some hundred miles of it. The city of Timbuctoo, for instance, was,
for a considerable length of time, the point to which all the
European travellers had directed their attention; but so vague and
indefinite were the accounts of it, that the existence of Timbuctoo
as a town, began to be questioned altogether, or at least, that the
extraordinary accounts, which had been given of it, had little or no
foundation in truth. From the time of Park to the present period, we
have information of only three Europeans reached Timbuctoo, and
considerable doubt still exists in regard to the truth of the
narrative of one of them. It is true that the intelligence of the
Portuguese embassies, as respecting the particulars of them, and the
manner in which they were conducted, has either perished, or still
remains locked up in the archives of the Lusitanian monarchy. But
when we look into the expeditions, which have been projected of late
years into the interior of Africa, we cannot refrain from drawing the
conclusion, that the character of the African people must have
undergone a change considerably for the worse, or that our
expeditions are not regulated on those principles so as to command
success.

The Portuguese in the meantime continued to extend their discoveries
in another quarter, for in 1471, they reached the Gold Coast, when
dazzled by the importance and splendour of the commodity, the
commerce of which gave name to that region, they built the fort of
Elmina or The Mine, making it the capital of their possessions on
that part of the continent. Pushing onward to Benin, they received a
curious account of an embassy said to be sent at the accesion of
every new prince, to a court of a sovereign named Ogane, who was said
to reside seven or eight hundred miles in the interior. On the
introduction of the ambassadors, a silk curtain concealed the person