, a breath of wind, light but 
rapid, and scorching like flame, will 
suffocate both men and animals that 
are not ready enough in turning aside, 
or falling prostrate, to avoid its destruc¬ 
tive inflaius. 
In these burning climates, the want 
of water, where the provision of it is 
Insufficient or exhausted, brings on ine¬ 
vitable death, with torments that can¬ 
not be described. An extreme aridity 
shrivels up the skin; the eyes turn red 
and fiery; a fainting sickness, increasing 
with every fresh beat of the pulse ; the 
palpitating respiration interrupted w ith 
violent pain; large tears dropping, as 
if by violence, from eyes dried up—- 
and in a few moments, if not relieved, 
the sufferer loses all feeling, and 
breathes his last. The unexpected 
drought of a single spring, a false rec¬ 
koning in the distances, an error in the 
direction of the road, any mischance 
happening to the skins that contain 
the provision of water, have frequently 
proved the death, in this frightful 
shape, of thousands of individual's, witli 
all their cattle. 
Such, 
Notices relative to the Interior of Africa . 
