below Ghinea, (by which is meant Genowa, or as we
call it Guinea,) which implies, that the _Neel El Abeed_ (Niger)
discharges itself in the sea that washes the coast of Guinea; this,
therefore, corroborates Seedi Hamed's, or rather Richard's
hypothesis.

Page 190. "This branch of the Niger passing Timbuctoo, is not
crossed until the third day going from Timbuctoo to Houssa."

This quotation from "Dapper's Description of Africa," is
corroborated by L'Hage Abdsalam, Shabeeni, whose narrative says,
"Shabeeni, after staying three years at Timbuctoo, departed for
Houssa, and crossing the small river close to the walls, reached
the Neel in three days, travelling through a fine, populous, and
cultivated country."

The confusion of rivers, made mere equivocal by every new
hypothesis, receives here additional ambiguity. If there were (as
Mr. Bowdich affirms) three distinct rivers near Timbuctoo; viz. the
477 Joliba, the Gambarro, and the Niger, (_i. e_. the _Neel El Abeed_)
how comes it that they have not been noticed by Leo Africanus, who
resided at Timbuctoo; by Edrissi, who is the most correct of the
Arabian geographers; or whence is it, that these rivers have not
been noticed by the many Moorish travelling merchants who have
resided at Timbuctoo, and whom I have repeatedly questioned
respecting this matter[278], or whence is it that Alkaid L'Hassen
Ramy, a renowned chief of the Emperor of Marocco's army, with whom
I was well acquainted, and who was a native of Houssa, knew of no
such variously inclined streams. This being premised, I am
certainly not disposed to relinquish the opinion I brought with me
from Africa in the year 1807, viz. that the _Neel El Abeed_ is the
only mighty river that runs through Africa from west to east; but I
admit that its adjuncts, as well as itself, have different names;
thus, in the manuscript of Mr. Park's death, a copy of which is
inserted in "Mr. Bowdich's Account of Ashantee," it is called Kude;
many hundred miles eastward it is called Kulla, from the country
478 through which it passes; but Kude and Kulla are different names,
and ought not to be confounded one with the other; neither ought
Quolla (_i. e._, the Negro pronunciation of Kulla) to be confounded
with Kude, the former being the Negro term for the same river,