( I f I I

*J. i.V^

i J <

I t I i

r > ; i i ft

t

i^ t i f ^ k f< i

^ \

' ^ ? it 1^1

» ? 1

1 1

1' t

; i 4

■/ ij •» » 1 f -

NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION

TO EXPLOKE '

THE RIVER ZAIRE,

USUALLY CALLED THE CONGO,

IN SOUTH AFRICA, IN J8I6,

UNDER THE DIRECTIOJI OF

CAPTAIN J. K. TUCKEY, R.N.

TO WHICH )S ADDED,

THE JOURNAL OF PROFESSOR SMITH ;

SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE COUNTRY AND ITS INHABITANTS;

AND AN APPENDIX:

CONTAINING

THE NATITR.\L HISTORY OF THAT P.\RT OF THE KINGDOM OF CONGO THROUGH ^ATHICH THE ZAIRE FLOWS.

PUBLISHED BY PERMISSION OF

THE LORDS COJLVnSSIONERS OF THE ADMIR.ALTY.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

1818.

London : Printed by W. Bolmerand Co. Cleveland Row, St. .lames's.

\

I'

CONTENTS.

Introduction - - - - page i

CHAPTER I.

Passage to, and Notices on, the Island of Saint Jago - - 5

CHAPTER II. Passage from Porto Praya to the Mouth of the Zaire - - _ 37

CHAPTER III.

Passage up the River to the Place wiiere the Ship was moored, and from whence the Party proceeded in the Double-boats - - - 67

CHAPTER IV. Progress up the River as far as Yellalla, or the Cataract - - 127

CHAPTER V. Progress from the Cataract, or Cooloo, by Land chiefly, to Inga - l67

CHAPTER VI.

Excursion from Inga, and from thence to the Termination of the Journey 189

PROFESSOR SMITH'S JOURNAL.

SECTION I.

Notices from England to our departure from St. Jago - - 227

SECTION II. From St. Jago to the Mouth of the River Zaire - - - 253

CONTENTS.

SECTION III. Progress up the River as far as Cooloo, opposite the Cataract page 273

SECTION IV.

From Cooloo to the Extremity of the Journey - _ - . 321

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ; containing A CONCISE VIEW of the

Country along the Line of the Zaire, its Natural History and Inhabitants, collected from the preceding Narratives, and from the Observations of the Naturalists and Officers employed on the Expedition - - 33;

APPENDIX.

No. 1. A Vocabulary of the Malemba and Embomma Languages - 391

II. Observations on the Genus Ocythoe of Rafinesque, with a Description of a New Species. By William Elford Leach, M. D. F. R. S. 400

III. The distinguishing Characters between the Ova of the Sepia, and those

of the Vermes Testacea, that live in Water explained. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. V. P. R. S. - - - 402

IV. A General Notice of the Animals taken by Mr. John Cranch, during the

Expedition . . _ . 407

V. Observations, Systematical and Geographical, on Professor Christian Smith's Collection of Plants from the Vicinity of the River Congo, by Robert Brown, F. R. S. - - - 420

VI. Geological Remarks on the Specimens of Rocks presented to the Bri- tish Museum. By Charles Konig, Esq. F. R. S. - 48G

VII. Hydrographical Remarks from the Island of St. Thomas to the Mouth of the Zaire - _ . _ 489

DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES.

1 The Chart of the Zaire- - - - To front the Title Page.

2 The Fetiche Rock - - - - To face page 96

3 Market Village, near Embomma— - - 116

4 Fishermen of Lover's Leap . _ _ . 130

5 ^No. 1. Alligator Pond _ - - - - 134

6 c 1 No. 2. Condo Sonioh . _ - - 136

7 "i i No. 3. Slate Hills, near Noki - - - 138

8 ' No. 4. Ditto near Giddee . - - 144

•J Figures on Fetiche Rock - - - - 380

10 Ditto Ditto ^ - _ - - 382

1 1 Ocythoe (Dr. Leach) - - - - 401

12^ - - - - -

13 > Accompanying Sir Everard Home's Paper

14 1

ERRATA.

Page 31, for Birunda, read hirundo.

32, for Eltertus, read .Ettereits.

33, for ommon, read common. 40, for La Marc, read La March

for serrata, read lerralus. 65, for La Marc, read La March. for sulcata, read patula. 121, for sephus, read cephus, 289, for Simio, read Si7nia. 302, for decompose, read decempoied.

INTRODUCTION.

1 HE reign of George III. will be referred to by future historians as a period not less distinguished by the brilliant exploits of our countrymen in arms, than by the steady and progressive march of the sciences and the arts. Oc- cupied, as a very considerable portion of that period has been, by a war, longer in its duration, more ferocious in its character, and more extensive in its ravages, than had ever before afflicted Europe, at least in modern times, the advancement of physical and geographical knowledge, though necessarily retarded in its progress, suffered but little interruption, if we except one memorable instance where a French General brutally seized the person and papers of a British naval officer, on his return from a voyage of discovery, and with unparalleled meanness, injustice, and inhumanity, detained the former nearly seven years in captivity, and purloined a part of the latter. With this exception, no Avar was waged against science ; the im- pulse which had been given to geographical discovery still maintained its direction, and was never lost sight of, even by hostile fleets ; witness, among other instances, the interesting and admirable survey of the coast of Asia Minor by Captain Beaufort, while commanding a frigate attached to the Mediterranean squadron, the account of which has recently been laid before the pubhc. " Indeed," as Dr. Douglas has justly observed, " it would argue a most

b

ii INTRODUCTION.

culpable want of rational curiosity, if we did not use our best endeavours to arrive at a full acquaintance with the contents of our own planet." And if those endeavours, which, during war, were so successfully pursued, should be relaxed on the return of peace, we might then indeexi have cause to think meanl}- of the times in which we live, or, to use the words of this eminent writer, " if we could suppose it possible that full justice will not be done to the noble plan of discovery, so steadily and so successfuU}^ carried on since the accession of His Majesty, which cannot foil to be considered, in every succeeding age, as a splendid period in the history of our country, and to add to our national glory, by distinguishing Great Britain as taking the lead in the most arduous undertakings for the common benefits of the human race." Introd. to Cook's Third Voj'age.

By following up, therefore, the same system, and being actuated by the same motives, of promoting the extension of human knowledoe, the Prince Regent's oovernment has evinced a correspondent feeling ; it has moreover proved, b}'^ appropriating to the purposes of discover}- and maritime geography as great a share as possible of that part of the British navy which constitutes the peace establishment, its laudable inclination to cultivate the uselul arts of peace, not from any selfish views, but for the general benefit of mankind. To what purpose indeed could a portion of our naval force be, at any time, but more especially in a time of profound peace, more honourably or more usefully employed, than in completing those minnt'ue and details of geographical and h^drographical science, of which the grand outlines have been boldly and

INTRODUCTION. iii

broadly sketched by Cook, Vancouver, Flinders, and others of our own countrymen ; by La Perouse, Den- trecasteaux, Baudin, and other foreign navigators, French, Spanish, and Russian : in ascertaining with greater pre- cision the position of particular points in various parts of the o'lobe on the shores of Asia Minor of northern Africa, and of the numerous islands in the Mediterranean the coasts, harbours, and rivers of Newfoundland, Labra- dore, Hudson's bay, and that reproach to the present state of European navigation, the existence or non-existence of Baffin's bay, and the north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Eastern ocean in exploring those parts of the north-west coast of New Holland, which have not hitherto been visited since the time of Dam pier and in obtaining more distinct and accurate information of those great Archipelagos of islands, and those innumerable reefs and islets, which are scattered over the northern and southern Pacific oceans, and the Indian and Chinese seas, many hundreds of which were but the other day discovered, in one spot, by the Alceste, on her late voyage up the Yel- low Sea, where not a single island had been even suspected to exist and, to come nearer home, in filling up and correcting those imperfect and erroneous surveys of our own coasts, and of the seas that surround them and lastly, in ascertaining with more precision, the extent, direction, and velocity, in different parts and at different seasons of the year, of that extraordinar}-^ current known by the name of the Gulf Stream, by which all the currents of the northern Adantic are more or less influenced. These are olijects of general concern in which all Europe and Ame- rica are equally interested.

iv INTRODUCTION.

By the present improved state of nautical science, by means of His Majesty's ships of war employed on surveys, of the surveying marine of the East India Com- pany, and of the accidental discoveries of commercial vessels, the hydrographical knowledge of every part of the globe is daily extending itself. The line of the coasts which form the boundaries of the continents and larger islands, are traced with more or less accuracy ; the po- sitions of most of the islands or groups of islands are generally ascertained ; and the prevailing winds and cur- rents of the ocean are so much better understood than formerly, that the usual time of an eight or nine months passage to or from China, is now reduced to four months, and rarely exceeds five. It may be said indeed, ge- nerally speaking, that, as far as regards maritime disco- very, the edge of curiosity has been taken off. Enough however still remains to be done. The deficiency in the detail, and the want of that accuracy so essentially necessary for the advantage and security of navigation, still furnish ample scope for further investigation and research.

But the object of the voyage, of which the narrative is contained in the present volume, though fitted out in the naval department, is nearly, if not altogether, unconnected either with maritime discovery or nautical surveying. It was planned and undertaken with the view and in the hope of solving, or of being instrumental in solving, a great geographical problem, in which all Europe had, for some time past, manifested no common degree of interest ; and, at any rate, in the almost certain means it would afford of adding something to our present very confined

INTRODUCTION. v

knowledcre of the great continent of Africa that ill-fated country, whose unhappy natives, without laws to restrain or governments to protect them, have too long been the prey of a senseless domestic superstition, and the victims of a foreign infamous and rapacious commerce. That great division of the globe of which, while we know that one part of it affords the most ancient and more stupen- dous monuments of civilized society that exist on the face of the earth, another, and by far the greater portion, ex- hibits at this day, to the reproach of the state of geogra- phical science in the nineteenth century, almost a blank on our charts ; or what is still worse, large spaces filled up with random sketches of rivers, lakes, and mountains, which have no other existence than that which the fancy of the map-maker has given to them on his paper. So little indeed has our knowledge of this great continent kept pace with the increased knowledge of other parts of the world, that it may rather be said to have retrograded. If we have acquired a more detailed and precise acquaintance with the outline of its coast, (and in this we are very deficient, as the present expedition has proved,) and with the position of its headlands and harbours, than the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the Romans in their time possessed, it may be doubted whether the extent and accuracy of their information respecting the interior did not surpass ours ; for it cannot be denied that, amidst the fabulous accounts, which fear or fancy is supposed to have created, of regions within and beyond the boundaries of the great desert, many important facts are enveloped, which modern discoveries have brought to light and proved to be correct.

For the greater part of what is still known of the

vi INTRODUCTION.

interior resions of northern Africa, we are indebted to the Arabian writers of the middle ages, and to the information of Arabian travellers of our own times. After them the Portuguese were the first Europeans to penetrate beyond the coast into the interior, where they no doubt collected much information ; but, unfortunately for the world, it was their plan to conceal what they discovered, till it has been lost even to themselves. That this nation sent frequent embassies to Tombuctoo, we have the authority of De Barros, which can seldom be called in question, and never, we believe, when he states mere matters of fact, which is the case in the present instance ; but though he mentions the names of the persons sent on these missions, he omits all the circumstances and occurrences of the journey, and fails even to describe this renowned cit3^ There are however some circumstances which make it possible that .the Tombuctoo of De Barros was no other than the Tam- bacunda of Park and others, as in ail the maps of the sixteenth century, taken from Portuguese authority, Tom- buctoo is placed not more than from three to four hundred miles from the coast, Avhich is about one-third part only of its real distance. The Portuguese, however, followed the Arabian geographers in describing the stream of the Niger to flow from east to west, which Herodotus had learned, nearly twenty centuries before, to flow in a con- trary direction ; an opinion which Ptolemy afterwards seems to have adopted, perhaps on information gained from the same source; though it must be confessed, that Ptolemy is unusually obscure in his geographical delin- eation of the rise, direction, and termination of this cele- brated river. In the midst of these conflicting opinions respecting the

INTRODUCTION. vii

course of a great river, which was still left undecided in our times, the authority of an English traveller, from per- sonal inspection, set this question for ever at rest, by de- terminino- the direction of the stream to be from west to east. That part, therefore, of the problem Avhich relates to the origin and the direction of the early course of this cele- brated river, has been completely solved ; but another and no less interesting part still continues to be wrapt up in ra3'stery where is its termination? As ancient authorities had pointed out the li ue direction of the stream, it was but fair to allow them credit for a knowledge of its termination. In the examination of this part of the question, by the first geographer of tlie age, either in this or any other countrj^the authorities of the Arabian writers are w'cighed and compared with the geography of Ptolemy ; and after a close and accurate investioation of the various state- ments of ancient and modern authorities, and a train of reasoning clear and argumentative, the result of tlie en- quiry appears to be, that the Niger loses itself in the ex- tensive lakes or swamps of Wangara; an hypothesis which was supposed to have the merit of falling in pretty nearly with the termination of that river, as assigned to it by Ptolemy in what he called the Libya pains, which lake, however, Ptolemy only says, is formed by the Niger. In addition to this coincidence, there were also negative proofs of the disappearance of the Niger in the interior regions of Africa. Jt could not, for instance, be a branch of the Egyptian Nile, as the Arabs generally c<mtend, for the two reasons adduced by Major i\ennell : first, because of the difference of level ; the Nile, according to Bruce's measurement by the barometer, passing over a country

viii INTRODUCTION.

whose surface is very considerably higher than the sink of North Africa, through which the Niger is stated to tlow. Secondh^ because the Nile of Egypt, in this case, must necessarily be kept up at the highest pitch of its inunda- tion for a lono- time after that of the Nisjer, which is well known to be contrary to the fact. Neither was it probable, that its' waters were discharocd into the sea on any part of the eastern coast, there being no river of magnitude on the whole extent of that coast from Cape Guadafui to Cape Corientes. The hypothesis therefore, of the dispersion and evaporation of the waters of the Niger, in lakes of an ex- extended surface, was the most plausible, and perhaps the more readily adopted, as it fell in with ancient opinion.

The stream of this mysterious river being now traced with certainty from west to east as far as Tombuctoo, so little suspicion seems to have been entertained of the pro- bality of its making a circuitous course to the sea on the western coast, near to which it has its source, that the ex- amination of this side of Africa seems entirely to have been left out of the question. But when Park was pre- paring for his second expedition to explore the further course of this river, it was suggested, that the Congo or the Zaire, which flows into the southern Atlantic about the sixth degree of south latitude, might be the outlet of the Niger; and as this suggestion came from a person who, in the capacity of an African trader, had not only become well acquainted with the lower part of this river, but had actually made a survey of it, the idea was warmly espoused by Park, who, in a memoir addressed to Lord Camden, previous to his departure from England, assigns his reasons for becoming a convert to this hypothesis ; and he adds,

INTRODUCTION. ix

that if this should turn out to be the fact, " considered in a commercial point of view, it is second only to the dis- covery of the Cape of Good Hope ; and in a geographical point of view, it is Cv^rtainly the greatest discovery that remains to be made in this world."

Park's opinion, it may be said, is entitled to no greater weight, on this point, than that of any other person who had given his attention to the subject ; and so, it appears. Major Rennell thougiit, who gave him no encouragement to hope for the confirmalion of this new hypothesis. But the impression which the facts stated by Mr. Maxwell, and his reasoning on those facts, had made on Park's mind previous to his leaving England, so far from being weak- ened, appear to have gathered strength on his second progress down the river ; and it can hardly be doubted, that the unknowMi termination of the streau), and of his own journey, was the unceasing object of his anxious inquiries ; the result of which was, as we are told by his able and accurate biographer, that " he adopted Mr. Maxwell's sentiments relative to the termination of the Niger in their utmost extent, and persevered in that opinion to the end of his life;" perhaps he ought rather to have said, " to the day of his departure from Sansanding." That no alteration of opinion in this respect had taken place, is quite clear from several expressions in his letters from the Niger, addressed to Lord Camden, to Sir Joseph Banks, and to his wife, in all of which he talks confidently of his reaching England by the way of the West Indies ; not by a painful jtjurney back by land to the Senegal or the Gambia, but by arriving at some other and more dis- tant part of the western coast. This is rendered still more

c

X INTRODUCTION.

evident from the information he collected at Sansanding, which confirmed the hypothesis of the southern direction of the Niger. " I have hired a guide (he says) to go with me to Kashna ; he is one of the greatest travellers in this part of Africa : he says that the Niger, after it passes Kashna, runs directly to the right hand, or to the south ; he had never heard of any person who had seen its termination; he was sure it did not end near Kashna or Bornou, having resided for some time in both these kingdoms ;" and to Lord Camden he says, " he was more and more incUned to think that it can end no where but in the sea."

No wonder then that Park, having thus ascertained from " one of the greatest travellers in that part of Africa," the southerl}' course of the Niger, should be sanguine of proving the vahdity of Mr. Maxwell's hypothesis, and of reaching the West Indies from the mouth of the Congo. It was not, however, his fate to establish the truth or falsity of this proposition ; the problem still remains undeter- mined ; and the termination of the Niger and the source of the Congo, are alike unknown. The probability of their identity, however, appeared to gain ground, not merely because one great river took a southerly direction, and had no known termination, and another came from the north- ward, nobody knew from whence; but the more the magni- tude and character of the latter river was investigated, and its circunjstances weighed and compared with those effects which might be expected to happen from natural causes, the greater colour was given to the supposition of their ideri- tity. It is only surprising that a river of that magnitude and description whicii belong to the Congo, should not, long before now, have claimed a more particular attention.

INTRODUCTION. xi

It is true, the first notice of this river is but vaguely given. Diego Cam, in proceeding down the coast, observed a strong current setting from the land, the waters of which were discoloured, and when tasted, found to be fresh. These circumstances led him to conclude, that he was not far from the mouth of some mighty river, which conclusion was soon confirmed by a nearer approach. He named it the Congo, as that was the name of the country through which it flowed, but he afterwards found that the natives called it the Zaire ; two names which, since that time, have been used indiscriminately by Europeans. It now appears that Zaire is the general appellative for any great river, like the Nile in North Africa, and the Ganges in Hindostan, and that the native name of the individual river in question is Moienzi enzaddi, or the river which ab- sorbs all other rivers.

All subsequent accounts agree in the magnitude and velocity of this river. In the " Chronica da Companhia de Jezus em Portugal," after noticing the Egyptian Nile, and the common but erroneous notion of its proceeding from the same lake with the Zaire, (namely Zembre, " the mother of waters,") the latter is described as " so violent and so powerful from the quantity of its water, and the rapidity of its current, that it enters the sea on the western side of Africa, forcing a broad and free passage (in spite of the ocean) with so much violence, that for the space of twenty leagues it preserves its fresh water unbroken by the briny billows which encompass it on every side; as if this noble river had determined to try its strength in pitched battle with the ocean itself, and alone deny it the tribute which all the other rivers in the world pay without

xii INTRODUCTION.

resistance." From the following description it is pretty evident that Purchas must have been in possession of this rare book from which the above account is taken ; though he has not profited by the information it contains respect- ino; the different sources of the Nile and the Zaire, " for the Portuguese," says this chronicle, " and the fathers of our society who traversed the whole empire of Upper Ethiopia, (which we call Preste Joao) have clearly proved that the Nile does not take its rise in this lake Zembre, and that those authors are mistaken who give it that source." Purchas, however, seems to have no scruples about the truth of what amounts nearly to a physical im- possibility,— the flowing of two rivers in opposite direc- tions out of the same lake. " The Zaire," says this quaint M^riter, " is of such force that no ship can get in against the current but neer to the shore ; yea, it prevails against the ocean's saltnesse threescore, and as some say, fourscore miles within the sea before his proud waves yeeld their full homage, and receive that salt temper in token of subjection. Such is the haughty spirit of that stream, overrunning the low countries as it passeth, and swollen with conceit of daily conquests and daily supplies, ■which, in armies of showers are, by the clouds, sent to his succour, runnes now in a furious rage, thinking even to swallow the ocean, which before he never saw, with lis mouth wide gaping eight and twentce miles, as Lopez affirmeth, in the opening ; but meeting with a more giant- like enemie which lies lurking under the cliftes to receive his assault, is presently swallowed in that wider wombe, yet so, as always being conquered, he never gives over, but in an eternall quarrel, with deepe and indented frownes in

INTRODUCTION. xiii

his angry face, foaming with disdaine, and filling ihe aire with noise, (with fresh helpe) supplies those forces which the salt-sea hath consumed."

The strong current at the mouth of the river, and as far up as ships have been able to proceed the floating islands carried down by the stream into the ocean the perceptible effects of the current to a very considerable distance from the shore have been corroborated by so many concurring testimonies as not to admit of the smallest doubt. Two English frigates, but two years previous to the present ex- pedition, fully experienced these effects. The Honourable Captain Irby, who commanded the Amelia, with difiiculty succeeded in getting his ship 48 or 50 miles up the river, the current running down in the middle of the stream at the rate of six and seven knots an hour ; before entering the river the ship was anchored at twelvemiles from the southern point of its mouth in 15 fathoms, where the current was running at the rate of four miles an hour, the water being much agitated, of the colour of rain-water, and perfectly fresh. In this situation they observed in the ocean large floating islands, covered with trees and bushes, which had been torn from the banks b}'^ the violence of the current. In the journal of the Thais, commanded by Captain Sco- bell, it is observed, '• In crossing this stream I met several floating islands, or broken masses from the banks of that noble river, which, with the trees still erect and the whole wafting to the motion of the sea, rushed far into the ocean, and formed a novel prospect even to persons accustomed to the phenomena of the waters." In Maxwell's chart the current is laid down near the mouth as running at the rate of six miles and seven miles an hour, and the mid chan-

xiv INTRODUCTION.

nel 100 fathoms deep; at twenty-four or twenty-five miles up the river, where the funnel or estuary is contracted to the natural bed of the river, which is about two and a half to three miles in width, the depth is still 100 fathoms. At fifty miles, the stream is broken into a number of branches, by islands and sand banks. Beyond ninety miles they are again united into one channel, about a mile and a half in Avidth, and the depth, in somG places fifty, in others thirty, fathoms, continuing about the same width and depth to the end of the survey, or about 130 miles from the moutli of the river ; and it is stated, from information of the native slave dealers at Embomma, that it is navigable be- yond the termination of this survey from fifty to sixty miles, where the navigation is interrupted by a great cataract, which they call Gamba Enzaddi. He says, however, in his letter to Mr. Keir, which was communicated to Park, that, according to the accounts he had received from tra- velling slave merchants, the river is as large at 600 miles up the country as at Embomma, and that it is there called Enzaddi.

All these accounts prove the Zaire to be a river of very considerable magnitude ; and though not to be compared Avith the Amazons, the Oronooko, the Missisippi, St. Lau- rence, and other magnificent waters of the New AVorld, it was unquestionably the largest river an the continent of Africa. If the calculation be true, that the Zaire at its lowest state discharges into the sea two million cubic feet of water in a second of time, the Nile, the Indus, and Ganges, are but rivulets compared with it, as the Ganges, which is the largest of the three, discharges only about one fifth of that (Quantity at its highest flood. In point qf

INTRODUCTION. xv

magnitude, therefore, no objection could be urged to its

identity with the Niger.

Many other objections, however, were started against

this hypothesis, and in particular the three following,

namely,

1. The obstruction of the Kong mountains, which, uni- ting with the Gibbel Komri, are supposed to extend in one unbroken chain across the continent. 2. The great length of its course, which would exceed 4000 miles ; whereas the course of the Amazons, the greatest river in the v/orld, is only about 3500 miles. 3. The absence of all traces of the Mahommedan doctrines or institutions, and of the Arabic language, on the coast where the Zaire empties itself into the sea.

The first objection is wholly gratuitous, as the existence of this chain of mountains has not been ascertained, nor is it easy to conjecture on what grounds it has been ima- gined. Park saw to the southward of his route, at no great distance from the sea coast, the peak of the cluster of mountains called the Kong, out of which the Niger, the Senegal, and the Gambia, take their rise. The Mountains of the ]\Ioon have been placed towards the central parts of Africa; but if Bruce visited that branch of the Nile, which is said to rise out of these mountains, (which is more than doubtful,) they are actually not further removed from the eastern, than those of the Kong are from the western coast. But by what authority they are united, and stretched completely across the continent, like a string of beads, it Avould be difficult we believe for our modem ge- graphers to point out. There is evidence however to the contrary. All the Haoussa traders who have been ques-

XVI

INTRODUCTION.

tioned on the subject, and who come frequently to Lagos, and other places on the Coast of Guinea, with slaves, deny that they meet on their journey with any mountains, and that the onl}' difficulties and obstructions arise from the frequent rivers, lakes, and swamps which they have to cross. But admitting that such a chain did exist, and that it was one solid, unbroken range of primitive gra- nite, it would be, even in that singular case, the only in- stance, perhaps, of such an extended barrier resisting the passage of an accumulated mass of waters. Even the Him- malaya, the largest and probably the loftiest range in either the New or Old World, has not been able to oppose an effectual barrier to the southern streams of Tartary. The main branch of the Ganges, it is true, does not, as was once supposed, pervade it, but the Buramputra, the Sutlej and the Indus, have forced their Avay through this immense granite chain. The rocky mountains of America have opened a gate for the passage of the Missouri ; and the Delaware, the Susquehanna and the Potomac have forced their way through the Alleghenny range. This objection, tlien, may fairly be said to fall to the ground.

The objection to the length of its course is somewhat more serious, but not so formidable as at first it ma}'^ appear. The great difficulty, perhaps the only one that suggests itself, arises from the vast height which the source of a river must necessarily be above the level of the sea, in order to admit of its waters being carried over a space of 4000 miles ; and from the certainty that Park, (who, it must be observed, however, measured nothing) passed no mountains of extraoi'dinray height to get at the Niger. A critic, in a popular journal, whose arguments

INTRODUCTION. xvii

ments in favour of the identity of the Niger and Zaire were probably instrumental in bringing about the present expe- dition, in answer to this objection, has assumed the mo- derate height of 3000 feet for the source of the Niger above the surface of the ocean. This height, he observes, would give to the declivity or slope of the bed of the river, an average descent of nine inches in each mile throughout the course of 4000 miles. Condamine," he adds, " has calculated the descent of the Amazons at six inches and three quarters per mile, in a straight line, which, allowing for its windings, would be reduced, according to Major Rennel's estimate, to about four inches a mile for the slope of its bed." And this descent is not very different from that of the bed of the Ganoes; it havino- been as- certained from a section, taken by order of Mr. Hast- ings, of sixty miles in length, parallel to a branch of the Ganges, to have nine inches of descent in each mile in a straight line, which, by the windings of the river was reduced to four inches a mile, the same as the bed of the Amazons: and this small descent gave a rate of mo- tion to that stream somewhat less than three miles an hour in the dry, and from five to six an hour in the Avet season, but seven or eight under particular situations and under certain circumstances. If then, the Ganges and the Amazons flow at the rate of three miles in their lowest, and six miles in their highest slate, with an average descent of no more than four inches a mile, while the Niger, according to the hypothesis, would have an average descent of nine inches a mile, the objection to the great length of its course in supposing its identity with the Zaire, would seem to vanish. It has been sufficiently provec^

d r

xviii INTRODUCTION.

j^owever, that the velocity of rivers depends not on the (^hvity of their beds alone, but chiefly on the mass and velocity of the water thrown into their channels at the spring head, and the supplies they receive from tributary branches as they proceed in their course. In the Amazons, the Ganges, the Senegal, the Gambia, and in every river whose course, in its approach to the ocean, lies through a low country, it will be found, that the rise of a few feet in the tide is sufficient to force back, up an inclined plane, by its mass and velocity, the whole current of the river to the distance of several hundred miles, and the farther in pro- portion to the narrowness and depth of the channel beyond its funnel shaped mouth. In estimating the probability, therefore, of the identity of the Zaire and the Niger, as far as the length of their course may be supposed to offer an objection, we should inquire rather into the supply of water than the declivity of the country through which it would have to pass. In this respect, the Niger would be placed under very peculiar circumstances ; its course, lying on both sides of the Equator, and through a consi- derable portion of both tropical regions, would necessarily be placed, in one part or other, under the parallels of perpetual rains, and consequently receive a perpetual sup- ply of water. Now all the representations that have been given of the lower part of the Zaire, describe it as being nearly in a perpetual state of flood, the height in the dry season being within nine feet of the height in the season of heavy rains; whilst the difference in the height of the Nile and the Ganges, at the two periods, exceeds thirty feet. The flooding of the Zaire is therefore periodical, its highest >|state being in March, and lowest about the end of August;

INTRODUCTION. xix

a proof that it is influenced by the tropical rains, and that one branch of it, at least, must pass through some portion of the northern hemisphere.

Another objection has been made to the identity of the Niger and the Zaire, grounded on the circumstance of no traces being discovered of the IVIahomedan doctrines or institutions on the coast where the latter terminates. It would be a sufficient answer to observe, that as far as our present knowledge extends, the Niger, in Northern Africa, formed the boundary of Mahomedan invasion. What the difficulties may have been, whether moral or physical, or both, " to impede the spirit of enterprise and proselytisra which belongs to the Mahomedan character," it vrould be idle to conjecture; but that they have been impeded, and in a great measure limited to the parallel of the Niger while on its eastern course, is pretty certain ; yet there appears to be neither difficulty nor want of means in crossing this river, though there may be both in descending it. Inde- pendently of the lakes and swamps, the sand-banks and rapids, that may occur, the Africans have not at any time, or in any part of the country, been famous for river navigation. But it is far from improbable, that Arab priests or traders may have penetrated into south- ern Africa ; on the eastern coasts they held, at one time, powerful settlements, and Arabic Avords. occur in all the languages of the negroes even on the western coast.

Some vague objections have been stated to the identity of the Niger and Zaire, from their difference of tempera- ture, the precise meaning of which it is not easy to com-

XX INTRODUCTION.

prehend. In what way, it may be asked, can the tempera- ture of a stream in 16° N. lat. affect the temperature of the same stream in (f S. lal. ? There is no assignable ratio in which it ought to encrease or decrease in its long course ; it may change dail}-, and many times in the course of the day according to the temperature of the surrounding at- mosphere. Of the temperature of the Niger nothing is known, for Park does not appear to have noticed it ; but that of the Zaire was repeatedly ascertained, in the present expedition, in different parts of its course, and was sel- dom found to differ more than of Fahrenheit either way, from the temperature of the atmosphere ; remaining most commonly about 76, and 77°, which was pretty nearly the mean day temperature of the atmosphere.

The hypothesis of Mr. Reichard, a German geographer of some eminence, which makes the Niger to pour its waters into the gulf of Benin, is entitled to very little atten- tion. The data on Avhich it is grounded are all of them wholly gratuitous. He proceeds on a calculation of the quantity of water, evaporated from the surface of the lakes of AVangara, and the quantity thrown into them by the Niger, without knowing whether the Niger flows into them or not, or even where Wangara is situated, much less the extent and magnitude of those lakes. 'J'he Rio del Rey, the Formosa, and the numerous intermediate branches that open into the gulf of Benin, are supposed to join in one great stream beyond the flat alluviil laud which they seem to have formed ; the supposition, however, has never been verified by observation ; but as far as it is known, the Rio del Rey proceeds from the northward, and

INTRODUCTION. xxi

tlie other branches have a tendency to the north-west. Whether, therefore, they unite, or not, the probability cer- tiinly is in favour of all the streams, from Guinea to Biafra, having their sources in the southern face of the Kong mountains. It can scarcely be supposed that the same mountains, whose northern sides give rise to the three large rivers, the Niger, the Senegal, and the Gambia, should have their southern faces destitute of streams. If however, we refer these numerous branches to some grreat stream crossing the continent, from the north-east, the Houssa merchants, in their journey to Lagos, must neces- sarily psas it ; but by their own account, though nume- rous streams, and lakes, and marshes occur, they neither cross anv hig-h mountain, or verv large river

In this unsatisfactory state of doubt and conjecture, in which a most important geographical problem was involved, two expeditions were set on foot under the auspices of Government; the one to follow up the discovery of Park by descentling the stream of the Niger, the other to ex- plore the Zaire upwards towards its source. Indepen- dently of any relation which the lattei' might be supposed to have to the former, the river itself, from all the descrip- tions which had been given of it, from its first discovery by Diego Cam down to the present time, was of sufficient magnitude to entitle it to be better known. To accom- plish this (-bject more of difficulty was apprehended in the navigation, than of danger from the hostilit}^ of the natives, or the unhealthiness of the climate, neither of which had oj)posed any obstacle to the progress of the Poituguese. It was well known both to them and the slave dealers of Liverpool, who used to frequent this river.

xxii INTRODUCTION.

that its