"A dream as frail as those of ancient time": the in-credible geographies of Timbuctoo

The author considers the politics and poetics of belief and disbelief in la te 18th-century and early 19th-century Britain and France, with particular reference to the mythologies and controversies about the location and natur e of Timbuctoo, a city widely believed to be the hub of a fabulously wealth y African trading system. Like other episodes in the history of European ex ploration, from the quest for the North-West passage to the search for the source of the Nile and the races to the North and South Poles, the scramble to reach Timbuctoo was sustained by intense international rivalry and spaw ned a widespread speculative discourse involving politicians, scientists, s cientific patrons, explorers, and journalists. Drawing on recent work on th e social history of truth, the author considers how and why different geogr aphical descriptions of Timbuctoo were deemed credible by the scientific co mmunities of London and Paris. Judgments about 'new' geographical informati on were influenced, if not determined, by a complex and shifting rhetoric o f adjudication in which moral assessments about the character and status of rival claimants loomed especially large. When the French explorer Rene Cai llie claimed the prize of the Paris Geographical Society as the first explo rer to reach and return from Timbuctoo in 1828, his achievements sparked an acrimonious debate between British and French geographers that raised fund amental questions about the purpose of African exploration and the nature o f geographical truth. Of central concern were the legitimacy of disguise as an exploratory tactic, and the importance of physical courage and bodily c omportment in assessing an explorer's scientific credibility and moral auth ority.