Note 41 — GHÁNAH — Aúdaghost — Aúlíl.

The extent of desert here assigned to the Benú Goddálah, may enable us, if carefully considered, to ascertain their interior limits towards Ghánah. Numerous authorities, which need not be here cited, agree in estimating the distance of Tomboktú from Táfílélt or Morocco to be, in general terms, a two months’ journey. The more circumstantial accounts reckon, between Tomboktú and Akka, Tatta, or El Harib, near the frontiers of Sús and the desert, thirty-six (Jackson’s Morocco, p. 241)—forty-three (Shabeeny’s Narrative, by Jackson, p. 7)—or thirty-nine days (Caillié, Journal, &c.), exclusive of halts. We find the distance of Tatta from Tomboktú estimated also at fifty days (Proceedings of the African Association, vol. I. p. 225). Davidson (Notes on a Journey in Africa, 1839, p. 101) learned that the courier’s track from Wád Nún to Tomboktú is travelled in forty days, and that from the same place to Jenni is usually reckoned a distance of sixty days, though frequently traversed in less time (Notes, &c. p. 113). But it must be observed, that, with respect to caravans, the time allowed for halting at the chief wells often exceeds that spent in travelling. Now to estimate the longitudinal dimensions of the western desert, we have the distance of forty days’ journey from Arguin to the French factory at Fort St. Joseph, on the Senegal, and from the latter point forty-eight days to Tomboktú, the latter distance being established by a concurrence of testimony which places it beyond dispute (D’Anville, Mem. de l’Acad. tom. XXVI. p. 73; Rennell in Proc. of Afr. Assoc. vol. II. pp. 225, 464). Circuits being allowed for, these distances combined will place Tomboktú about two months and a half from Arguin. In confirmation of this conclusion, we find that Sidi Hamet (Riley’s Narrative, p. 319), taking the road by the sea shore, travelled from Wád Nún southwards for four months to the borders of Negroland, and then went eastward two months to Tomboktú. On his return he travelled westward one month, and encamped at a little Negro town called Jathrow—probably the Dgazzara of M. Roger’s informant (Rec. de Voy. II. p. 62), whose estimate of distances, however, uniformly fall far short of the reality. Sidi Hamet then turned northward, and reached Wád Nún in three months and a half. Though the people dwelling on the margin of the desert are apt to talk of speedy journeys, as was experienced by Park and Davidson, yet the inhabitants of the wilderness itself, having little provision and weak cattle, which they pasture as they go, rarely travel at a rate exceeding twelve or thirteen miles a day. Alexander Scott (Edinburgh Phil. Jour. vol. IV.), a shipwrecked sailor, and captive in the desert, travelled from the vicinity of Cape Bojador two months and a half, to the line of gum forests, which lie chiefly between the 17th and 18th parallels, and then continued his march for another month before he reached Lake Dibbie, which is formed by the waters of the Great River. It is needless to collect more authorities to show that a desert of two months in extent and bounded by the Atlantic, must be supposed to lie wholly westward of Tomboktú.