In the history of geography there are no examples of greater
perseverance and courageous determination than in the efforts made to
triumph over the difficulties presented in the solution of this
important question. Since 1815, there has scarcely a year passed in
which a new attempt has not been made; and of these, if we recede a
little farther back, twenty-five were made by our countrymen, fourteen
by Frenchmen, two by Americans, and one by a German; of which but a
small number, since the days of Houghton, have not fallen victims to
their heroic devotion.
Mungo Park first observed the direction of the stream which had become
as much an object of discussion as its termination; and, strange to say,
after the present discovery, it will, in some parts of its course, still
remain so. The unfortunate traveller just alluded to, previous to his
descent of the river, obtained some information from Moors and from
negroes, on its course by Timbuctoo. The Jinnie of Park is synonymous
with Jenne, Gine, Dhjenne, of other writers, as Jenne has again been
confounded with Kano or Kanno. It may be a figurative term--for the
Jinnie of Park was on an island, as was the Jenne of the Moorish
reports, while the Jenne of some travellers is at a short distance from
the river.
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