478 VARIOUS LETTERS names, and ought not to be confounded one with the other ; neither ought QuoUa (i, e, the Negro pronunciation of KuUa) to be confounded with Kude, the former being the Negro term for the same river, in the same manner as Niger is the Roman name for the Neel Elaheed, which is the Arabic name for the same river. There is a stream which proceeds from the Sahara, the water of which is brackish : this stream hardly can be called a river, except in the rainy season.

It passes in a south-westerly direction near Timbuctoo, but does not join the Neel Elaheed. I could mention several intelligent and credible authorities, the report of respectable merchants, who have resided, and who have had establishments at Timbuctoo, in confirmation of this fact ; but as the authorities which I should adduce would be unknown, even by name, to men of science in Europe, I would refer the reader to the interesting narrative of an intelligent Moorish merchant, who resided three years at Timbuctoo, and who was known to the committee of the African Association ; this travelling merchant's name is L'Hage Abdsalam Shabeeny, and his narrative, a manuscript of which (with critical and explanatory notes by myself) I have in my possession, has the following observation :— "Close to the town of Timbuctoo, on the south, is a small rivulet in which the inhabitants wash their clothes, and JSee page 8.