Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

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This must have happened before Murr saw the globe, for
he does not give the name of the missing island.

dife jn/eln wurden gefunden mil These islands were found with the

den fchijjf'en die derkonikaus portugal ships which the King of Portugal

ausgefchickt zu difen porten dee sent out to these parts of the

mohren landes a 1484 da war eitel country of the Moors in 1484.

wildnuf und kein mensche funden wir There was a perfect wilderness then,

dar den waldt und vogel da fchickt and we found no men there, only

der konik aus portugal nun jahrl fein forests and birds. But at present

volk dahin dag fonjl den todt ver- the king sends there people who

fchuldet hat man und frawen und gibt have been condemned to death, men

ihnen damit Jie das felt bauen und as well as women, and he affords

Jich mehren damit di/s landt von den them the means of cultivating the

portugale/en betoohnt wiirde. land and of multiplying, so that

this country may be inhabited by
Portuguese.

jtem in di/er gegent ijl sofher als In this region it is summer when

wir in europa winter haben vnd alle it is winter with us in Europe, and

vogel vnd thier find anders geftalt all birds and animals are different

dan die vnfern hie wechfl vil pifems in shape from ours. Much civet

de man jn portogal nenet algaUia (musk) grows here and is called

(D E 15 s). algalia in Portugal (see p. 49).

Val. Ferdinand (I. c, p. 349) confirms Behaim's statement
that the gato de algalia or civet cat, was found in
S. Thome.

Inner Guinea.

genea (D 18), Guinea. It is not impossible that our
Guinea, as well as the Guinoia, Guineue or Ganuya of
mediaeval cartographers may be derived from Gnaui or
Gnauya, by which according to Rohlfs 1 the Negroes and
their language are known to the Berbers. Azurara (c. 60)
confirms this hypothesis when he tells us that the Negroes
are called Guineus, and that consequently Negroland
really began only at the Senegal and not at Cape Non, as
believed originally. To the Arabs the land of the Blacks
was known as Sudan.

If we accept the above derivation, it is no longer
permissible to identify Guinea with the great Empire of
Ghana, or with the City of Jenni on the Niger. The
following legends go far to confirm this view:—

konik Mormelli bei deffe konik King Mormelli, where is found
wechfl das golt daf der konik von the gold which the King of Portugal
portugal lafl holen (D 15). is having fetched.

bis an dif land find komen di As far as this country the Moors
moren von tunis jerlich mitjr karavan of Tunis come annually with their
uni gold (D 18). caravans in search of gold.

A royal tent, with a naked Negro as occupant, stands
below.

Behaim's Mormelli represents, no doubt, the ruler of
Melli (Mali), a Negro empire which attained the height of
its power under Mansa Musa, the Musa ben Abu Bakr
of Ibn Batuta (1811-81), but was ultimately broken up by
Soni Ah, the King of the Sonrhay (1464-92). It was this
Soni Ah who received the embassy despatched by King
John, and who permitted the Portuguese to establish a
factory at Wadan (1487).

The " Rex Melly " of Dulcert (1839) and the " Musse-
melly, lord of the Negroes of Gineua, the wealthiest and
most noble lord of all these parts on account of the gold
collected within his territory," of the Catalan Chart (1375),
was no doubt this great African ruler.

According to Diogo Gomez, Tambucutu (Tinbuktu)
and Cantor (on the Gambia) were places visited by the
Tunisian caravans in search of gold. They were both,
at that time, within the boundaries of the Empire of
Melli. Benedetto Dei visited Timbuktu in 1470.

konik organ (D 21), with a royal tent.

Both Dulcert (1339) and the author of the Catalan
Map (1375) mention a Saracen kingdom of Organa continuously
at war with the Saracens of the coast (Tunis)
and with the other Arabs. On the Catalan Map (1375)
and on that of Fra Mauro (1457) Organa lies far to the
east, towards Meroe and Nubia. This is clearly the Organe
of Joao Afonso d'Aveiro (1485), a powerful sovereign
living 20 months' journey to the east of Benin, who
invested each king of Benin on his accession by the
bestowal of a staff, a head-dress and a cross of brass
(Barros, Dec. I., liv. III., c. 4).2

I am inclined to agree with Peschel, who (' Geschichte
der Erdkunde,' 189) suggests his identity with the ruler
of Kanem. Kanem at the time of Dunama ben Tsilim
or Selma (1266-1308) extended in the north to Fezzan,
and at a subsequent period, under Ali ben Dunama (1465-
92) from the Nile in the east to the Niger and the borders
of Yoruba in the west.8

On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that Abu
Obeid el Bekri (1095) tells us that " Ghana " was the title
borne by the ruler of Walata, and that Barth (' Reisen,'
IV., 621) states that a like title was claimed by the King
of the Mosi.4 Of this " Rey dos Moses " King John heard
that he was neither a Moor nor a heathen, but that in
many respects he conformed to the usages of the
Christians. Having previously identified d'Aveiro's
Ogane with Prester John, upon receiving this information,
this King of the Mosi was taken to be the long sought-
for « Prester." 5

Edrisi (1154), Ibn Said (1274), Abulfeda (1338) and
other Arabian authors give accounts both of a land of
Ghana in the west, and of Kanem.

konik von . . . , (E 2), with a royal tent. Perhaps
the Rey de Nubia of Waldseemidler (1507).

On a river flowing to the gulf of Guinea Jomard and
Ghillany have the following towns, no longer visible on
the original.

louta or touta, Jom : locita (E 2).
robig (E 3).

Erster Anfenthalt in Marokko,' firemen, 1873.

2 I have vainly searched the collections in the British Museum and at
Berlin for a cross. A curious head-dress (helmet) and a short staff tipped
with a bird, are shown on Plates XIV. and XXIX. of Ch. H. Reid and
O. M. Dalton's 'Antiquities from the City of Benin,' London, 1898.

3 Barth's ' Reisen,' II., 276 ; Nachtigal, ' Sahara und Sudan,' II., 380.

4 Quatremere, ' Notices et extrait,' XII., 443-668.

5 J. de Barros, Dec. I., liv. III., c. 7.