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places four, fathoms deep. The current is always muddy, and very rapid, particularly during the flood, when it runs at the rate of seven and eight knots per hour. Its colour then approaches to a brown. The banks are low, and formed of alluvial mould, and during the months of July and August, the whole Delta is deeply inundated as far as Gatto, a distance of forty miles from the sea. Gatto Creek, or river, is also a considerable stream. Several miles above its junction with the Rio de Formosa, it is one and a half mile broad, and two fathoms deep. The Old Calabar and Rio de Elrei rivers, at the outlet, are twelve miles broad. The mouth of the Bonny and New Calabar river is eleven miles broad. These rivers open each four points of the compass, which proves their surprising magnitude. On the outer bar, the depth of water is five fathoms, and when over the inner bars, it deepens to twelve and thirteen fathoms. The current is very powerful. The rush of water, says Sir GEORGE COLLIER, that issues from the outlet of the river BONNY is so powerful, that he considers it can only proceed from its being one of the embouchures of a great river. In consequence of the immense volumes of water brought down by these rivers, the currents in the sea off the coasts are exceedingly strong, and even dangerous; and frequently, at the distance of twenty-five miles from CAPE FORMOSa, says one of our informants, vessels are found to be sailing for hours together in fresh water, without the smallest mixture of the water of the ocean. We consider it unnecessary to dwell longer on this part of our subject, to prove the magnitude of these mighty rivers, and how little probability there is that the whole could be formed south of mountains lying in the parallel of 9° N. lat., leaving little more than a distance of 200 miles from their summits to the sea.

We now proceed to enumerate a few of the direct authorities that tell us the great river Niger really enters the sea in this part of the coast of Afri

ca.

With the consent and the approbation of the Nile THEORISTS, we have traced the river down to Nyffe and Rakah, which they are pleased to place in 9° N. lat. within 200 miles of the sea!! In Ptolemy's Geography, in the Library of the Glasgow College, we find some very old Portuguese maps,

which carry the river of Benin northwards to about 10° N. lat., which shows they must have had some information about it, so far; and it is well known that the Portuguese, in early times, penetrated deeply into the interior of Africa, by means of its rivers, though they carefully concealed their discoveries from the rest of the world. We state these facts en passant, to show how we could connect the river of Benin or Rio de Formosa, with the Kowara, which the Quarterly Review sends over the Mountains of the Moon to the Bahr el Abiad.

In the last letter which Mr PARK wrote to England, as he was about to leave Sansunding, he states to Lord CAMDEN, he was convinced that "the Niger terminated nowhere else but in the sea." WANGARA, where all our celebrated geographers have invariably terminated the Niger, when explained, brings us to Benin as its termination. Bowditch was informed by intelligent Moor and Arab travellers whom he met at Coomassie, that the Niger entered the sea; and when he stated to them the European theory, that it terminated in a lake, or was absorbed in burning sands, they laughed at him, remarking, that God made all the other great rivers to flow into the sea, and did he then conceive that God would leave the Quolla, the GREATEST of them all, to be lost in the sands of the desert?" The natives on the coast informed ROBERTSON (page 298), that "the Bonny River came out of a large river in the interior, which made all the rivers in that country." Several gentlemen who have frequented the rivers in this part of the coast of Africa, and at whom we have made particular inquiries, uniformly and distinctly state, that all the natives and travellers with whom they were acquainted, conversed, or traded, said, that the rivers on the coast were connected with the great rivers in the interior; that many of these native merchants assured them, they had come by water a journey of two and even of" three moons," in a northerly direction, and that they were well acquainted with Houssa, and Timbuctoo, and Nyffe, and Boussa, and Yaoorie, to all which places they had traded, and could trade by water. We have already noticed the direct testimony afforded by Clapperton's and Denham's Journals, that the Niger termi

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SERJEANT FRAZER, who served under Major Laing in the Royal African Corps, was a native of Kano. "He was seized by the Fellatahs while trading near Yaoorie. Himself and 125 others were seized in the night. After they were taken, they were put into a canoe rowed by six men, and in TWO WEEKS they reached Ecco, where they were sold, and where the salt water meets the fresh. After being put into the canoe, they were one week on a small fresh-water river, about 200 yards wide, then they got into a large river of fresh water, (take Calabashes to drink it,) ABOUT TWO AND A HALF MILES BROAD; they were one week on it before they got to Ecco." Clearer information cannot well be conceived. Another man, named EDWARD FAIRFAX, a native of Houssa, told Major Laing that he went prisoner from Nyffe to Ecco, distance 30 days' journey, and that at Ecco the river is called Lechie, or QUORRA. "Whence," said Dupuis to his informants, who had traversed Africa from Egypt to Ashantee, are the greatest rivers talked of in the Gharb, (in Ismaelia,) and which the Arabs say run to Wangara?"-"The rivers of Wangara are numerous,' was the reply; they are such as we have already described

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RUNNING INTO THE GREAT SALT SEA

AT BENIN, and from whence you came (Cape Coast)." The NAVIGATION between Benin (and all those streams which intersect the WARREE coast,) and the Koara and the Ghulby rivers, is not, as my informants say, TO BE DOUBTED; and it is POSSIBLE to perform the VOYAGE from Benin to Timbuctoo and Sego, WITHOUT SETTING FOOT ON SHORE, although it is not usual to navigate against the streams of those great rivers, the Kadarko, the Ghulby, the Koara, the Shady, and the Joliba, particularly during the rainy season, when the rivers are full; for although they know of NO RAPIDS or CATARACTS to the south of Wauwa, yet the natural velocity of the streams is so great as to impede the canoes in a Northern progress, although IMPEL

LED forward by the strength of FIFTY MEN, or more. Two OF MY INFORMANTS declared that they had performed the voyage from NORTH TO SOUTH under the protection of the Sultan of Yaoorie, as far as the GATES OF BENIN. Houssa is described to be of great wealth, luxuriant, and populous. Beside the Koara, many large NAVIGABLE STREAMS intersect the land, and a constant FREE COMMUNICATION BY WATER exists between its cities and those of Bornou, YARRABA, BENIN, Fillany, and Maroa. (Pages 42, 43, and 90.) The same informants told Mr Dupuis that the great river Koara ran into the lake Nyffe, into which the great river Ghulby also entered, and that the former issued again from the lake in two channels, and pursued its course to the lake Shady (Tchad), passing Cassina, Kano, and Gambaroo, in its easterly course to the Nile of Egypt; but from this lake, into which both the Koara and the Ghulby run, the GREAT RIVER OF BENIN RUNS TO THE SOUTH through Wauwa, Kaima, Agiassey, and Benin.

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They are all," said the Moslems, "great SEAS, but the Koara is the GREATEST IN THE UNIVERSE." Here the Moslems, in their fondness for the Nile theory, reverse the course of several rivers, and make, as we believe the fact to be, rivers which flow into the lake, or the river Nyffe from the eastward, to run from the lake to that quarter. With the river of Benin they could not commit such a palpable error, and also with it they were better acquainted.

Till a European, however, ascertain all these points from ocular demonstration, and with scientific precision, the public mind will not be satisfied on these important topics. Doubt and uncertainty can, however, remain but a very little time longer. Captain Clapperton, with three companions, have proceeded on a second journey of discovery, and whatever be the result, they have at last taken the proper road to accomplish their object. On the latter end of November last they landed in the Bight of Benin, or rather at BADAGRY, a little to the west of the RIO LAGOS, with the intention of proceeding to Sackatoo and the interior by means of the rivers which flow from the north. As they had landed on that part of the coast (though a month too early in the sea◄

son,) and were left in high health and spirits, scarcely a doubt can be entertained of their success; and which success must determine with accuracy the great object of European curiosity and research, the complete course and termination of the great river Niger. Some fatality, however, seems to attend all our attempts to come promptly to the goal we have in view in everything connected with African discovery. Instead of following the course of the Rio de Formosa upwards, the party have landed at the point already mentioned, considerably to the westward of the mouth of that river, and have, it is said, determined to march by land through DAHOMY and HIO, or EYEO, to Nyffe, distant twenty-eight days' journey. But this distance brings them, it would appear, only to the borders of the province of Nyffe; for one letter from them states, that from Nyffe, (that is, as we suppose, the southern limits of Nyffe,) it is five days' journey to the "BIG WATER." By the route thus proposed to be followed, it will be seen, that the travellers leave the course of the Great River above 100 miles to the east; and, allowing they should reach Nyffe and Sackatoo in safety, still, were any misfortune to befall them there, we should remain as ignorant as ever of positive information concerning the termination of the Niger. But let us hope, that success and safety will attend them.

In the account which they have transmitted, namely, that Nyffe is five days' journey from the "BIG WATER," there is a remarkable confirmation of the delineation of those parts of Africa by D'ANVILLE. In his maps he lays down Nyffe about this distance south-west of the GREAT RIVER. Here we may also remark, what we have omitted in its proper place, that the "FERRY" which SIDI HAMED mentioned, in his progress down the Niger from Timbuctoo, and where he rested seven days with the caravan in their journey to WASSA NAH, was most probably over the river of Sackatoo, at its junction with the Niger. His account also of the course of the Niger, from Timbuctoo downwards to Wassanah, is extremely clear; for he says, he travelled throughout the journey in sight of the river. Wassanah is probably WAUWA-Fe, or Wauwa, a city on the Niger below

Boussa. His account of the farther course and termination of the Niger is most clear and satisfactory. He informs us, that he was invited by the Sultan of Wassanah to accompany him in a trading voyage down the river, in a number of canoes, with a considerable number of slaves, whom he intended to convey by water to the "GREAT WATER," distant about three months' journey, (direction first south, and then south-west,) for his fleet, and where he would exchange his slaves with the PALE PEOPLE-Christians, (who came there in large ships, armed with very large guns,) for blue cloth, gunpowder, and fire-arms, &c. -the exact articles with which Europeans carried on the slave-trade in the Bight of Benin, and at Lagos.

Besides the British travellers already mentioned, employed to explore interior Africa and the course of the Niger, Major LAING is also engaged in that service. He left Tripoli in July last to proceed to Timbuctoo, where he intended to build a small vessel to navigate the Niger, which, we know, he was of opinion terminated in the Atlantic, in the Delta of Benin. We know no man better qualified than Major Laing, in every respect, for such an undertaking, and no one who is more likely to succeed in making his way through the interior of Africa. The intelligence of what Clapperton had learned was transmitted to him, and received by him, soon after leaving Tripoli; and impressed as his mind was with the conviction that the Niger terminated in the Atlantic, he would pursue his object without delay, and without deviating from the straight-forward course. He expected to reach Timbuctoo in December, and by the month of March to be afloat on the Niger, down which, we hope, he is by this time considerably advanced. From the route which Clapperton and his fellow-travellers have taken, it is by

no

means improbable, that Major Laing may be the first British subject who explores the most important, and as yet, to Europeans, unknown parts of the course of the Niger. Success attend him! We anticipate his early arrival in his native land, with the important geographical information which he will bring with him. It is also probable, that in descending the river he may meet with his country

men ascending it in the very heart of Africa. How delightful must such a meeting prove!

The discovery of a water communication between the GULF OF GUINEA and the most populous, fertile, and civilized (if we may use the term) portions of Central Africa, is of great importance to the world, and more especially to Africa itself. Without such a communication, by which European knowledge could come into immediate contact with African ignorance and superstition, and barbarity, and indolence, there can be little hope of ever rescuing the population of Africa from their present disjointed, demoralized, and degraded state. The barbarous Moors and Arabs may improve the perfect savage, and advance them one step on the road to civilized life; but retrograding as these people are themselves very rapidly, they can teach no people that is any considerable degree emerged from the savage state, the path to further improvement and prosperity. When their power was in its zenith the result was different; and though they introduced some, and continued many evils into Africa, such as a continuation of the slave-trade and slavery, still they rooted out more intolerable evils, such as human sacrifices, and the lowest and most degrading kinds of superstition amongst the illiterate and savage Pagans. The countries which they had visited, and which they at one time controlled, and over which they still maintain a tottering sovereignty, are still civilized, enlightened, and industrious, compared to other portions of Africa, such as Ashantee, Dahomey, and the countries to the south of the Cameroons river, more especially the parts most remote into the interior. In the northern parts of Central Africa, the elements for a better state of things are found abundant, but as much scattered and disjointed as it is possible to find them. The climate is good, the land is fertile, the productions of the earth varied and most valuable in various articles of raw produce, always in demand in a great commercial and manufacturing country; but the people, ignorant and naturally indolent, are without protection, and without any stimulus to industry. Hence vices of every kind flourish among them-hence arise wars, and violence; and injustice, and oppression rule Africa, sweep her

fields with desolation, bind her unhappy children in fetters, and cover her miserable population with every sorrow with " lamentation, mourning, and woe."

To remove all this, and to substitute a better order of things, is highly desirable, and a work which every man would rejoice to see proceeded in, and carried into effect. But it is not the work of a day, nor of an age, nor of a century. It must be a work of much labour, and of much time, and a work which requires much prudence and much caution to go about, Hence we cannot but deprecate the injudicious zeal with which Clapperton pressed the total abolition of the slave trade, making it, in fact, a sine qua non for the communication with, and friendship of, England. At the risk of being, by ignorant, narrow, and enthusiastic minds, stigmatised as friends of that trade, we make these observations. We should remember that slavery and a slave trade are universal in Africa; that such deep-rooted evils are not to be rooted out in a day amongst an ignorant and extremely barbarised people; and this being the state of things, it is obvious that one precipitate step may drive us back many years in our attempts to advance the work of African regeneration and civilization. The Moors and Arabs seek slaves only in Soudan, and trade almost entirely for them. The Princes and Sovereigns of these countries have as yet no other way to obtain the luxuries, and even conveniences of life, (we speak of African luxuries and conveniences,) but by selling their criminals, enemies, and prisoners of war, to those who will buy them, and give in exchange the articles which they want. All this we admit is wrong, and contrary to their own interests, which would be greatly advanced by pursuing a different line of conduct. But the thing is to get them to be convinced of this fact, and it is obvious, that the more ignorant and barbarous they are, the more difficult it will be to convince them. It is easy to persuade them to this, and to open their eyes for the moment. But then the impression is not lasting, nor will it be lasting, till we can bring before their eyes the luxuries they want, and show them how they may obtain these in exchange for the produce of the ground, instead of the hands which should cultivate it. But to accomplish this, we must be perma

nently settled amongst them. The Arabs are not only traders for the sake of slaves almost exclusively, but they are, with regard to the commerce of Interior Africa, jealous, reckless commercial rivals; and, as such, it is natural to expect, they will use all the interest they can make, and the influence which they possess, over the minds of the African princes, and which are undoubtedly great, from the combination of ignorance, religion, and prejudice on account of religion, to irritate these sovereigns against us. On this account, Clapperton should not, at the outset, have touched upon such subjects. All he should have stated for the present, was the anxiety and the wish entertained by Great Britain to open up a commercial communication with them, by the nearest and the safest road, in order to supply their wants. This effected once planted securely amongst them that communication once fairly opened up, then the articles which we brought, and the articles which we required, would have silenced Arab jealousy, beat down Moorish rivalry, and extinguished Mahommedan influence; then we might safely have begun to speak to the native princes about the errors in their government; then our counsels would have been listened to with respect, and been attended with effect. The silence and the delay of one or two years might have accelerated the great and the desirable work by half a century.

By proceedings of this kind we can alone hope to put an end, a complete end, to the external and internal slave trade in Africa, and ultimately to the extinction of slavery itself in that vast continent. The measures we at present pursue have failed, and will fail, in accomplishing our object. A navy stationed off the coast of Africa, only lops off the spreading shoots of a branch of the tree of African slavery, but the tree itself remains far from our reach, carefully protected, cultivated, and fostered, by the power, and the ignorance, and the barbarity of millions. But let us try to get near the trunk, attack the roots, dry up its juices and supplies, and we shall then quickly strip it naked and bare, and plant in its stead trees of a different description. By advice we can only accomplish this; by force never. Only show and convince the African princes that we will give them more for the productions of their soil than for the sinews which should

cultivate it, and the work is done. Nothing else will accomplish the object, or vanquish this wide-spread and this deep-rooted evil. The external trade thus abolished, personal slavery, under enlightened masters and enlightened governments, may rapidly raise the ignorant and savage inhabitants of Africa to that knowledge and industry which will fit them to enjoy the blessings of freedom and the privileges of freedom. Till this becomes the case, however, liberty to them will be what it has hitherto been, a curse, not a blessing; an incentive to do evil, not a spur to do good.

We have spent millions in our attempts to civilize and to benefit Africa, and hitherto we have failed, TOTALLY FAILED. We shall spend millions more, and meet with the same results. And why is it so? Because we take the wrong path-because we refuse to look at, or to understand, the real situation of Africa; her ignorance, her evils, her passions, her prejudices, her capabilities, and her wants. Our settlements planted to secure the objects which we have in view, are the worst selected spots that we could have pitched upon in any part of any coast of the continent of Africa. They command nothing, and they open up no communication with any country in the interior more civilized than another. To extinguish the slave trade, to teach Africa to extinguish it, and to civilize Africa, we might, with equal propriety, and with equal effect, have planted ourselves at CAPE SPARTEL, as at that den of pestilence and death, Sierra Leone. Will this nation not open her eyes to these facts? Will the fatal experience of FORTY YEARS of deception, delusion, and failure, and the waste of millions of public money, without accomplishing any one thing which we wished to accomplish, not teach us wisdom? Teach us to remove from that fatal spot to a place like FERNANDO Po, where health and safety dwell, and where, commanding the outlets of the Niger, Great Britain would COMMAND the trade, the improvement, and the civilization of all Northern Central Africa.

In the different islands in the West Indies, and in Sierra Leone, we have now, and have for several years had, at least 20,000 liberated blacks, of different descriptions, under our protection. The annual expense which their maintenance requires, and the sum

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