Mr. Browne relates, from the information of the people at Darfoor, that the head of the White River consists of a number of streams, issuing from certain lofty mountains named _Kumri_, or _Komri_, situated in a country named _Donga_, distant a month’s journey from Shilluk; which is itself 3¼ days short of Sennaar: so that the _remotest_ spring of the White River may be 45 journies from Sennaar. Now, some of the slaves brought in the Darfoorian caravan to Cairo, told Mr. Ledyard that they came from a place 55 journies _westward_ from Sennaar; and Mr. Browne informs us, that the people of Bergoo (adjacent to Darfoor) make a practice of going a _slave hunting_ into the quarter of Donga. (Travels, p. 473.) Another person amongst those questioned by Mr. Ledyard (implied to come from the same place,) said, that the head of the Nile was situated in his country.[47] If it be supposed that, in stating the distance of Sennaar from the head of the Nile, they meant that the road lay _through_ Darfoor, (which is not improbable) the distance of 55 days would be fully made up. It is reckoned 23 days from Darfoor to Sennaar, and somewhat more from Darfoor to the copper mines of Fertit; which are yet very far short of the head of the White River. In the map of Africa, 1798, I had placed the head of the White River, about 130 miles to the SE of the place now assigned by Mr. Browne. Mr. Horneman having again set afloat the idea of the junction of the Niger with the Nile, it becomes necessary to examine, minutely, the geographical materials furnished by Mr. Browne and Mr. Horneman, as well as the notices found in Edrisi; in order to shew the improbability of such a fact. Mr. Horneman was informed by persons who had travelled to Darfoor, that the Niger (_Joliba_) passed by the south of Darfoor, into the White River. It is certain that Herodotus[48] collected much the same kind of information in Egypt: but it is equally certain that the people whom Mr. Browne consulted at Darfoor, were silent, respecting any such junction: on the contrary, they report, not only that the White River is formed of sources, springing from the mountains on the south, but also that the waters between Darfoor and those mountains, run to the westward. It is proper to add, that the mountains in question, named Kumri, or _Komri_, are, as the name imports, the _Mountains_ of the _Moon_; in which Ptolemy, and the Arabian geographers, place the remote head of the Nile.[49] In chapter vi. of the Geographical Illustrations, 1798, I have set forth several facts, with a view to shew the probability of the termination of the Niger, by _evaporation_, in the country of Wangara, &c. To that, I shall beg leave to refer: but as many additional facts, tending to strengthen my former ideas, have been furnished by recent travellers, I shall have occasion to repeat some of the former statements and arguments, in the course of the discussion.