This place is reported to be inhabited by one of the lost tribes of
Israel, possibly an emigration from the tribe of Judah. Yahooda, in
African Arabic, signifies Judah. Yahoodee signifies Jew. It is not
impossible, that many of the lost tribes of Israel may be found
dispersed in the interior regions of Africa, when we shall become
better acquainted with that Continent; it is certain, that some of
the nations that possessed the country eastward of Palestine when
the Israelites were a favoured nation, have emigrated to Africa.
An emigration of the Amorites[276] are now in possession of the
declivity of the Atlas Mountains, westward of the sanctuary[277] of
Muley Driss, and in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Pharaoh; they
476 live in encampments, consisting of two, three, or four tents each:
they resemble the Arabs of the Desert in their predatory
excursions. I speak from practical knowledge, having twice
travelled through their country, and visited their encampments.
[Footnote 276: They are called _Ite-amor_, Amorite.]
[Footnote 277: _Vide_ Jackson's Account of Marocco, chap. viii.
enlarged edition.]
Page 189. "Mr. Beaufoy's Moor says, that below Ghinea is the sea
into which the river of Timbuctoo discharges itself."
This might have been understood to signify the Sea of Sudan, if the
Moor had not said below Ghinea, (by which is meant Genowa, or as we
call it Guinea,) which implies, that the _Neel El Abeed_ (Niger)
discharges itself in the sea that washes the coast of Guinea; this,
therefore, corroborates Seedi Hamed's, or rather Richard's
hypothesis.
Page 190. "This branch of the Niger passing Timbuctoo, is not
crossed until the third day going from Timbuctoo to Houssa."
This quotation from "Dapper's Description of Africa," is
corroborated by L'Hage Abdsalam, Shabeeni, whose narrative says,
"Shabeeni, after staying three years at Timbuctoo, departed for
Houssa, and crossing the small river close to the walls, reached
the Neel in three days, travelling through a fine, populous, and
cultivated country."
The confusion of rivers, made mere equivocal by every new
hypothesis, receives here additional ambiguity. If there were (as
Mr. Bowdich affirms) three distinct rivers near Timbuctoo; viz. the
477 Joliba, the Gambarro, and the Niger, (_i. e_. the _Neel El Abeed_)
how comes it that they have not been noticed by Leo Africanus, who
resided at Timbuctoo; by Edrissi, who is the most correct of the
Arabian geographers; or whence is it, that these rivers have not
been noticed by the many Moorish travelling merchants who have
resided at Timbuctoo, and whom I have repeatedly questioned
respecting this matter[278], or whence is it that Alkaid L'Hassen
Ramy, a renowned chief of the Emperor of Marocco's army, with whom
I was well acquainted, and who was a native of Houssa, knew of no
such variously inclined streams. This being premised, I am
certainly not disposed to relinquish the opinion I brought with me
from Africa in the year 1807, viz. that the _Neel El Abeed_ is the
only mighty river that runs through Africa from west to east; but I
admit that its adjuncts, as well as itself, have different names;
thus, in the manuscript of Mr. Park's death, a copy of which is
inserted in "Mr. Bowdich's Account of Ashantee," it is called Kude;
many hundred miles eastward it is called Kulla, from the country
478 through which it passes; but Kude and Kulla are different names,
and ought not to be confounded one with the other; neither ought
Quolla (_i. e._, the Negro pronunciation of Kulla) to be confounded
with Kude, the former being the Negro term for the same river, in
the same manner as Niger is the Roman name for the _Neel Elabeed_,
which is the Arabic name for the same river. There is a stream
which proceeds from the Sahara, the water of which is _brackish_;
this stream hardly can be called a river, except in the rainy
season. It passes in a south-westerly direction near Timbuctoo, but
does not join the _Neel Elabeed_. I could mention several
intelligent and credible authorities, the report of respectable
merchants, who have resided, and, who have had establishments at
Timbuctoo, in confirmation of this fact; but as the authorities
which I should adduce would be unknown, even by name, to men of
science in Europe, I would refer the reader to the interesting
narrative of an intelligent Moorish merchant, who resided three
years at Timbuctoo, and who was known to the committee of the
African Association; this travelling merchant's name is L'Hage
Abdsalam Shabeeny, and his narrative, a manuscript of which (with
critical and explanatory notes by myself) I have in my possession,
has the following observation:[279]--"Close to the town of
Timbuctoo, on the south, is a small rivulet in which the
479 inhabitants wash their clothes, and which is about two feet deep;
it runs into the great forest on the east, and does not communicate
with the Nile, but is lost in the sands west of the town: its water
is brackish; that of the Nile is good and pleasant."
[Footnote 278: The Arabs who conduct the _cafelahs_ or caravans
across the Sahara, are often seen at Agadeer or Santa Cruz, and
sometimes even at Mogodor; and if there was a river penetrating
to the north through the Sahara, would it not have been noticed
by them? Is it possible that such a prominent feature of
African geography, as a river of sweet water passing through a
desert, could fail of being noticed by these people, who are,
in their passage through the Desert, continually in search of
water?]
[Footnote 279: See page 8.]
Page 199. Mr. Murray recently observes, "Joliba seems readily
convertible into Joli-ba, the latter syllable being merely an
adjunct, signifying river; this I was also given to understand."
This is an etymological error. The Joliba is not a compound word,
if it were it would be Bahar Joli, not Bajoli, or Joliba; thus do
learned men, through a rage for criticism, and for want of a due
knowledge of African languages, render confused, by fancied
etymologies, that which is sufficiently clear and perspicuous.