At Cairo He Prepared Himself For His Undertaking, By Visiting
The Slave Market, In Order To Converse With The Merchants Of The Various
Caravans, And Learn All The Particulars Connected With His Proposed
Journey, And The Countries From Which They Came.
But be proceeded no
farther than Cairo:
Here he was seized with an illness, occasioned or
aggravated by the delay in the caravans setting out for Sennaar, which
proved fatal.
Mr Lucas was the next person employed by the African Institution. In
October, 1788, he arrived at Tripoli, from whence he set out with two
shereefs for Fezzan, by the way of Mescerata. On the fourth day after his
departure, he reached Lebida, on the sea coast, the Leptis Magna of the
Romans. He found, on his arrival at Mescerata, that he should not be able
to procure the number of camels necessary to convey his goods to Fezzan;
and was obliged to abandon his enterprize. From the information which he
derived, at Mescerata, confirmed as it was by what the Association had
learnt from the narrative of a native of Morocco, the geography of Africa
was extended from Fezzan, across the eastern division of the Desert, to
Bornou, Cashna, and the Niger.
In a year or two after the return of Mr. Lucas, the African Association,
who were indefatigable in endeavouring to obtain information from all
sources, learnt some interesting and original circumstances from an Arab.
This person described a large empire on the banks of the Niger, in the
capital of which, Housa, he had resided two years:
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