Amongst the great personages, to whom an embassy was sent, are mentioned the kings of Tongubutue, (Timbuctoo,) and Tucurol, a Mandingo chief named Mandimansa, and a king of the Foulhas, with all of whom a friendly intercourse was established.

All endeavours were, however, vain as to the primary object, but the Portuguese thereby gained a more complete knowledge of this part of interior Africa than was afterwards attained in Europe till a very recent period.
There is, however, one circumstance attending these discoveries of the Portuguese, and the embassies, which they in consequence sent to the native princes, which deserves particular attention.

There is very little doubt existing, but that the Portuguese were acquainted with the town and territory of Timbuctoo; and the question then presents itself, by what means did the Portuguese succeed in penetrating to a kingdom, which, for centuries afterwards, baffled all the efforts of the most enterprising travellers to arrive within 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.