commercial and maritime nation like this to have remained so long obstinately ignorant of the important fact, and to have wasted so much time and money as Britain has done, in attempting to do good to Africa by directing her energies and resources to the most unproductive, unhealthy, impolitic, and unprofitable parts of the coasts of Africa, while she forsook altogether the more productive and wealthy parts of the country, and that part of the African coast, from which alone any European nation can, with comparative safety and celerity, reach the more civilized, industrious, and wealthy parts of the interior of Northern Africa. But let us hope that a different course will now be pursued with energy, and by all the political strength and commercial resources which this country can put in ope ration. With these observations, I shall proceed to take a short survey of the course and termination of the River Niger, and the advantages which its navigable stream can afford to the commerce of Africa, and which it will, I hope, speedily afford to the commerce of this country. The branch of the Niger at present best known springs on the northeastern side of the mountain called -Loma, in 9o 15' N. latitude, and 9° 36' W. longitude, about 200 miles N.E. by E. of Sierra Leone, and eastward of the sources of the Rokelle and Kouranko rivers, which run into the inlet of the sea on which Sierra Leone is situated. From Loma the Niger, under the name of the Joliba, bends its course N.E. through Sulimana and Kankan to Couroussa, a town situated about 80 miles east from Timboo, where De Caillé, in his late journey, going eastward, crossed it, and found it, before the inundation commenced, to be 900 French feet broad, and 9 feet deep, with a current at the rate of 25 miles per hour. The magnitude of the river at this place goes to prove that, between Loma and Couroussa, the Niger must have received a large tribute from the east, and which I conceive to be the Coomba or Zamma river, laid down in my first map, and which river is found to the N.W. of Ashantee, a considerable stream, running westward; and, as we find no rivers entering the sea on the Gold Coast, from the Assine river to the Mesurado river, so it is almost certain that the Coomba is a branch of the Niger. It is remarkable that Ptolemy brings a branch from the same quarter, while, in some very old and excellent Dutch maps, I find the higher course of the Joliba so laid down, and which, taking it to be the fact, will account for its great magnitude at Couroussa, within 100 miles of its reputed source. De Caillé, after crossing the river, continued his journey S. E. about 180 miles to Time, and afterwards N. E. about 90 miles to Tangoora, crossing in his journey numerous large streams descending from the Kong chain, all running N. W. to the Niger, particularly one at a short distance from Couroussa named Yandan, 450 feet broad, and in his journey northward from Tangoora to Jinne he crossed several other rivers, all bending their course N.W. to the Niger. From Couroussa the Niger continues its course N. E. by Kaniaba, having previously, and a little below Bourre, received the Tankisso, (this stream was mistaken by Mollien for the parent branch of the Ba Fing, or Senegal,) a considerable river which rises a little to the west, and runs a little to the south of Timboo. From this junction the Niger pursues its course to Bammako, situated in 12° 48′ north latitude,and 3° 40' west longitude, where Park, in his second journey, fell in with it, and found it in the early part of the wet season one mile broad, but still confined within its natural banks. From this place the Joliba continues its course nearly east by Yamina, Sego, and Sansanding, (here Park embarked upon it in his large canoe in his last journey,) to Jinne, where it appears to be divided into several branches, or else to receive from the N.W. some tributary streams. Having visited Jinne, De Caillé embarked on the eastern branch, about 1200 feet broad, at Cougallia, and proceeded in a course nearly due north to Timbuctoo in a canoe of about 80 tons burden, and accompanied the greater part of the way by a fleet of nearly 80 sail of vessels of the same magnitude, loaded with goods. In his journey northwards he passed the lake Dibbie, the great magnitude of which surprised him exceedingly, and which stretches from east to west, instead of from north to south. In this lake I have reason to believe the Niger is joined by a river of very considerable magnitude flowing from the N. W., and called by the Moors and Negroes Gozenzair or Wad-el-Fenij. From Jinne to Timbuctoo, the banks of the river were low and marshy. Below Lake Dibbie the river generally was very deep, and from half a mile to a mile broad, with a considerable current. Although it was at the height of the dry season when De Caillé sailed down it, he found it larger than the Senegal at Podor, only 120 miles from the sea; in fact, says he, 66 THE SENEGAL IS BUT AN ORDINARY RIVER COMPARED TO THIS." Near Kabra, the port of Timbuctoo, the Niger separates into two branches, the larger about three-fourths of a mile broad, bending its course E.S.E., and the smaller about 100 feet broad, but deep, taking its course E. by N. to Kabra. The celebrated city of Timbuctoo is about eight miles north from Kabra, and from the most accurate information which has as yet been received, stands in 17° 30′ north latitude, and 2 east longitude. From Kabra the small branch of the Niger turns S. E. and joins the parent stream to the eastward, from which point we have reason to believe the Niger flows, in the general bearing of its course S. E. in an united stream, till it approaches Boussa, from which place its course is on the general bearing south, until it reaches the sea. From Timbuctoo to Youri we know very little of the Niger or the country around it, except from the journey of Sidi Hamed, who, as regards the river, describes it as a very large stream, and the further fact, that Park navigated it in safety to Boussa. At Cabi, above Youri, the Niger, which here assumes the name of Quorra or Kowara, is joined by a considerable river, and which rises to the east, and flows to the north of the city of Saccatoo, from which place the stream bends its course S. W. to the Niger at Cabi. At Boussa the Niger divides itself into three branches, two of which are filled with rocks and rapids, but still passable by vessels; and the other, called Menai, where Park was lost, is a deep still-running stream. Boussa is situated in 6° 11' east longitude, and -10° 14' north latitude, and consequently about 420 British miles, in a direct line from the sea, at the mouth of the Bonny river. Boussa is an island formed by the Niger. At a short distance below Boussa the Niger unites in one stream, represented by Clapperton to be a quarter of a mile broad in the dry season. The magnitude of the Niger above Timbuctoo, and its magnitude in the Delta of Benin, as compared to what it is represented to be, near Boussa, naturally excites surprise, and can only be accounted for, if the width given be correct, which, however, I much doubt, from the greater rapidity of its current over the rapids, which are found in this part of its course. Thus we see the great river Congo, which above and below the cataracts is from four to five miles broad, reduced at the great cataract to the width of only fifty yards!! From Boussa, the Niger proceeds south by Nyffe, and is joined in this part of its course by several considerable rivers both from the east and from the west, to Fundah, a celebrated town situated to the eastward of Katungah, the capital of Yarriba. The river above Fundah (here several miles broad) bends for a short space to the east, turned aside, perhaps, by the granite hills of Yarriba. At Fundah, the Niger is joined by a large river from the east, and which more probably is the Coodonia, or Kadania, mentioned by Lander in his first journey as descending and receiving several other important streams which descend from that elevated land and chain of high hills which commence to the south of Kano, in the meridian of 11 degrees east longitude, and which hills stretch SSE. to the high mountains of Mandara, the mount Thala of Ptolemy; and which elevated chain just mentioned intervenes between the river Shary and the Lake Tchad, thus divi ding the waters which flow from the S. and S. E. in the Shary, and from the west in the river Yeou into that lake, from the waters which, springing in the chain mentioned, flow westward and southwestward to the Niger. About Fundah, also, I cling to the belief, that the Niger is joined by a great river descending by Mount Thala, from the Mountains of the Moon. From Fundah, the river bends its course south through Benin, in which country, and probably about 7 degrees of north latitude, it separates into numerous branches, the principal of which are the Rio de Formosa, certainly the parent stream which enters the sea in the Bight of Benin, and the Bonny, and New Calabar rivers, which flow to the SE., to the sea nearly opposite the Island of Fernando Po. These rivers, as we shall presently see, are of great magnitude. From the Bight of Benin to the Bight of Biafra no fewer than twenty rivers enter the sea through this alluvial Delta, which is completely flooded to a great distance from the sea, ,during the swell of the rivers in the rainy season. The Rio de Formosa is three and a half British miles broad at its mouth, where there are two bars of mud with thirteen feet water on each. Upwards in its course it spreads to a breadth of four miles, and is four or five fathoms deep, throwing off numerous branches to the SW., S. and SE. and on every large branch, to the WNW., which joins the sea near Lagos. From Rio de Formosa to Cape Formosa, six rivers, each of considerable magnitude, enter the sea. The Rio dos Forcados is the largest of these. Its mouth is the first to the south of the Rio de Formosa. South of it is the large lake called Warree. Passing Cape Formosa we have six rivers (the first and nearest the Cape is the river Nun, by which the Landers descended to the sea), which enter the sea before we come to the great outlet of the New Calabar and Bonny rivers, which join the sea by four different mouths, the principal of which is eleven miles broad, and very deep, with a large bank of sand on the west point, on which, though the water is thirty feet deep, the breakers are fearful, owing to the prodigious force of fresh water which here encounters a powerful current in the sea. Eastward we find a great inlet of the sea, at its mouth twelve miles broad, extending north nearly 100 miles, and which is joined by Cross river coming from the NW., and certainly a branch of the Niger; and by the Rio Elrei river and Old Calabar river both descending from the high lands to the sea eastward; but which have, I believe, no communication with the Niger. I have thus, and as concisely as possible, brought before the reader the course and termination of this mighty stream, which has baffled the researches of the learned and the curious for nearly three thousand years. Its course in the general bearings of the line of its bed will, from Loma to Bonny river, be nearly two thousand six hundred British miles, without reckoning any thing for the length of the Coomba, probably the parent stream. Of this course we know it is navigable, and has been navigated from Couroussa to the sea a distance of about two thousand five hundred miles. The countries round its banks are in general very populous. The inhabitants are comparatively industrious, and to a certain extent advanced in civilisation, and they are moreover great traders, and anxious to engage in trade. The supply of European articles which they receive is principally obtained from the Moors and Arabs, after tedious and very expensive and dangerous journeys across the Great Desert, which so enhances the price that few can purchase; but the water communication, by means of the Niger, will so greatly reduce the price, that it will render the consumption of European articles much more extensive; while the supply of firearms, and other munitions of war, which the nations in the interior will by this means, and by this communication, receive, will speedily enable them to repel the fierce inroads of the Fellatahs, and other wandering Moorish tribes who dwell on the southern borders of the Great Desert, and there live by plundering the caravans and the peaceable and more industrious nations of the south, which pernicious inroads retard and always will retard the civilisation of the interior of Africa. In giving the future trade with the interior its proper and natural course, namely, upwards from the Delta of Benin, by means of the Niger, and its tributary streams, considerable and serious impediments will no doubt for a time be thrown in the way by the ignorance and avarice of the chiefs, and the people composing and ruling the numerous states into which Africa along the Niger is 1831.] The exports and imports into the interior of that country across the Great Desert, and from the sea-coast in the Bight of Benin and Biafra, amount annually, as near as I have been able to calculate, to nearly two millions sterling imports, and of ex- "AT the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday last, (13 June,) Mr Barrow read a short notice from the chair, of the Messrs Landers' recent journey in the interior of Africa. Mr Barrow began by saying, that, at one time, he had hoped to be able to lay a short paper on this subject before the Society at its present meeting, with a sketch of the route followed; but having only obtained the original documents that very day at four o'clock, this was necessarily deferred. In the meantime, referring to the map in Captain Clapperton's last journey, he could state, generally, that Mr Lander and his brother had landed at Badagry, and proceeded, nearly in the tract formerly followed, to Boussa on the Niger, and afterwards to Youri, which they found to lie considerably farther north than is laid down in the map, Soccaand nearly west, as they were told, of Soccatoo. They had thence proceeded passes up as far as the river Cubbie, a considerable tributary which too, and another town to the eastward called Cubbie, and falls into the Quorra, or Niger, a little way above Youri; and on this they had embarked on their downward voyage. Shortly after reaching Funda, the last point laid down in Captain Clapperton's map, they found the river make a bold sweep to the east, being here from five to six miles wide, and in other places it was even broader; it thence turned south-east, and circled round to south, receiving in its course another accession in the Shary, as it was called, a river from three to four miles wide, coming from the east; but which must not be confounded with the river of the same name visited by Major Denham, and which falls into Lake Tchad. (It is likely that the word Shary, or some similar word, is a generic term for river, water, or something of this kind, and that both these streams have their origin in high land interposed between them.) After receiving the Shary the Niger is still further deflected, running to the south and west, till at last it expands into a considerable lake, from which the river Nun, which Mr Lander descended, and probably several other rivers that enter the great bay of Benin in its neighbourhood, issue at different points. In descending the Nun, which is not above three hundred yards wide, the travellers were attacked by a furious party of natives; and, being taken prisoners, lost all their effects, with some portion also of their respective notes; but, providentially, what one was deprived of, the other was enabled, to a considerable extent; to preserve; so that, between the two, the joint narrative is nearly complete. From the point, then, where Mr Park first embarked, in 1805, this noble river has now been traced above two thousand miles, in the very heart of Africa; and, in Mr Lander's opinion, it is navigable for a great portion of the distance by small steam-boats. The natives, also, in the interior, are eager to see more of us; and they are even already so far advanced in civilisation as to make a trade with them worthy of pursuit. The greatest obstacles are the still existing slave-trade near the mouth of the river, and the hostile feelings which our attempts to put an end to it have excited in the deluded population there. Palm oil is, as yet, the only other equivalent for their supplies which they have been able to produce; and they naturally look forward with extreme dislike to the prospect of the market for their other and more valuable object of barter being still further curtailed. They are, in a word, the antimachinists of the African world, and do not like to see the demand contract for manual labour, Mutato nomine, de nobis ipsis fabula narratur.” [We have given the above extract from the Literary Gazette, containing a sketch by Mr Barrow of the discoveries of the Brothers Lander, as it exhibits, in a striking light, the extraordinary sagacity of our able correspondent. It is well known to all who have taken an interest in the attempt made to ascertain the geography of Northern Africa, that for many years Mr Macqueen has striven strenuously, in opposition to Mr Barrow in the Quarterly Review, and others, to prove that the Niger terminated in the Atlantic Ocean, in the Bight of Benin and Biafra. The question is set at rest by the grand achievement of these intrepid men; and we do not doubt that Mr Barrow will take the first opportunity of doing ample justice to the great knowledge and powers of reasoning exhibited by Mr Macqueen in his numerous writings on this controversy. One of the numerous mouths of the Niger should certainly be called the "Macqueen." C. N.] Printed by Belantyne and Company, Paul's Wi9%, Edinburgh |