On the other hand, the Europeans had various
settlements on the western coast: on this coast there were many large
rivers, which apparently ran far into the interior; these rivers,
therefore, naturally seemed the most expeditious, safe, and easy routes, by
which the interior might, at least to a short distance from the shore, be
penetrated.
But it was very long before the Senegal, one of the chief of these rivers,
was traced higher than the falls of Felu; or the Gambia, another river of
note and magnitude, than those of Baraconda. In the year 1723, Captain
Stebbs, who was employed by the Royal African Company, succeeded in going
up this river as far as the flats of Tenda. Soon afterwards, some
information respecting the interior of Africa, especially respecting Bonda,
(which is supposed to be the Bondou of Park, in the upper Senegal,) was
received through an African prince, who was taken prisoner, and carried as
a slave to America.
All the information which had been drawn from these, and other sources,
respecting the interior, was collected and published by Moore, the
superintendent of the African Company's settlements on the Gambia; but
though the particulars regarding the manners, &c. of the inhabitants are
curious, yet this work adds not much to our geographical knowledge of the
interior of this part of the world.
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