Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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There Is
Very Little Doubt Existing, But That The Portuguese Were Acquainted
With The Town And Territory Of Timbuctoo; And
The question then
presents itself, by what means did the Portuguese succeed in
penetrating to a kingdom, which, for centuries
Afterwards, baffled
all the efforts of the most enterprising travellers to arrive within
some hundred miles of it. The city of Timbuctoo, for instance, was,
for a considerable length of time, the point to which all the
European travellers had directed their attention; but so vague and
indefinite were the accounts of it, that the existence of Timbuctoo
as a town, began to be questioned altogether, or at least, that the
extraordinary accounts, which had been given of it, had little or no
foundation in truth. From the time of Park to the present period, we
have information of only three Europeans reached Timbuctoo, and
considerable doubt still exists in regard to the truth of the
narrative of one of them. It is true that the intelligence of the
Portuguese embassies, as respecting the particulars of them, and the
manner in which they were conducted, has either perished, or still
remains locked up in the archives of the Lusitanian monarchy. But
when we look into the expeditions, which have been projected of late
years into the interior of Africa, we cannot refrain from drawing the
conclusion, that the character of the African people must have
undergone a change considerably for the worse, or that our
expeditions are not regulated on those principles so as to command
success.
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