The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805 Part 7

Major Rennell, in his Geographical Ill.u.s.trations of Park's travels, has done ample justice to the knowledge and judgment, so eminently displayed by D'Anville in the investigation of several important points relative to the geography of North Africa, which have been elucidated by this writer from very imperfect materials with extraordinary sagacity and success. In the 26th volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, there are two very important Dissertations by this distinguished Geographer; the first, On the sources of the Nile; and the second, Concerning the rivers of the interior of Africa, with reference to the opinions of the ancient and modern writers who have treated on that subject. The latter is the most immediately connected with the particular questions alluded to in the text; and it is remarkable that the princ.i.p.al opinions, or rather conjectures, of D'Anville (of which the opinion relating to the course of the Niger is the most important), although deduced from very uncertain and discordant sources of information, have been confirmed in a great degree by the discoveries of modern travellers, especially by those of Park. It appears that D'Anville was well acquainted with the existence of Tombuctoo, and had even ascertained the situation of that city, as well as the general course of the Niger with a considerable degree of precision. He had also formed a plan for sending a person, properly qualified, on an expedition from the French settlement of St. Joseph on the river Senegal, to Tombuctoo; but owing to some circ.u.mstance which he does not explain, the scheme did not take effect. As the Dissertation here alluded to may not be in the hands of every reader, the pa.s.sage relating to this subject may be worth transcribing.--After mentioning Ghana as the princ.i.p.al Mahometan city of Nigritia, spoken of by Edrisi, he says that many of the Fatimites, who escaped from the power of the Califs, took refuge in the interior of Africa, where they formed various states. He then proceeds as follows:

"Tombut ou Tombouctou, est actuellement entre les villes de la Nigritie, celle dont on parle davantage. On ne doit point etre surpris qu'Edrisi n'en fa.s.se pas mention. Outre qu'elle se peut juger hors des limites de ce qui lui a ete connu, Leon d'Afrique nous apprend que la fondation de Tombut par un prince de Barbarie, appelle Mensa-Suleiman, est de l'an 610 de l'Hegire, qui repond a l'an 1213 de l'ere Chretienne, ce qui est posterieur a la geographie d'Edrisi, composee vers le milieu du douzieme siecle. La situation de cette ville n'est pas precis.e.m.e.nt sur le Niger; mais elle y a son port, nomme Cabra, a quelques milles de distance.

Comme aucune des nations commercantes de l'Europe n'a penetre aussi avant dans les terres, en cette partie d'Afrique, que la nation Francoise, par ses etabliss.e.m.e.ns sur le Senega, elle est plus a portee qu'une autre d'acquerir quelque connoissance de cet interieur. J'ai appris, d'une personne qui avoit commande plusieurs annees au fort Saint-Joseph en Galam, lequel se peut estimer distant en droite ligne de l'entree du Senega d'environ cent trent lieues francoises; que les Bambaras, qui du fond du pays amenent des esclaves noirs, comptent quarante huit journees depuis Tombut jusqu'au fort Saint-Joseph, et que la mesure commune de la journee s'evalue a environ cinq lieues, d'ou il resulte autour de deux cens quarante lieues. Le moyen d'en savoir davantage seroit, que quelque personne habituee au climat, comme il y en a dans le haut du Senega, accompagnee d'interpretes, et qu'une instruction prealable auroit mise au fait d'une partie des choses dont il seroit a propos de s'informer, fit le voyage de Tombut. Un evenement a empeche l'execution d'un projet, auquel j'avois tres-volontiers pris part dans cette vue."

_Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions_, Tom. xxvi. p. 72.

The above pa.s.sage was written by D'Anville about the year 1754; and it is not a little extraordinary that during the sixty years that have since elapsed, a period so much distinguished for geographical discovery, Tombuctoo should never have been visited by any European traveller: and that one of the greatest marts of African commerce, which is annually resorted to by caravans from various parts of that continent, should remain at this time entirely unknown to the civilized world.

In speaking of Tombuctoo as being still entirely unknown, the writer is aware that a particular description of that city has been given in an _Account of the Empire of Morocco_ published in the year 1809 by Mr.

James Grey Jackson, who resided in that part of Africa during many years. But Mr. Jackson derived his whole knowledge of Tombuctoo from the accounts of native traders; upon whose unsupported testimony very little reliance can be placed; especially as to matters of detail, or such facts as require to be stated with any degree of exactness. Considering that Mr. Jackson's information was obtained from this source, the very minuteness and apparent precision of his account, are circ.u.mstances highly unfavourable to its authenticity.

With reference to the internal geography of Africa, the writer may take this opportunity of observing, that next to the African a.s.sociation, to whom we are indebted for almost all the authentic information which we possess upon this subject, [Footnote: The valuable discoveries of the late Mr. Browne (whose death must be lamented as a public loss) form an exception to this general remark; but perhaps the only exception.]

considerable praise is due to the Sierra Leone Company; under whose auspices, during the time they were in possession of that colony, several important journies into the interior were judiciously undertaken and successfully executed. Among these may be mentioned an expedition in 1794 by Mr. Watt and Mr. Winterbottom (being a land journey of near five hundred miles, in going and returning by different routes) to Laby and Teembo, both of them considerable towns, and the latter the capital of the Foulah country. Tombuctoo appeared, from the enquiries made by the travellers, to be well known at both those places; and the communication with that city from Laby, though it was spoken of as a journey of four moons, was represented to be open, and they were furnished with many particulars of the route. Shortly afterwards, in consequence perhaps of this information, a project was formed at Sierra Leone of sending out a mission to Tombuctoo; but Mr. Watt, who was to have undertaken the journey, died; and the invasion of the colony by the French in September 1794, together with the destruction which followed, seems to have put a stop to expeditions of this nature.

The editor has been favoured by Mr. Macaulay, late Secretary of the Sierra Leone Company and formerly Governor of the Colony, with a sight of the Journals of the expedition to Teembo as well as of some other missions from Sierra Leone of inferior importance. They do great credit to the writers (especially the Journal to Teembo) and contain many valuable and interesting particulars; several of which have been given to the public in the Reports of the Sierra Leone Company, and in Dr.

Winterbottom's judicious account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of that colony. But there is still room for a compilation or selection from these Journals, which, if well executed, would be an instructive and interesting publication.

APPENDIX. No. III.

Page xxix.

Soon after Mr. Edwards's death several letters pa.s.sed between Park and Sir William Young, now Governor of Tobago, upon a subject immediately connected with the question, considered in the memoir, relative to the a.s.sistance afforded by Mr. Edwards in preparing Park's travels for the press. Copies of these letters having been transmitted to the editor by Park's family, he thinks it right on the present occasion to lay them before the public; remarking at the same time that, after due consideration of their contents, he continues to be of the opinion which he has expressed in the text.

The occasion of this correspondence appears to have been as follows. Mr.

Edwards was engaged, at the time of his death, in preparing for the press an enlarged and corrected edition of his _History of the West Indies_; but as he did not live to complete it, his friend Sir William Young superintended the publication of the work, and added a short preface; in which, speaking of Mr. Edwards's literary merits, he mentioned "the judicious compilation and elegant recital of the travels of Mungo Park". This produced a letter of expostulation from Park to Sir William Young, of which either no copy was kept, or it has been since lost or mislaid; but the nature of its contents will be seen from the sequel of the correspondence.

_Sir William Young to Mr. Park._

_59 Harley-street, November 9th, 1803._

"The day before yesterday I received your letter dated so far back as August 25th. It appears to have been put into the London post, addressed to my clerk's lodgings, only last week, and reached me in the country November the 7th. I am thus particular as to dates, as I could not bear the imputation of having so long neglected the due acknowledgment of a letter from one whom I so highly esteem and respect. In regard to the question you state, I understood from the late Mr. Edwards, that he a.s.sisted in the general arrangement of the materials you supplied, as Dr. Hawkesworth did, in the case of a voyage by the great navigator Captain Cooke; and that the previous Account or Summary of your Travels delivered into the African a.s.sociation was written by him; to which your fuller Account of your Travels in detail was subsequent. The word "author," I believe, does not occur in the pa.s.sage you refer to; and if the words "compilation and recital" seem to bear any application beyond the prospectus before adverted to, or in any way to trench on your just pretensions as a writer, I truly lament the inaccuracy, and will take the most immediate means of rectifying the error, which circ.u.mstances may place within my reach; either by present correction or on a new edition of the work. My situation as Secretary of the African a.s.sociation furnishes me with doc.u.ments from which I have learned so highly to appreciate your character and to entertain so grateful a sense of your public services, that it would be painful in me, in the smallest degree to have stated any thing that might be so construed as to affect your just literary pretensions; although it is difficult to add to the just and high reputation you held independently, from the fort.i.tude, discretion, and resource so eminently shewn in your distinguished and successful enterprise."

_Mr. Park to Sir William Young._

_Fowls.h.i.+els, 14th May, 1804._

"I perceive by your letter, that you meant the words 'compilation' and 'recital,' to refer entirely to the Abridgment of my Travels, which was written for the perusal of the gentlemen of the African a.s.sociation, by Mr. Edwards, their Secretary.

"A printed copy of this Abridgment was delivered to each of the gentlemen at their annual meeting, but I believe it was never publicly sold. The greater number of readers are therefore but slightly acquainted with it; and to such, the words above-mentioned will naturally convey a very different meaning. Having thus explained myself to you, I hope you will see the propriety of correcting the pa.s.sage above-mentioned as soon as possible. I must therefore request you will permit me to insert your letter in any of the periodical publications, or favour me with a correction of the pa.s.sage, as you may think proper."

_Extract from a letter of Sir William Young to Mr. Park_

_May 25, 1804._

"The letter which I wrote on the subject of the publication of your travels in Africa, is perfectly at your service to make any use of, which you may think proper. No measure can be more satisfactory and agreeable to myself, than that which may most fully render justice to your high and well earned reputation in every point of view."

APPENDIX. No. IV.

The question regarding the termination of the Niger is one of the most doubtful and obscure in modern geography, and in the present defective state of our information with regard to the interior of Africa, seems hardly to admit of a clear and satisfactory solution. Of the difficulties with which the subject is attended, some judgment may be formed from the various and even opposite opinions which have been maintained relative to the course of the Niger, since Park's discoveries have ascertained that it flows from west to east. As the enquiry is somewhat curious, a summary view of these different opinions, and of the princ.i.p.al arguments by which they are supported, may not be uninteresting to the readers of Park's life. To investigate the question with the accuracy and minuteness which it deserves, would not only very far exceed the limits of a note, but would require much more information upon this subject than the editor possesses, united with some previous habits of geographical disquisition.

I. According to the oldest of these opinions, and that which is supported by the greatest authorities (being the opinion not only of some of the princ.i.p.al Geographers of antiquity, but of D'Anville and Rennell among the moderns), it is supposed, that the Niger has an inland termination somewhere in the eastern part of Africa, probably in w.a.n.gara or Ghana: and that it is partly discharged into inland lakes, which have no communication with the sea, and partly spread over a wide extent of level country, and lost in sands or evaporated by the heat of the sun.

[Footnote: Proceedings of the African a.s.sociation, vol. i. p. 535.]

The princ.i.p.al ground of this supposition is, the opinion of some of the best informed writers of antiquity on the geography of Africa, and a sort of general persuasion prevalent among the ancients to the same effect; circ.u.mstances, it must be acknowledged, of considerable weight in determining this question: since there is good reason to believe, that the knowledge of the ancients concerning the interior of Africa was much more extensive and accurate than that of the moderns. It is justly observed by Dr. Robertson, that the geographical discoveries of the ancients were made chiefly by land, those of the moderns by sea; the progress of conquest having led to the former, that of commerce to the latter. (Hist. Of America, vol. ii. p. 3l6, 8vo.) Besides which, there are several distinct and peculiar causes which have essentially contributed to our present ignorance respecting the interior of Africa; namely, the great prevalence of the slave trade, which has confined the attention of European adventurers exclusively to the coast; the small temptation which the continent of Africa held out, during the continuance of that trade, to internal commerce; and the almost impenetrable barrier raised up against Europeans in modern times, by the savage intolerance of the Moors.

The ancient opinion, respecting the termination of the Niger which has just been alluded to, receives a certain degree of confirmation from the best and most authentic accounts concerning that part of Africa, in which the Niger is supposed to disappear. This is represented by various concurrent testimonies to be a great tract of alluvial country, having several permanent lakes, and being annually overflowed for three months during the rainy season.

Against the hypothesis of an inland termination of the Niger, several objections have been urged, which are well deserving of attention. They are princ.i.p.ally founded on a consideration of the vast magnitude which the Niger must have attained after a course of more than 1600 geographical miles, and the difficulty of conceiving so prodigious a stream to be discharged into lakes, and evaporated even by an African sun. To account for such a phenomenon, a great inland sea, bearing some resemblance to the Caspian or the Aral, appears to be necessary. But, besides that the existence of so vast a body of water without any outlet into the ocean, is in itself an improbable circ.u.mstance, and not to be lightly admitted; such a sea, if it really existed, could hardly have remained a secret to the ancients, and entirely unknown at the present day.

It may just be observed, that D'Anville, following Ptolemy and other writers whom he considers as the best informed on the internal geography of Africa, is satisfied that there are _two_ considerable rivers, the Niger and the _Gir_; both of which are said to terminate in the same quarter of Africa, and precisely in the same manner. The Gir, totally unknown at the present day, is familiarly mentioned by Claudian, who, however, it may be recollected, was a native of Africa:--

'_Gir_, ditissimus amnis 'Aethiopum, simili ment.i.tus gurgite Nilum.'

Carm. 21. v. 252.

In some MSS. it is _notissimus_ amnis; but the other reading is more probable.

'Domitorque ferarum 'Girrhaeus, qui vasta colit sub rupibus antra, 'Qui ramos ebeni, qui dentes vellit eburnos.'

Carm. 47. v. 20.

II. The second opinion respecting the Niger is, that it terminates in the Nile. In other words, this hypothesis identifies the Niger with the great western branch of the Nile, called the _White River_, which D'Anville traces from a source very far SS.W. to its junction with the Nile near Sennaar. He likewise accurately distinguishes this stream from the eastern branch, which is much shorter and of inferior magnitude, and which takes its rise in the mountains of Abyssinia. This opinion is maintained by Mr. Horneman, Mr. Grey Jackson, and several other modern travellers; and it is slightly sanctioned by Strabo and Pliny, who speak of the sources of the Nile as being reported by some to be in the farther parts of Mauritania. But it may be affirmed with great confidence, that of all the hypotheses respecting the termination of the Niger, that which supposes it to be a branch of the Nile, is the most unfounded, and the least consistent with acknowledged facts. It is indeed rather a loose popular conjecture, than an opinion deduced from probable reasoning; since nothing appears to be alleged in its support, except the mere circ.u.mstance of the course of the river being in a direction towards the Nile; and a few vague notions of some of the African natives with regard to this subject, which are unworthy of the smallest attention.

Mr. Jackson, indeed, in his Travels (p. 310), states it to be a fact universally known among the rich African traders, that the Niger and the Nile are one and the same river, by means of which there is a practicable communication between Tombuctoo and Grand Cairo. Between these two cities caravans are continually pa.s.sing, and a large trade is carried on; but Mr. Jackson observes, that the expense of land-carriage by means of camels is more moderate than that by water, and that the journey also is more agreeable! He gives an account of the voyage to Cairo down the Niger, having actually been performed in the year 1780 by a party of seventeen negroes, the particulars of which expedition, he says that he received from 'a very intelligent man who has an establishment at Tombuctoo.' These negroes proceeded down the Niger from Jinnie, on a commercial speculation, and reached Cairo after a voyage of fourteen months. They returned by the caravan, and arrived at Jinnie, after an absence of more than three years. Some of the facts which they reported are not a little extraordinary:--_viz_. that in several places they found the Nile so shallow, in consequence of channels cut for irrigating the lands, that they could not proceed in their boat, and were obliged to transport it some distance over-land; that they saw between Tombuctoo and Cairo _twelve hundred_ cities and towns, adorned with mosques and towers, &c. It is needless to comment upon such _hearsay_ statements, received from an African traveller or merchant more than twenty years after the transaction is said to have happened; nor would any allusion have been made to them in this place, if Mr. Jackson's book had not been much commended by distinguished critics, and quoted as an authority respecting the interior of Africa by several geographical writers.

[Footnote: Edinburgh Review, vol. xiv. p. 306.]

The princ.i.p.al, and apparently decisive, objection against this supposed junction of the Niger and the Nile, is grounded upon a comparison of the great _difference of level_ between the beds of the two rivers. From the authentic information we possess by means of Mr. Browne, respecting the countries west of the Nile, it is now clear, that if this junction takes place at all, it must be in the upper part of the Nile, before that river has quitted the higher regions of Africa, from whence it has still 1000 geographical miles to run before it reaches the sea, pa.s.sing in its way through several cataracts. But it is utterly incredible that the Niger, which, in order to reach this part of the Nile, must have run at the least 2300 miles, should not in so long a course have descended to a level considerably lower than that which is here described. This objection is urged with great force by Major Rennell, who justly considers it as being entirely decisive of the question; but he has added several other arguments, which those who take an interest in this question, will do well to consult.

[Footnote: Proceedings of the African a.s.sociation, vol. i. p. 537; and vol. ii. p. 268, 280.]

III. The supposition, mentioned in the text (p. lxviii), that the Niger terminates in the River Congo, or, as it is sometimes called, the Zaire, is entirely a recent conjecture, adopted by Park in consequence of the information and suggestions of Mr. Maxwell, an experienced African trader, who appears from his letters to have been a man of observation and intelligence. The princ.i.p.al arguments in support of the opinion are shortly and clearly given in the memoir addressed by Park to Lord Camden; but the subject will receive additional elucidation from Mr. Maxwell's own statement, and especially from his striking description of the river Congo, the vast magnitude of which is little known, and has not sufficiently attracted the attention of geographical writers. The following pa.s.sage is extracted from a letter, dated Prior's Lynn, near Longtown, July 20, 1804, addressed by Mr. Maxwell to William Keir, of Milnholm, Esq., a friend of Park, to whom the letter was communicated by Mr. Maxwell's desire.

"Before ever the Niger came to be the topic of conversation, it struck me, that the Congo drew its source far to the northward, from the floods commencing long before any rains take place south of the equator; since it begins to swell perceptibly about the latter end of October, and no heavy rains set in before December: and about the end of January the river must be supposed at its highest. At no time, however, can the rains to the southward of the Line be compared with those in the Bight of Guinea, where s.h.i.+ps are obliged to have a house erected over them during these months.

"But, whether the Congo be the outlet of the Niger or not, it certainly offers the best opening for exploring the interior of Africa of any scheme that has ever yet been attempted; and the ease and safety with which it might be conducted, needs no comment. However, if the Niger _has_ a sensible outlet, I have no doubt of its proving the Congo, knowing all the rivers between Cape Palmas and Cape Lopes to be inadequate to the purpose; nor need the immense course of such a river surprise us, when we know that the river St. Lawrence, contemptible in size when compared with the Congo, encompa.s.ses the whole of North America, issuing through a chain of lakes. But instead of seven or eight lakes, the Congo may be supposed to pa.s.s through seventeen or eighteen; which will solve any difficulty as to the floods of the Niger not immediately affecting the Congo. I believe that our information of the Niger losing itself in the Desert rests wholly upon the authority of the Romans, a people whose pursuits never led them to trace the course of rivers with a view to traffic or civilization. If we may credit the accounts of travellers in crossing the deserts, we find that, where-ever they get water for refreshment, there are invariably verdure and palm trees; and these spots in the desert of Lybia were termed by the ancients Oases, or Islands. Now, if such small springs could produce such permanent effects, we may reasonably suppose, that the immense stream of the Niger increased to three times the size from where Mr. Park left it, would long before this have made the desert as green as any water meadow and found its way gradually to the ocean, or inundated the whole country."

"I can with much truth say this of the river Congo, that by comparing it with other rivers, according to the best writers, it must rank as the third or fourth in magnitude. Considering the force of the current it produces in the sea, carrying out floating islands sixty or seventy leagues from the coast, the Amazon or Plata only can cope with it. Many traders, whom I met with at Embomma, (a settlement on the banks of the Congo distant thirty leagues from its mouth,) had come one month's journey down the river, which, reckoned at twenty miles each day (and they count them by the moon, _Gonda_), would make six hundred miles; and they spoke of it as equally large where they came from, and that it went by the name of _Enzaddi_, as it does among all the natives upon the coast. Should the shallow water, as laid down opposite Saenda, detract from the a.s.sumed size of the Congo, let it be remembered, that the river there is spread out ten miles in width, the middle channel of which has never been accurately sounded. It has long been my opinion that Leyland's or Molyneux Island at Embomma (either of which might be rendered as impregnable as Gibraltar at a very small expense) would be a choice station for establis.h.i.+ng an extensive commerce with the interior of Africa. Indeed, if the idea of the Congo being the outlet of the Niger prove so upon trial, we may consider it as an opening designed by providence for exploring those vast regions, and civilizing the rude inhabitants."

[Footnote: A chart of the Congo by Mr. Maxwell was published many years since by Laurie and Whittle, Fleet street.]