rent rivers or part
of the same; where any river rises, or whither it flows, and appear
often to believe that all the lakes and streams of Africa, are parts
of one and the same water. It is not surprising, therefore, that
ancients as well as moderns have obtained the knowledge of a large
river flowing to the east, should have supposed that it was a branch
of the Nile of Egypt, or that when the existence of a great lake, in
the direction of the known portion of its stream, became known, the
opinion should have followed, that the river terminated in that lake,
or that it was discharged through the lake into the Nile. Such,
consequently have been the prevalent notions in all ages, even
amongst the most intelligent foreigners, as well as the higher class
of natives, from Herodotus, Etearchus, and Juba, to Ibn, Batuta, and
Bello of Soccatoo.

[Footnote: It is supposed by W. Martin Leake, Esq. Vice President of
the Geographical Society, that Leo Africanus actually reached
Timbuctoo. The narrative of Adams places the matter at rest, that Leo
never did reach that famous city. Mr. Leake says, that Leo was very
young at the time, and, therefore that his memory probably failed
him, when he came to describe the city, which was many years after
his return.]

Considering these circumstances, it will hardly be contended that the
late discovery of the Landers, has made any alteration in the nature
of the question, as to the identity of the Quorra and Nigir; the
sudden bend of the river to the southward, through a country, which
has been equally unknown to the ancients and moderns, having always
left the best informed of them in ignorance of any part of the river,
except that of which the course was northerly or easterly. If then,
there be sufficient reason for the belief, that these latter portions
were known to the, ancients, we have only to suppose them to have had
some such imperfect knowledge of the interior of North Africa, as we
ourselves had attained previously to the expedition of Denham and
Clapperton, to justify the application of the name Nigir to the whole
course of the river. Although we find Ptolemy to be misinformed on
several points concerning central Africa, yet there still remains
enough in his Data, on Interior Libya and Northern Ethiopia, to show
a real geographical approximation, very distant indeed from the
accuracy at which science is always aiming, but quite sufficient to
resolve the question as to the identi