The travellers, in embarking on the Atlantic, had solved the greatest
problem in African, and even in modern geography;--one which had
exercised the ingenuity and conjecture of so many learned inquirers,
and in the efforts to solve which so many brave and distinguished
adventurers had perished. This discovery divested the Niger of that
singular and mysterious character, which had been one chief cause of
the interest that it had excited--when seen rolling its ample flood
_from_ the sea towards vast unknown regions in the interior. The
circuit by which it reaches the Atlantic assimilates its character
to that of ordinary rivers, without any much more remarkable windings
than are found in others of similar length. It displays, however, a
magnitude considerably greater than had been suggested by any former
observation.
We can now trace very distinctly, the entire line of this great river.
Its source, though not actually visited, seems ascertained by Laing
to exist in the high country of Kissi, about 200 miles in the interior
from Sierra Leone. Thence it rolls through Foota Jallo and Kankan,
where Caillie describes himself to have found it already a rapid and
considerable stream. At Bammakoo, having received the tributary from
Sankari in Manding, which Park mistook for the main river, it begins
its course over the fine plain of Bambarra, where it forms a noble
stream; and in passing Sego, the capital, has been considered
as equalling the Thames at Westminster. Thence it pursues a
north-westerly course, and flowing through the lake Dibbie, reaches
Timbuctoo. Its course from that city to Youri has not yet been
delineated; but the fact that Park navigated down from one place to
the other, fully establishes the continuity. During this reach the
Niger makes a great change of direction from north-east to almost
due south. From Youri to the sea, it was navigated by the present
travellers, and was found following generally a southern direction,
though making in one part a rapid bend to the east, whence it
gradually returns. If we measure two distances, one from the source
to Timbuctoo, and the other from that city to the sea, we shall have
nearly 2,000 miles, which may be considered as the direct course;
and the various windings must raise the whole line of the stream to
upwards of 3,000 miles. For several hundred miles of its lower course,
it forms a broad and magnificent expanse, resembling an inland sea.
The Niger must after all yield very considerably to the Missouri and
Orellana, those stupendous rivers of the new world. But it appears at
least as great as any of those which water the old continents. There
can rank with it only the Nile, and the Yangtse-kiang, or Great
River of China. But the upper course of neither is yet very fully
ascertained; and the Nile can compete only in length of course, not in
the magnitude of its stream, or the fertility of the regions which it
waters. There is one feature in which the Niger may defy competition
from any river, either of the old or new world. This is in the
grandeur of its Delta. Along the whole coast, from the river of
Formosa or Benin to that of Old Calabar, about 300 miles in length,
there open into the Atlantic its successive estuaries, which
navigators have scarcely been able to number. Taking this coast as
the base of the triangle or Delta, and its vertex at Kirree, about 170
miles inland, where the Formosa branch separates, we have a space of
upwards of 25,000 square miles, equal to the half of England. Had
this Delta, like that of the Nile, been subject only to temporary
inundations, leaving behind a layer of fertilizing slime, it would
have formed the most fruitful region on earth, and might have been
almost the granary of a continent. But, unfortunately, the Niger rolls
down its waters in such excessive abundance, as to convert the whole
into a huge and dreary swamp, covered with dense forests of mangrove,
and other trees of spreading and luxuriant foliage. The equatorial
sun, with its fiercest rays, cannot penetrate these dark recesses; it
only exhales from them pestilential vapours, which render this coast
the theatre of more fatal epidemic diseases than any other, even of
Western Africa. That human industry will one day level these forests,
drain these swamps, and cover this soil with luxuriant harvests, we
may confidently anticipate; but many ages must probably elapse before
man, in Africa, can achieve such a victory over nature.
The Niger, besides its own ample stream, has a number of tributaries,
equal perhaps in magnitude and importance to those of any other
river on the globe; with the exception of the united streams of the
Mississippi and Missouri. At no great distance above the point where
the Delta commences, the Tshadda, nearly equal in magnitude to itself,
enters it; after watering large and fruitful kingdoms, of which the
names only, and of these but a very few, have reached us. On this
river an extensive commerce and active navigation is said to prevail;
the existence of which is further confirmed by the great importance
attached to Funda, and other cities situated at or near the junction.
It would have been deeply interesting, and have given a new importance
to the river communications of Africa, could we have believed, what
was positively asserted by very credible witnesses, that vessels
by its channel sailed to and from the lake Tchad, and thus held
intercourse with the kingdoms of Loggun and Bornou. It seems certain
that the names Tshadda, Shary, and Tchad, are one and the same. But
the identity of the two first as rivers is what we are precluded from
all possibility of believing, by the circumstance that the Shary of
Loggun and Bornou, which Major Denham saw and sailed upon, was found
by him falling _into_ lake Tchad, while the Tshadda of Lander fell
_into_ the Niger; consequently they are distinct streams, flowing in
opposite directions. It is very probable indeed that their fountains
may be in the same mountain chain, and at no great distance; and even
that some of their branches may approach very near, so that merchants
may, by an easy portage, convey commodities between them. Nay, it
is not quite impossible that they may be united by some connecting
channel, as the Amazons and the Oronooka are; but this seems scarcely
probable.
At no great distance above the Tshadda, enters the Coodonia, a smaller
river, but which Lander had seen flowing through a very fertile and
highly cultivated country. Considerably higher is the Cubbie, a large
stream from the country and city of that name; and higher still the
Quarrama, which has passed by Zirmie and Sackatoo. Between this point
and Timbuctoo, we have no means of knowing whether any or what rivers
fall into the Niger. The tributary which passes that city is of
no great importance; but at the eastern boundary of Bambarra, Park
describes the influx from the south of two great streams, the Maniana
and Nimma; and it seems very doubtful if Caillie was not mistaken
in supposing the latter to be a mere branch of the Niger. The higher
tributaries, descending from the mountains, swell the stream, without
themselves affording any important navigation.--_Edinburgh Review._
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