The whole of this quarter of the world, from the Niger
to the confines of the British settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, may,
with little limitation, be considered as unknown. Travellers have indeed
penetrated a short distance from the western coast into the interior, in
some parts between the latitude of the Niger and the latitude of the
extreme northern boundary of the Cape settlement: and a very little is
known respecting some small portions of the districts closely adjoining to
the eastern coast; but the whole of central Africa is still unexplored, and
presents difficulties and dangers which it is apprehended will not be
speedily or easily overcome. To the north of the Niger lies the Sahara, or
Great Desert; of this, probably, sufficient is known to convince us that
its extent is such, that no country that would repay a traveller for his
fatigue and risk, is situated to the north of it. To the east of the Niger,
however, or rather along its course, and to the north of its course, as it
flows to the east, much remains to be explored; many geographical details
have been indeed gathered from the Mahomedan merchants of this part of
Africa, but these cannot entirely be trusted. The course and termination of
the Niger itself is still an unsolved problem.
Captain Scoresby, a most intelligent and active captain in the whale
fishery trade, has very lately succeeded in reaching the eastern coasts of
Greenland, and is disposed to think that the descendants of the Danish
colonists, of whose existence nothing is known since this coast was
blocked, up by ice at the beginning of the fifteenth century, still inhabit
it.
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