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Updated: June 11, 2025
The above passage was written by D'Anville about the year 1754; and it is not a little extraordinary that during the sixty years that have since elapsed, a period so much distinguished for geographical discovery, Tombuctoo should never have been visited by any European traveller: and that one of the greatest marts of African commerce, which is annually resorted to by caravans from various parts of that continent, should remain at this time entirely unknown to the civilized world.
They were expansions, often fabulous and impossible, engrafted upon some basis of fact by the credulity of the traveller, or subsequently by misconception of the scholar. For instance, as to Tombuctoo, Leo Africanus had authorized men to believe in some vast African city, central to that great continent, and a focus to some mighty system of civilization.
On the 4th May, M. Caillie departed from Tombuctoo, and in a few days arrived at Aroan, a town containing 3000 inhabitants, on the route to which neither herb nor shrub was seen; and their only fuel was the dung of camels. On the 19th May he prepared to cross the desert, along with a large caravan. Scarcely a drop of water could be found, and many of the wells were dried up.
Sego is built on both sides of the river Niger, and Tombuctoo not far from its banks, the former about five hundred, and the latter about six hundred leagues East of the Island of Goree. The Marabous, who are almost all traders, frequently extend their journeys into Upper Egypt.
There is also another caravan which sets off from Wedinou, and after collecting salt at West Tagossa, proceeds to Tombuctoo. This goes as far as the White Mountains, near Cape Blanco, and is occupied five or six months in its journey.
Some of the facts which they reported are not a little extraordinary: viz. that in several places they found the Nile so shallow, in consequence of channels cut for irrigating the lands, that they could not proceed in their boat, and were obliged to transport it some distance over-land; that they saw between Tombuctoo and Cairo twelve hundred cities and towns, adorned with mosques and towers, &c.
After travelling for some time longer, he reached the banks of the Niger, which, according to the information he received, flowed into the Nile at the second cataract. He visited Tombuctoo and other places in this part of Africa, and finished his travels at Fez. We shall now conclude our account of the Arabians, with a connected and condensed view of their geographical knowledge.
They know that from the Delta of the Orinoco, crossing the province of Vannos, and from thence by the shores of the Meta, the Guaviare, and the Caguan, you may advance in the plains, at first from east to west, then from north-east, to south-east, three hundred and eighty leagues a distance as great as from Tombuctoo to the northern coast of Africa.
"He says our voyage to Kashna will occupy two months; that we touch on the Moors no where but at Tombuctoo; the north bank of the river in all other places being inhabited by a race of people resembling the Moors in colour, called Surka, Mahinga, and Tuarick, according to the different kingdoms they inhabit.
"It is difficult to conceive a plot more perfect than that of the 'Wellingtoniad. It is most faithful to the manners of the age to which it relates. It preserves exactly all the historical circumstances, and interweaves them most artfully with all the speciosa miracula of supernatural agency." Thus far the learned Professor of Humanity in the university of Tombuctoo.
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