456 VARIOUS LETTERS what he had seen was disbelieved. Nothing human can appear to me more deserving of implicit credit than the intelligence the former of these writers gives respecting Timbuctoo. He has not seen it, it is true. I have not seen Lisbon ; but, if I had, and were to sit down to write an account of it, some things would be necessary to be described, with regard to which I should feel a degree of uncertainty j and, having given an account of Lisbon, if I were to visit it again, I should find others on which I had been mistaken. But let me arrange in my own mind the information I want respecting Lisbon ; let me make enquiries of twenty intelligent persons who have resided there; let me carefully compare their different accounts, and who shall doubt the accuracy of the result ?

Mr. Jackson has had an opportunity of acquiring information respecting Timbuctoo that no other European ever had, by having the direction ofcommerce in a city frequented by Timbuctan merchants ; a city, the port of which is called, in Arabic, Bab Sudan the Gate of Sudan. Mr. Jackson was qualified to make use of this advantage to an extent that no other European ever was, by a practical, and even critical knowledge of the general language of the country, — the African Arabic. To these Mr.

Jackson added an ardent spirit of research, an industry which neglected no opportunity, a caution to compare, a judgment to discriminate, and a firmness to decide. Who, ttiat weighs 17*