Editing Senegal River (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Serer history|Serer ancient history|Timeline of Serer history|Takrur#Serer Exodus}}

The area was previously occupied by the [[Serer people]], who following [[Religious persecution#Persecution of Serers|their religious and ethnic persecution]] by Islamic forces in the 11th century, resulted in the Serer exodus to the south.<ref name="Villalón2006p54">{{cite book|author=Villalón, Leonardo A.|title=Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFC1KUbXJ6gC&pg=PA54|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-03232-2|pages=54–55}}, Quote: "Serer oral tradition recounts the group's origins in the Senegal River valley, where it was part of, or closely related to, the same group as the ancestors of today's [[Toucouleur people|Tukulor]]."</ref><ref>Galvan, Dennis Charles, ''The State Must Be Our Master of Fire: How Peasants Craft Culturally Sustainable Development in Senegal,'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004, p. 51</ref><ref>Berg, Elizabeth; Wan, Ruth; and Lau, Ruth  (2009). ''Senegal''. Marshall Cavendish. {{ISBN|9780761444817}}, p. 63</ref><ref>Page, Willie F., ''Encyclopedia of African history and culture: African kingdoms (500 to 1500)'', pp. 209, 676. Vol.2, Facts on File (2001), {{ISBN|0-8160-4472-4}}</ref><ref>Streissguth, Thomas, "Senegal in Pictures, Visual Geography", Second Series, p. 23, Twenty-First Century Books (2009), {{ISBN|1-57505-951-7}}</ref><ref>Oliver, Roland Anthony; & Fage, J. D.,; "Journal of African history", Volume 10, p. 367. Cambridge University Press (1969)</ref><ref>Mwakikagile, Godfrey, "Ethnic Diversity and Integration in The Gambia: The Land, The People and The Culture," (2010), p. 11, {{ISBN|9987-9322-2-3}}</ref> 

The existence of the Senegal River was known to the early Mediterranean civilizations. It or some other river was called ''Bambotus'' by [[Pliny the Elder]] (possibly from [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] "[[behemoth]]" for [[hippopotamus]])<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'', Lib. 5, Ch.1 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=VzwZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA380 p. 380])</ref> and ''Nias'' by [[Claudius Ptolemy]]. It was visited by [[Hanno the Navigator|Hanno the Carthaginian]] around 450 BCE at his navigation from [[Carthage]] through the [[pillars of Herakles]] to Theon Ochema ([[Mount Cameroon]]) in the [[Gulf of Guinea]]. There was trade from here to the [[Mediterranean]] World, until the [[destruction of Carthage]] and its [[west Africa]]n trade net in 146 BCE.

=== Arab sources ===
In the Early Middle Ages (c. 800 CE), the Senegal River restored contact with the Mediterranean world with the establishment of the [[Trans-Saharan trade]] route between [[Morocco]] and the [[Ghana Empire]].  Arab geographers, like [[al-Masudi]] of Baghdad (957), [[al-Bakri]] of Spain (1068) and [[al-Idrisi]] of Sicily (1154), provided some of the earliest descriptions of the Senegal River.<ref>A translation of al-Bakri's 1068 account is found in Levtzion & Hopkins, (2000, ''Corpus'': ([https://books.google.com/books?id=L3tNlgQmT9wC&pg=PA77 p. 77]). In French, see Monteil (1968). For an attempt to reconstruct the Senegal river's course from the accounts of al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, see Cooley (1841: [https://books.google.com/books?id=380NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA52 p. 52]).</ref> Early Arab geographers believed the upper Senegal River and the upper [[Niger River]] were connected to each other, and formed a single river flowing from east to west, which they called the "Western Nile".<ref>The term "Nile" seems to have been applied quite early to the Senegal. During the Arab conquest of North Africa in the 8th century, [[Ifriqiya]]n commanders launched several expeditionary raids from the [[Sous]] valley against the desert-dwelling nomadic [[Berber people|Berber]]s of [[Western Sahara]]. There is a report from an Arab commander from the 750s who claims to have reached as far south as "the Nile" (i.e. the Senegal). See Hrbek (1992: p.308).</ref> (In fact, some of the headwaters of the Senegal River are near the Niger River in Mali and Guinea.) It was believed to be either a western branch of the Egyptian [[Nile River]] or drawn from the same source (variously conjectured to some great internal lakes of the [[Mountains of the Moon (Africa)|Mountains of the Moon]], or [[Ptolemy]]'s Gir (Γειρ)<ref>Geographia, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA222 Book IV, Chapter 6, Section 13].</ref> or the Biblical [[Gihon]] stream).<ref>e.g. [[Leo Africanus]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=rmcMAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Leo%20Africanus%22%20Niger&pg=PA124 p. 124]</ref>

[[File:Senegal River according to al-Bakri.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Western Nile (Senegal-Niger River) according to [[al-Bakri]] (1068)]]
Arab geographers Abd al-Hassan Ali ibn Omar (1230), [[Ibn Said al-Maghribi]] (1274) and [[Abu'l-Fida|Abulfeda]] (1331), label the Senegal as the "Nile of [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]]" (Nil Gana or Nili Ganah).<ref>See R.H. Major (1868) ''Life of Prince Henry'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=UfE5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA114 p. 114]</ref>

As the Senegal River reached into the heart of the gold-producing [[Ghana Empire]] and later the [[Mali Empire]], Trans-Saharan traders gave the Senegal its famous nickname as the "River of Gold". The Trans-Saharan stories about the "River of Gold" reached the ears of Sub-Alpine European merchants that frequented the ports of Morocco and the lure proved irresistible. Arab historians report at least three separate Arab maritime expeditions - the last one organized by a group of eight ''mughrarin'' ("wanderers") of [[Lisbon]] (before 1147) -  that tried to sail down the Atlantic coast, possibly in an effort find the mouth of the Senegal.<ref>See Beazley (1899: p. xliv, lxxv)</ref>

=== Cartographic representation ===
[[File:Senegal River according to al-Idrisi.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Western Nile (Senegal-Niger River) according to [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]] (1154)]]

Drawing from Classical legend and Arab sources, the "River of Gold" found its way into European maps in the 14th century. In the [[Hereford Mappa Mundi]] (c. 1300), there is a river labelled "Nilus Fluvius" drawn ''parallel'' to the coast of Africa, albeit without communication with Atlantic (it ends in a lake).  It depicts some giant [[ant]]s digging up gold dust from its sands, with the note "''Hic grandes formice auream serican [or servant] arenas''"<ref>Bevan and Phillott (1873: [https://books.google.com/books?id=u_oHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA105 p. 105].</ref> ("Here great ants guard gold sands"). In the mappa mundi made by [[Pietro Vesconte]] for the c. 1320 atlas of [[Marino Sanuto the Elder|Marino Sanuto]], there is an unnamed river stemming from the African interior and opening in the Atlantic ocean.  The 1351 [[Medici-Laurentian Atlas]] shows both the Egyptian Nile and the western Nile stemming from the same internal mountain range, with the note that "''Ilic coligitur aureaum''".<ref>See [[João de Andrade Corvo]] (1882) ''Roteiro de Lisboa a Goa por D. João de Castro'', Lisbon. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8M5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA68 p.68n.]</ref> The [[portolan chart]] of [[Giovanni da Carignano]] (1310s-20s) has the river with the label, ''iste fluuis exit de nilo ubi multum aurum repperitur''.<ref>Winter (1962: p. 18)</ref>

In the more accurately-drawn [[portolan chart]]s, starting with the 1367 chart of [[Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano]] and carried on in the 1375 [[Catalan Atlas]], the 1413 chart of the [[Catalans|Catalan]] ''[[converso]]'' [[Mecia de Viladestes]], etc. the "River of Gold" is depicted (if only speculatively), draining into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere just south of [[Cape Bojador]]. The legend of Cape Bojador as a terrifying obstacle, the 'cape of no return' to European sailors, emerged around the same time (possibly encouraged by Trans-Saharan traders who did not want to see their land route sidestepped by sea).

The river is frequently depicted with a great river island midway, the "Island of Gold", first mentioned by al-Masudi, and famously called "''Wangara''" by al-Idrisi and "''Palolus''" in the 1367 Pizzigani brothers chart. It is conjectured that this riverine "island" is in fact just the [[Bambuk]]-Buré goldfield district, which is practically surrounded on all sides by rivers - the Senegal river to the north, the [[Falémé River]] to the west, the [[Bagoé River|Bakhoy]] to the east and the [[Niger River|Niger]] and [[Tinkisso River|Tinkisso]] to the south.<ref>Delafosse (1912: v.1,p.55), Crone (1937: p.xv), Mauny (1961: p.302), Levtzion (1973: p.155).  However, McIntosh (1981) suggests an alternative identification of this riverine "island" to be the [[Djenné]] area, around the bend of the Niger.</ref>

[[Image:Palolus river (Senegal-Niger) in 1413 Mecia de Viladestes map.jpg|thumb|1000px|center|Course of the "River of Gold"  (Senegal-Niger) in the 1413 portolan chart of [[Mecia de Viladestes]].]]

The 1413 portolan chart of [[:pt:Mecia de Viladestes|Mecia de Viladestes]] gives perhaps the most detailed depiction of the early state of European knowledge about the Senegal River prior to the 1440s.  Viladestes labels it "River of Gold" ("''riu del or''") and locates it a considerable distance south of [[Cape Bojador]] (''buyeter'') - indeed, south of a mysterious "''cap de abach''" (possibly Cape Timris). There are extensive notes about the plentifulness of ivory and gold in the area, including a note that reads

{{Quote|"This river is called Wad al-Nil and also is called the River of Gold, for one can here obtain the gold of Palolus.  And know that the greater part of those that live here occupy themselves collecting gold on the shores of the river which, at its mouth, is a league wide, and deep enough for the largest ship of the world."<ref>"Aquest flum es apelat ued anil axi matex es apelat riu de lor per tal com si requyl lor de palola. Et scire debeatis quod major pars gentium in partibus istis habitantium sunt electi ad colligendum aurum ipso flumine, qui habet latitudinem unius legue et fondum pro majori nave mundi"</ref>}}
[[File:VillageCayor-1821.jpg|thumb|Slave trade along the Senegal River, kingdom of [[Cayor]]]]

The galley of [[Jaume Ferrer]] is depicted off the coast on the left, with a quick note about his 1346 voyage.  The golden round island at the mouth of the Senegal River is the indication (customary on portolan charts) of river [[mouth bar]]s or islands - in this case, probably a reference to the [[Langue de Barbarie]] or the island of [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]]).  The first town, by the mouth of the Senegal, is called "''isingan''" (arguably the etymological source of the term "Senegal"). East of that, the Senegal forms a riverine island called "''insula de bronch''" ([[Morfil|Île à Morfil]]). By its shores lies the city of "''tocoror''" ([[Takrur]]). Above it is a depiction of the [[Almoravid]] general [[Abu Bakr ibn Umar]] ("''Rex Bubecar''") on a camel.  Further east, along the river, is the seated emperor ([[Mansa (title)|mansa]]) of [[Mali Empire|Mali]] ("''Rex Musa Meli''", prob. [[Mansa Musa]]), holding a gold nugget.  His capital, "''civitat musa meli''" is shown on the shores of the river, and the range of the Emperor of Mali's sway is suggested by all the black banners (an inscription notes "This lord of the blacks is called Musa Melli, Lord of Guinea, the greatest noble lord of these parts for the abundance of the gold which is collected in his lands".<ref>"Aquest senyor dels negres es appelat musa melli, senyor de guineua, e aquest es el puys noble senyor de tota esta partida per labondansia del or lo qualse recull en la sua terra"</ref> Curiously, there is a defiant gold-bannered town south of the river, labelled "''tegezeut''" (probably the Ta'adjast of al-Idrisi), and might be an ichoate reference to [[Djenné]].

East of Mali, the river forms a lake or "Island of Gold"  shown here studded with river-washed gold nuggets (this is what the Pizzigani brothers called the island of "''Palolus''", and most commentators take to indicate the Bambuk-Buré goldfields). It is connected by many streams to the southerly "mountains of gold" (labelled "''montanies del lor''", the [[Futa Djallon]]/[[Bambouk Mountains]] and [[Loma Mountains]] of Sierra Leone). It is evident the Senegal river morphs east, unbroken, into the [[Niger River]] - the cities of "''tenbuch''" ([[Timbuktu]]), "''geugeu''" ([[Gao]]) and "''mayna''" ([[Niamey]]? or a misplaced [[Niani, Mali Empire|Niani]]?) are denoted along the same single river.  South of them (barely visible) are what seem like the towns of [[Kukiya]] (on the eastern shore of the Island of Gold), and east of that, probably [[Sokoto (city)|Sokoto]] (called "Zogde" in the Catalan Atlas) and much further southeast, probably [[Kano (city)|Kano]].<ref>The inscription above Kano reads merely: "Africa es apelada la terca part del mon, per rao dun rey afer fill d'abrae, qui la senyorega, laquai partida comensa en les pars degipte al flum del cales, e finey en gutzolanes les pars hoccidentals e combren tota la barberia environant tôt lo mis jorn" (trans: "Africa is called the third part of the world, after King Afer, son of Abraham, who lorded over it, its beginning starts in the part of Egypt by the river of Cairo (''Cales'' = adjective of Cairo) and the western part ends at [[Cape Non]] ("gutzolanes"; Cape Non was called "Caput finis Gozolae" after the Gazzula Berbers of the western Sahara) and covers all of [[Barbary]] (land of the Bebers).</ref>
[[File:Boilat-11-Prince maure, Trarzas.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Moors|Moorish]] man, [[Emirate of Trarza|Trarza]] region of the Senegal River Valley, Abbé David Boilat, 1853]]

North of the Senegal-Niger are the various oases and stations of the [[trans-Saharan route]] ("''Tutega''" = [[Tidjikja|Tijigja]], "''Anzica''" = In-Zize, "''Tegaza''" = [[Taghaza]], etc.) towards the Mediterranean coast. There is an unlabeled depiction of a black African man on a camel traveling from "''Uuegar''" (prob. [[Hoggar]]) to the town of "Organa" ("''ciutat organa''", variously identified as [[Kanem Empire|Kanem]] or [[Ouargla]] or possibly even a misplaced depiction of [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]] - long defunct, but, on the other hand, contemporaneous with the depicted Abu Bakr). Nearby sits its Arab-looking king ("''Rex Organa''") holding a scimitar.  The River of Gold is sourced at a circular island, what seem like the [[Mountains of the Moon (Africa)|Mountains of the Moon]] (albeit unlabeled here).  From this same source also flows north the [[White Nile]] towards Egypt, which forms the frontier between the Muslim "king of [[Nubia]]" ("''Rex Onubia''", his range depicted by crescent-on-gold banners) and the Christian [[Prester John]] ("''Preste Joha''"), i.e. the emperor of [[Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopia]] in the garb of a Christian bishop (coincidentally, this is the first visual depiction of Prester John on a portolan chart).

Uniquely, the Viladestes map shows another river, south of the Senegal, which it labels the "''flumen gelica''" (poss. ''angelica''), which some have taken to depict the [[Gambia River]].  In the 1459 [[Fra Mauro map|mappa mundi]] of [[Fra Mauro]], drawn a half-century later, after the Portuguese had already visited the Senegal (albeit still trying to respect Classical sources), shows ''two'' parallel rivers running east to west, both of them sourced from the same great internal lake (which, Fra Mauro asserts, is also the same source as the Egyptian Nile). Mauro names the two parallel rivers differently,calling one  "''flumen Mas'' ("Mas River"), the other the "''canal dal oro''" ("Channel of Gold"), and makes the note that "''Inne larena de questi do fiume se trova oro de paiola''" ("In the sands of both these rivers gold of 'palola' may be found"), and nearer to the sea, "''Qui se racoce oro''" ("Here gold is collected"), and finally, on the coast, "''Terra de Palmear''" ("Land of Palms").  It is notable that Fra Mauro knew of the error of Henry the Navigator's captains about the Daklha inlet, which Mauro carefully labels "''Reodor''" ("Rio do Ouro", Western Sahara), distinctly from the "Canal del Oro" (Senegal River).<ref>João de Andrade Corvo (1882: p.70)</ref>

=== European contact ===
Christian Europeans soon began attempting to find the sea route to the mouth of the Senegal.  The first known effort may have been by the [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] brothers [[Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi]], who set out down the coast in 1291 in a pair of ships (nothing more is heard of them). In 1346, the [[Majorcan]] sailor, [[Jaume Ferrer]] set out on a galley with the explicit objective of finding the "River of Gold" (''Riu de l'Or''), where he heard that most people along its shores were engaged in the collection of gold and that the river was wide and deep enough for the largest ships. Nothing more is heard of him either. In 1402, after establishing the first European colony on the [[Canary Islands]], the French Norman adventurers [[Jean de Béthencourt]] and [[Gadifer de la Salle]] set about immediately probing the African coast, looking for directions to the mouth of Senegal.

[[File:Bababé.jpg|thumb|Boat on Senegal River]]
The project of finding the Senegal was taken up in the 1420s by the [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portuguese]] Prince [[Henry the Navigator]], who invested heavily to reach it.  In 1434, one of Henry's captains, [[Gil Eanes]], finally surpassed Cape Bojador and returned to tell about it.  Henry immediately dispatched a follow-up mission in 1435, under Gil Eanes and [[Afonso Gonçalves Baldaia]].  Going down the coast, they turned around the [[Dakhla, Western Sahara|al-Dakhla]] peninsula in the [[Western Sahara]] and emerged into an inlet, which they excitedly believed to be the mouth of the Senegal River.  The name they mistakenly bestowed upon the inlet - "Rio do Ouro" - is a name it would [[Río de Oro|remain stuck with]] down to the 20th century.

Realizing the mistake, Henry kept pressing his captains further down the coast, and in 1445, the Portuguese captain [[Nuno Tristão]] finally reached the [[Langue de Barbarie]], where he noticed the desert end and the treeline begin, and the population change from 'tawny' [[Zenaga people|Sanhaja]] [[Berbers]] to 'black' [[Wolof people]]. Bad weather or lack of supplies prevented Tristão from actually reaching the mouth of the Senegal River, but he rushed back to Portugal to report he had finally found the "Land of the Blacks" (''Terra dos Negros''), and that the "Nile" was surely nearby.  Shortly after (possibly still within that same year) another captain, [[Dinis Dias]] (sometimes given as Dinis Fernandes) was the first known European since antiquity to finally reach the mouth of the Senegal River.  However, Dias did not sail upriver, but instead kept sailing down the [[Grande Côte]] to the bay of [[Dakar]].

The very next year, in 1446, the Portuguese [[slave]]-raiding fleet of [[Lançarote de Freitas]] arrived at the mouth of the Senegal.  One of its captains, [[Estêvão Afonso]], volunteered to take a [[launch (boat)|launch]] to explore upriver for settlements, thus becoming the first European to actually enter the Senegal river.  He didn't get very far.  Venturing ashore at one point along the river bank, Afonso tried to kidnap two Wolof children from a woodsman's hut.  But he ran into their father, who proceeded to chase the Portuguese back to their launch and gave them such a beating that the explorers gave up on going any further, and turned back to the waiting caravels.<ref>Zurara (p.178-83), Barros (p.110-12)</ref>
[[File:RiverSenegalNearKanel.jpg|thumb|Young boys swimming in the Senegal River]]

Sometime between 1448 and 1455, the Portuguese captain [[Lourenço Dias]] opened regular trade contact on the Senegal River, with the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] statelets of [[Waalo]] (near the mouth of the Senegal River) and [[Cayor]] (a little below that), drumming up a profitable business exchanging Mediterranean goods (notably, horses) for gold and slaves.<ref>Cadamosto suggest this was begun in 1450: "Five years before I went on this voyage, this river was discovered by three caravels belonging to Don Henry, which entered it, and their commanders settled peace and trade with the Moors; since which time ships have been sent to this place every year to trade with the natives." Cadamosto (Engl. 1811 trans., [https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA220 p. 220]) The identification of Lourenço Dias as the opener of Portuguese trade on the Senegal River is suggested in a 1489 document. See Russell (2000:p.97n14).</ref> Chronicler [[Gomes Eanes de Zurara]], writing in 1453, still called it the "Nile River", but [[Alvise Cadamosto]], writing in the 1460s, was already calling it the "Senega" {{sic}}, and it is denoted as ''Rio do Çanagà'' on most subsequent Portuguese maps of the age.<ref>Cadamosto (Engl. 1811 trans., ([https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA213 p. 213]). [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]], publisher of the 1550 Italian edition of Cadamosto's memoir, refers to the gold from the Senegal as ''oro tiber'' ([https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=RA2-PA107 p. 107]), thus leading some to imagine it was also customary to call the Senegal the [[Tiber River]]!  In all likelihood, "Tiber Gold" was just a generic Italian reference to river-dug gold.</ref> Cadamosto relates the legend that both the Senegal and the Egyptian Nile were branches of the Biblical [[Gihon]] River that stems from the [[Garden of Eden]] and flows through [[Ethiopia]].<ref>Cadamosto ([https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA220 p. 220]; Ital: [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=RA2-PA111 p. 111]).</ref> He also notes that the Senegal was called "the Niger" by the ancients - probably a reference to [[Ptolemy]]'s legendary 'Nigir' (Νιγειρ)<ref>Geographia, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA222 Book IV, Chapter 6, Section 14].</ref> (below the Gir), which would be later identified by [[Leo Africanus]] with the modern [[Niger River]].<ref>By confounding the Ptolemy's Greek 'Nigir' with the Latin word for "black", Leo Africanus assumed the "Nile of the Blacks" (i.e. Senegal-Niger of the Arab traders) must be the Nigir of the ancients. See Leo Africanus, (Ital: [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=PA7 p. 7], Eng: [https://books.google.com/books?id=rmcMAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Leo%20Africanus%22%20Niger&pg=PA124 p. 124]</ref> Much the same story is repeated by [[Luis del Marmol Carvajal|Marmol]] in 1573, with the additional note that both the Senegal River and [[Gambia River]] were tributaries of the [[Niger River]].<ref>[[Luis del Marmol Carvajal]] (1573) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=1WVevz1cDnwC&q=Zenega&pg=PT23 ch. 17])</ref> However, the contemporary African atlas of [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] cartographer [[Livio Sanuto]], published in 1588, sketches the Senegal, the Niger and the Gambia as three separate, parallel rivers.

[[File:Guillaume Delisle Senegambia 1707.jpg| thumb | [[Senegambia]] region, detail from the map of Guillaume Delisle (1707), which still assumes the Senegal connected to the Niger; this would be corrected in subsequent edititions of Delisle's map (1722, 1727), where it was shown ending at a lake, south of the Niger.]]
Portuguese chronicler [[João de Barros]] (writing in 1552) says the river's original local [[Wolof language|Wolof]] name was ''Ovedech'' (which according to one source, comes from "vi-dekh", Wolof for "this river").<ref>Barros, ''Décadas da Ásia'' ([https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA109 p. 109]).  See also Bailot (1853: p.199).</ref> His contemporary, [[Damião de Góis]] (1567) records it as ''Sonedech'' (from "sunu dekh", Wolof for "our river").<ref>See also A.M. de Castilho (1866) ''Descripção e roteiro da costa occidental de Africa'', vol. 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8ikiSWPVYDUC&dq=editions%3ASTANFORD36105015335362&pg=PA92 p. 92].</ref> Writing in 1573, the Spanish geographer [[Luis del Marmol Carvajal]] asserts that the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] called it ''Zenega'', the 'Zeneges' (Berber [[Zenaga people|Zenaga]]) called it the ''Zenedec'', the 'Gelofes' ([[Wolof people|Wolofs]]) call it ''Dengueh'', the 'Tucorones' ([[Toucouleur people|Fula Toucouleur]]) called it ''Mayo'', the 'Çaragoles' ([[Soninke people|Soninke Sarakole]] of [[Ngalam]]) called it ''Colle'' and further along (again, Marmol assuming Senegal was connected to the Niger), the people of Bagamo' ([[Bambara people|Bambara]] of [[Bamako]]?) called it ''Zimbala'' (Jimbala?) and the people of [[Timbuktu]] called it the ''Yça''.<ref>[[Luis del Marmol Carvajal|Marmol]] (1573), Lib. VIII, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hwtxRhuIkIoC&pg=PA3 ch.3].  See also Phérotée de La Croix (1688: Ch. 2 [https://books.google.com/books?id=JaUBAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA406 p. 406]) and Cooley (1841: [https://books.google.com/books?id=380NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA38 p. 38])</ref>