_Cursory Observations on the Geography of Africa, inserted in an
Account of a Mission to Ashantee, by T. Edward Bowdich, Esq.
showing the Errors that have been committed by European Travellers
on that Continent, from their Ignorance of the Arabic Language, the
learned and the general travelling Language of that interesting
part of the World_.
June 17, 1819.
The Niger, after leaving the lake Dibber, was invariably described
as dividing in two large streams.--_Vide_ "Bowdich's Account of a
Mission to Ashantee," p. 187.
The Lake Dibber is called in the proceedings of the African
Association Dibbie, but the proper appellation is _El Bahar Tibber,
_or_ El Bahar Dehebbie_. The Bahar Tibber signifies the sea of gold
475 dust; the _Bahar Dehebbie_ signifies the sea or water abounding in
gold. Jinnee, which is on or near the shore of this lake, (I call
it a lake because it is fresh water,) abounds in gold, and is
renowned throughout Africa for the ingenuity of its artificers in
that metal, insomuch that they acknowledge the superiority of
Europeans in all arts except that of gold work. There are some
specimens of Jinnee gold trinkets, very correctly delineated in the
recent interesting work of "Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzclarence's
Journal of a Route across India, through Egypt to England," p. 496.