There have,
indeed, been communications received from some of the merchants trading
from the north of Africa to the Niger, which confirm the accounts of large
and powerful kingdoms on its banks, and the inhabitants of these kingdoms
are comparatively far advanced in manufactures and commerce; but, besides
these particulars, little respecting the geography of the interior has been
ascertained. The course of the Niger is proved beyond a doubt to be, as
Herodotus described it, upwards of 2000 years ago, from west to east; but
the termination of this large river is utterly unknown. Some think it
unites with the Nile, and forms the great western branch of that river,
called the Bahr el Abiad, or White River; others think that it loses itself
in the lakes or swamps of Wangara, or Ghana, and is there wasted by
evaporation; while another opinion is, that its course takes a bend to the
west, and that it falls into the Atlantic, or that it discharges itself
into the Indian Ocean.
The British government, anxious to determine, if possible, this curious and
important question, sent out two expeditions, about seven years since, to
explore in every possible way the course and termination of the Niger. The
first, under the conduct of Captain Tuckey, proceeded up the Zaire; the
other ascended the Nunez in north Africa, in order, if possible, to reach
the navigable part of the Niger by a shorter course than that followed by
Park, and with the design of proceeding down the river till it reached its
termination.
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