Note 218 — NEGROLAND divided into Nations.

Leo’s Gago seems to be identical with the Caugha of Hornemann, or Kaúka of Burckhardt (Trav. in Nubia, p. 436). Its empire extended, he says, from Bornú to Nubia. The use of the name Bornú, in former times, however, and the modern geography of the countries round Lake Chad, are involved in an obscurity which it does not lie within the scope of this essay to dispel. Leo’s text offers not only the names Gago and Gaoga, but also, in two instances, Gaogao. He says (pt. VII. c. 14), that while he was in Negroland, the King of Bornú marched against Wanghárah; but learning, on his way, that Omar, King of Gaogao, meditated an attack on his dominions, he turned back, and Wanghárah was saved. But, in this passage, Gaogao is a misprint for Gaoga, as Leo himself discloses by naming the King of Gaoga “Omar chi oggidí regna.” In the other instance (pt. VII. c. 1), his Gaogao is justly changed by Marmol (vol. III. fol. 21) into Gaoga. Leo (pt. I. c. 7) having enumerated the fifteen kingdoms of Negroland visited by him, adds, that there are three times as many, sufficiently well known, lying to the south of the preceding; and names five of them, viz. Bito, Temiam, Dauma, Medra, Goran. Marmol (vol. I. fol. 15), in copying this passage, omits Dauma, and substitutes for it Mandinga. But Leo had no idea of increasing the kingdoms of Western Negroland. His Bito is the Bede of Denham and Clapperton, adjoining or comprised in the modern Bornú. Einsiedel names together, Schikou—the Schaïkou of Lyon (Trav. in N. Afr. p. 126), two days from the capital of Bornú—Bitou (Leo’s Bito), and Engar (Angarú). Temiam may be an error for Yemyem: Dauma is probably the Doma of our maps, or the country on the right bank of the River Chadda. Medra seems to be Mandara, one letter being obliterated in the Arabic MS. Goran (in Marmol Gorhan), which is often referred to by Leo, is evidently the Desert of Kordofán. This name كردفان might easily become, in negligent writing, Korhán كرهان; or as Leo, uniformly writing kef with a g, and omitting the aspirates, would represent it, Goran. Another region often named by Leo, may be fitly considered here. In the Desert of Seu, south of Bornú (pt. VII. c. 15), and environing an immense lake (pt. I. c. 27), called the Lake of the Desert of Gaoga (pt. I. c. 2), he places the sources of the Niger (pt. I. c. 3). It is obvious that the lake alluded to is Lake Chad, and that the name Seu is the root of the appellative Showy, and the name Shouaa, respectively given by Denham to a town on the Shary, and the Arab tribes inhabiting the adjacent country.