Chapter I

Concerning the Ideas entertained by the Ancient Geographers, as well as the Moderns, down to the Times of Delisle and D’Anville, respecting the Course of the River Niger.

The late journey of Mr. Park, into the interior of Western Africa, has brought to our knowledge more important facts respecting its Geography (both moral and physical), than have been collected by any former traveller. By pointing out to us the positions of the sources of the great rivers Senegal, Gambia, and Niger,[26] we are instructed where to look for the elevated parts of the country; and even for the most elevated point in the western quarter of Africa, by the place from whence the Niger and Gambia turn in opposite directions to the east and west. We are taught, moreover, the common boundary of the desert and fruitful parts of the country, and of the Moors and Negroes; which latter is the more interesting, as it may be termed a boundary in moral geography; from the opposite qualities of mind, as well as of body, of the Moors and Negroes: for that physical geography gives rise to habits, which often determine national character, must be allowed by every person, who is a diligent observer of mankind.

It must be acknowledged, that the absolute extent of Mr. Park’s progress in Africa, compared with the amazing size of that continent, appears but small, although it be nearly 1100 British miles in a direct line, reckoned from its western extremity, Cape Verd. But considered in itself, it is no inconsiderable line of travel; being more extensive than the usual southern tour of Europe.

But moreover, it affords a triumph to the learned, in that it confirms some points of fact, both of geography and natural history, which have appeared in ancient authors, but to which our own want of knowledge has denied credit. I allude more particularly to the course of the Niger, and the history of the Lotophagi. That the Greeks and Romans, who had formed great establishments in Africa, and the latter in particular, who had penetrated to the Niger[27] should have had better opportunities of knowing the interior part of the country, than we, who live at a distance from it, and possess only a few scattered factories near the sea coast, is not to be wondered at: but the proof of such facts should teach us to be less hasty in decrying the authority of ancient authors; since the fault may arise from a want of comprehension on our parts, or from an assumption of false principles on theirs.

Few geographical facts have been more questioned in modern times, than the course of the great inland river of Africa, generally understood by the name of Niger; some describing it to run to the west, others to the east; but of these opinions, I believe the former has been espoused by the most numerous party, by far.[28] Although Mr. Park’s authority, founded on ocular demonstration, sets this question for ever at rest, by determining the course of the river to be from west to east, as Major Houghton’s information had previously induced a belief of, yet it may not be amiss to trace the history of the opinions, concerning the course of this celebrated river, from the earliest date of profane history.

Herodotus,[29] more than twenty-two centuries ago, describes, from the information of the Africans, a great river of Africa, far removed to the south of the Great Desert, and abounding with crocodiles. That it flowed from west to east, dividing Africa, in like manner as the Danube does Europe. That the people from the borders of the Mediterranean, who made the discovery, were carried to a great city on the banks of the river in question; and that the people of this quarter were black; that is, much blacker than their visitors. Our author, indeed, took this river to be the remote branch of the Egyptian Nile, and reasons on the circumstance, accordingly: but even this argument serves to express in a more forcible manner, the supposed direction of its course.

Pliny also believed that the Nile came from the west; but he is far from identifying it with the Niger, which he describes as a distinct river. But we have at least his negative opinion respecting its western course; for he speaks of the Bambotus river as running into the Western ocean; meaning to express by it either the Gambia or Senegal river, and not the Niger.[30]

Ptolemy is positive in describing the Niger as a separate stream from the Senegal and Gambia, which two rivers are designed by him under the names of Daradus and Stachir; and they are by no means ill expressed; falling into the sea on different sides of the Arsinarium promontory, or Cape Verd.[31] The Niger of Ptolemy is made to extend from west to east, over half the breadth of Africa, between the Atlantic ocean, and the course of the Nile.

These may suffice for the ancient authorities, which in very early times fixed the course of the Niger in the systems of geography, to be from west to east. Who it was that first led the way, in the opposite opinion, I know not; but we find Edrisi, in the twelfth century, not only conducting the Nile of the Negroes, or Niger, westward, and into the Atlantic, but also deriving it from the Egyptian Nile; which is diametrically opposite to the opinion of Herodotus.

Such an opinion marks the very imperfect state of his knowledge of African geography; and should induce a degree of caution in receiving other opinions of the same author, where they rest absolutely on his own authority. It is very probable that the waters which collect on the west of Nubia, may run to the west, and be lost in lakes: and it is possible, though very improbable, that a branch of the Nile may take the same course: but fortified by the present state of our knowledge, we may certainly pronounce the general scope of the intelligence communicated by Edrisi, respecting the course of the Niger, to be erroneous.

I conceive, however, that his error may easily be accounted for, in this way. He was probably told, that the waters on the west of Nubia, &c. ran to the westward. He also knew that a great river (the Senegal) discharged itself into the Atlantic, nearly in the same parallel; and moreover, that a great river, whose line of direction lay between the east and west, and between Nubia and the just mentioned embouchure, watered a very extensive tract, in the midland part of Africa. Now, what so natural (admitting the fact of the western waters from Nubia, and which I trust, I shall go near to prove in the sequel) as to suppose, when he had found a head, and a tail of a great river, together with a long extent of course of a river between them, that they were parts of each other? It must also be taken into the account, that he supposed the continent of Africa to be about 1000 miles narrower than it really is, in the line between Nubia and the mouth of the Senegal.

Abulfeda followed Edrisi in the same opinion, respecting the Niger; which he calls a twin river with that of Egypt. He also calls it the Nile of Gana. Abulfeda also knew, and has described, the general form of the continent of Africa: and, of course knew that it was surrounded by the sea.[32] But his descriptions are limited to the north and north-east parts. He wrote in the fourteenth century.

It was Edrisi, probably, who influenced and determined the opinions of the moderns, respecting this question. An author, long supposed to be of the same region with that which he describes,[33] and who had entered more into the detail of the African geography, than any other, would, according to the usual mode of decision, on such pretensions, be preferred to those who went before him, and had treated the subject in a more general way. Mankind had no criterion by which to judge of the truth.

Since then the Arabian geographer, who had written the most extensively on the subject, had conducted the Niger into the Atlantic, we cannot wonder that the early Portuguese discoverers, who doubtless learnt from the Arabian authors the particulars of African geography, should adopt the same idea; and that they should regard the Senegal river as the Niger; as we find it, in the histories of their discoveries in the fifteenth century. The Portuguese, who at this period took the lead, in matters of navigation and discovery, might well be expected to set the fashion, in what related to African geography. So that in despite of Ptolemy, and of the ancients in general, the great inland river of Africa was described to run to the west; and to form the head of the Senegal river. Nay more, it was at last supposed to be the parent stock of all the great western rivers of Africa.

Sanuto, whose Geography of Africa, is dated 1588, describes one branch of the Niger to be the Rio Grande, the other the river of Sestos; regarding the Senegal as a different river.

M. Delisle’s map of Africa (1707) gives the Niger a direct course through Africa, from Bornou, in the east, and terminating in the river of Senegal on the west. But in his maps of 1722 and 1727, this was corrected: the source of the Senegal was placed at a shallow lake named Maberia, between the 14th and 15th degrees of longitude east of Cape Verd; and in latitude 12°; whilst the river of Tombuctoo, named Guien, was described to issue from another lake, in the same neighbourhood, and to flow towards Bornou, where it terminated in a third lake.

The cause of this change, may be easily traced, in the intelligence collected by the French traders and settlers in Gallam:[34] the substance of which is to be found in Labat’s collection, published in 1728; although the detail differs in some points. He says, Vol. ii. p. 161, et seq. that the Mandinga merchants report that the Niger (by which he always means the Senegal river) springs from the lake Maberia, whose situation could not be ascertained. That the Gambia river was a branch of the Niger; separating from it at Baracota (a position also unknown) and that it passed through a marshy lake, in its way to Baraconda; where the English and Portuguese had settlements. That the Niger, at a point below Baracota, sent forth another branch, namely the Falemé river; which encompassed the country of Bambouk, and afterwards joined the Niger in the country of Gallam. And finally, that the same Niger, by its separation into two branches, formed a very considerable island above Kasson. It may be remarked, that a belief of these circumstances, manifests a gross state of ignorance respecting the interior of the country; since such derivations from rivers, are found only in alluvial tracts: and it happens, that scarcely any levels vary more than those, through which the rivers in question pass; as will appear in the sequel.

They likewise report (p. 163) that on the east of the lake Maberia lies the kingdom of Guinbala; within which, is the river of Guien, which passes near the city of Tombuctoo. Again (Vol. iii. p. 361 to 364) it is said that Tombuctoo is not situated on the bank of the Niger, but at about 6 leagues inland from it: and that in passing to it, from Gallam (which is reported to be a journey of thirty-two days only), they go through Timbi, five journies short of Tombuctoo; where they leave the bank of the river, to avoid too great a detour.

Labat does not state in positive terms that the Niger or river of Senegal affords a continuous navigation, from the falls of Govinea (above Gallam) to Tombuctoo: but that he believed it, is strongly implied, by what appears afterwards, in p. 367, 368; that is, a project of a trade to Tombuctoo; “by keeping an establishment of vessels above the falls; which vessels might ascend the Niger to a point opposite to Tombuctoo, thereby saving the great expence and fatigue of a land journey.”

Here then, we trace the idea of the lake of Maberia, the supposed head of the Niger; and the river of Tombuctoo, under the name of Guien; and moreover, (although these are not expressly said to communicate) a continued navigation from Gallam to Tombuctoo. But it must surely have struck those on the spot, to inquire whether any boats ever descended from Tombuctoo to the falls of Govinea?

It is certain that Delisle, (as well as D’Anville, whose general ideas are much the same, in this particular[35]) regards the river Guien, as having no communication with the lake Maberia, but makes it flow from a different lake, at no great distance to the northward: so that these geographers so far understood the matter right; and denied the practicability of a continuous navigation to Tombuctoo: but then, they erred very greatly in placing the head of the Senegal, either so remotely, or in the eastern quarter; since it rises in the south-east.

We must regard the geography of M. D’Anville, as the most perfect of all, previous to the inquiries made by the African Association. The researches made under the direction of this Association, have already established on record, from the reports of Major Houghton, and of Mr. Magra, although in a vague way, the general position of the sources of the Joliba, or Niger, in or near the country of Manding; as well as its easterly or north-easterly course, towards Tombuctoo; the position of Bammakoo, situated near the highest navigable point of its course; of Sego, and Jenné, along its banks; the separation of its waters, into two channels, in the quarter of Tombuctoo; together with a vague idea of the position of that city itself. It will be shewn, in the sequel, that Mr. Park’s observations do not contradict, but establish these positions; drawing them out of the obscurity in which, by the very nature of the information, they were necessarily involved; and fixing, in some degree of just relative position and proportion, those particulars which before remained at large, considered in a geographical sense.

Concerning the errors of former geographers, they are more easily detected than the causes of them. They must, however, be ascribed, partly to the ignorance of the African merchants; but, in all probability, in a much greater part, to the want of understanding each other’s language; a defect that has led to many errors, that are oftentimes charged to the account of wilful falsehood, or, at least, to an indifference to the cause of truth.

I can easily conceive that the caravan merchants, in passing from Tombuctoo to Gallam (or the contrary), might have deceived themselves into a belief, that the principal rivers which they had either crossed or skirted in their way, might communicate with each other: for it appears clearly, by Mr. Park’s observations, that the eastern branch of the Senegal, and the western branch of the Joliba, approach very near to each other, in the early part of their courses; so that, during the whole journey, the merchants might never be farther distant from a river to the southward of them, than a few journies.

As to the story, so long credited, of the Niger being the parent river, from whence all the western rivers were derived, we may remark, that ignorance, in every country through which large rivers take their course, is very ready to derive them all from one source; and that source very probably, a lake. Within our own times, the Burrampooter and Ava rivers were thus described in the maps. Pliny reports, that the Euphrates and Tigris are united in Armenia, by the medium of a lake:[36] and Edrisi, as we have seen, derived the Nile and Niger, from one and the same lake.[37]

It will appear that the lake Maberia, taken by D’Anville and Delisle for the head of the Senegal river, or that which runs to the west, is meant for no other than the lake of Dibbie, formed by the river Joliba, or that which runs to the east, and which Mr. Park’s inquiries have brought to our knowledge. Again, we recognize the river Guien, or Guin, of Labat, of D’Anville, and of Delisle, in the northern branch of the same Joliba, issuing out of the lake Dibbie; and which, together with the southern branch from the same lake, forms an island, reported to be 90 or 100 miles in length, named Jinbala by Mr. Park. There is a town on the side of the northern branch, also named Jinbala; but whether the island may take its name from this town, or from the river, whose proper name, from about this point, seems to be Guin, or Jin, I know not. M. D’Anville has described, in this position, the country of Guinbala, subject to Tonka Quata: the same who is said by Labat to be sovereign of the country which contains the lake of Maberia, and the river of Guien.[38]

Here, then, we have an explication of the error of those, who, from the supposed information of the Mandinga merchants, supposed the lake Maberia (answering to the Dibbie of Park), to form the source of the Senegal river; and who took the river of Guin, or Jinbala, for a distinct river, instead of a branch, issuing from that lake. The Mandingas might very truly have informed the French settlers, that the lake Maberia, and the rivers Joliba and Guin would convey them to Tombuctoo; but did they say also, that the river of Senegal would convey them to the lake Maberia? The French merchants, perhaps, taking for granted that the navigation was continuous, might never inquire whether their informants were speaking of one or of two rivers: and the others might at the same time be speaking of two distinct rivers, and be ignorant of the prepossessions of their inquirers!

It may be added, that, whether from the difficulties that grew out of the subject, when the geographical documents came to be analyzed, or whether it was from actual information, both Delisle and D’Anville describe two lakes, near each other; one at the supposed head of the Senegal river, the other at that of the Tombuctoo river. I think it most probable, that it was occasioned by the want of their being made to comprehend, that the waters ran eastward to, and not westward from the lake Maberia; so that when they were told that the Tombuctoo river issued from a lake, they concluded it must be a different one from that at the head of the Senegal. Certain it is, however, that these geographers believed, that the waters ran to the west, from this lake.

I have now brought to a conclusion, what was meant to be said on the subject of the descriptions, and mistakes, of former geographers; in the course of which it may be observed, that a period of twenty-two centuries has brought matters round again to the same point. And having thus cleared the ground, I next proceed to the more important part of the subject, the proper discoveries of Mr. Park.