Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-10-22
OLDLETTERS REVEAL LOST
CHAPTER IN WORLD
HISTORY

Lava preserved the secrets OIL no
man civilization in Pompeii; tombs
protected the records of ancient
Egypt's culture; and now there is pros
pect that some long neglected letters
may reveal one of the most fascinat-
ing chapters in the historic trail of the
Jewish people, and incidentally show
that Africa loomed larger in the mid
die ages than modern historians have
realized.
Hitherto Africa has figured not at
all in medieval history. 1t still was
a clark continent" when Stanley and
Livingstone penetrated it less than
century ago. Yet, in view of remark
able documentary discovery made by
Charles de la Ronciere, librarian of
the national library in France, it
would seem Jews OF the fifteenth cen
fury had trading posts in northwest
Africa. and carried on a vast COM
merce with the natives from the Sa
hara to the Atlantic and from Algeria
to the Niger
Antonia Malfante, a Genoese citizen,
traversed this region and wrote his
descriptive letters, in 1447, from Tim
buktu and Touat. Timbuktu was the
Chicago of the west African plains;
and TOuat the center of the camel
caravan traffic that exchanged the
wheat and barley of Egypt for the
powdered gold of Timbuktu and the
precious salt from Teghazza.
All the places visited by Malfante
were so well known to the Jews of
his time that they were listed in a
Catalan atlas prepared three-quarters
of a century earlier for Charles v,
according to NJ. Ronciere. But short
ly after Malfante's visit the Jews were
driven out of Spain, and since the
Jews were the only ones in Europe
who knew of the Nigeria country and
apparently permitted no Christian to
enter there except Malfante the Jew
| ish knowledge was lost in Europe. Not
until DR.. Gerhard Rohlfs began his
| explorations in Algeria and Morocco
| in 1860 did the rest of the world again
form a contact with the extensive re-
| gions of Malfante's travels.
Landing at a point west of Algiers,
Malfante worked his way south to
Touat, which Rohlfs believed himself
to have been the first European to Wis
it. Yet Malfante dated his first letter
from there four centuries earlier.
Touat was an oasis, containing from
| $50 to 200 villages, which together
| formed vast commercial center.
Each had chief. Travellers became
the guests Of these chiefs and NAL
fante reported their protection su-
| perior to that in states like Tlemcen
and Tunis. One Of these towns was
Tametit, now a decayed village, whose
people still recall the Jewish epoch.
Arabian invaders earlier had routed
the Jews, who were masters of the
Sahara and whose empire extended
south to the Niger. Tametit, Ma1fante
wrote, sheltered both Jews and Mo-
hammedans, who lived in harmony.
The native negroes valued copper
highly, Malfante stated, and used ii
for money. Profteering, apparently
is not a modern vice. Malfante com.
planned, "The people here do not want
to transact any business if they do not
make a commission of 100 per cent
And their business was on big scale
at that. Half a million head of cattle
to mention but one item, were brought
to market in the caravan season.
Pushing on to Timbuktu, Malfante's
host was the brother Of a captain OF