which, at their mouth are all navigable. Beyond these, we come to the
great estuary of New Calabar, and Bonny, or Bannee rivers. These streams
form a junction near the sea, the one forming an island on the east side
of the estuary, and the other an island on the west side thereof. The
New Calabar river comes from the N.N.W. and the Bannee from the N.E.
apparently at no great distance from each other; but still between them
some streams from the north enter the sound formed by their junction.
This grand estuary is eleven miles broad, very deep, and navigable for
ships of heavy tonnage. On the west side is a bank of sand, thrown up by
the action of the river and the sea. In some places it has thirty feet
water on it. The New Calabar river, opposite to the town, and 40 miles
from the sea, is six fathoms deep. In it, however, are many flats with
only 16 feet water. The Bonny river is perhaps the most powerful branch:
it divides, and forms an island about twenty five miles long, and twelve
broad; the eastern branch, a very considerable stream, entering the sea
under the name of Andonny, or St. Anthony’s river. The town of Bonny is
situated on this island, which is almost level with the water, and a
great part of it is flooded during the inundation. Inland, however, the
inhabitants assert that the land becomes more dry, and the country free
from those pestilential vapours which are generated amidst the swamps
immediately adjoining the sea. The current out of the mouth of the
united streams of the Bonny and New Calabar rivers is strong and rapid;
and it is asserted that they discharge as much water as the great river
Congo.
Thirty-two miles eastward from Andonny river, we come to the estuary of
Cross river, and Old Calabar, or Bongo river. This estuary is twelve
miles broad; but it may be considered as an arm of the sea rather than
the mouth of a river, though the above rivers fall into it. This inlet
penetrates into the country nearly 100 miles. At a considerable distance
up this inlet, Old Calabar river is found to enter from the east. Its
width and magnitude are considerable; but, tracing it eastward and
upward on its course, it is, according to some authorities, found to
pass over a large cataract which stops the navigation, and which
indicates a course not of great length. Cross river is a branch of the
Niger: our best charts represent it as coming from the N.E. This
evidently is wrong, and should, I apprehend, be from the N.W. This
Robertson asserts, and the name seems to bear him out; for it is by this
stream that merchandize is transported from Old Calabar river to Bonny
river, and the parent stream, the Niger, in order to be carried into the
interior. Therefore, perhaps, it is named “Cross river.” In the French
maps already mentioned, both these rivers are laid down as coming, the
Old Calabar directly from the north, and the Cross river joining it from
the N.W. In the latter, they are certainly correct. How far they are so
regarding the former, future researches can only determine.
A small peninsula divides the mouth of the latter rivers from the outlet
of the Rio Elrei. The estuary, or arm of the sea into which it falls, is
ten miles broad. Both estuaries are very deep, and the navigation of
either is safe. According to the accounts transmitted to the African
Association by Nicholls, the traveller who fell a victim to the climate
in endeavouring to explore this river, the Elrei comes from the
eastward, and joins the sound, or arm of the sea, north of the high land
of Rumby. Advancing up the river to the eastward, the land rises
rapidly, and the Elrei becomes full of cataracts and rocks, obstructing
the navigation. This shews that the sources both of it and the Bongo, or
Old Calabar river, comes from the bosom of that mighty chain of hills
which we shall presently see terminate on the coast a little to the
southward. These rivers will thus be found to come from the south side
of the mount Thala of Ptolemy. For the reasons mentioned, namely,
cataracts and rapids, it is obvious that neither of these rivers can be
branches of the Niger.
The country round the Rio de Formosa is uncommonly beautiful. Hence the
name. It is also very populous; but, from being so low and swampy, it is
very unhealthy for Europeans. The same may be said of the whole extent
of coast intersected by the above mentioned rivers. The country to the
northward, between the Rio de Formosa and Ardrah, is without hills, but,
rising in a gentle swell, affords the finest prospect in the world.
Inland, the country becomes more healthy, and the climate good. The land
is extremely fertile. The trees are uncommonly large and beautiful.
Cotton of the finest quality is amazingly plentiful; and indigo and
other dye stuffs are to be had in abundance. The feathered tribes are
innumerable. Horses, cows, and sheep are seen in great numbers. Weaving,
and dressing of leather, are understood and practised. The Jaboos, an
industrious people, carry on a great trade in grain, between Benin and
Lagos. Benin is about ten miles from the river. Agatton is the port of
the city. Benin is still a considerable place, though much decayed. The
streets are long and broad; and it has regular markets every morning and
evening. The houses, though built of clay, are handsome. Benin, when the
Portuguese first discovered this part of Africa, was a powerful empire,
extending westward to Elmina, and so far into the interior, as to be
known to an empire distant twenty moons journey, in a N.E. direction,
whose sovereign, being a Christian, it is supposed could only be
Abyssinia. The extent of Benin is still considerable, their dominions
extending twenty days’ journey from south to north. It claims
sovereignty over New Calabar and Bonny.
The trade to these parts of the coast of Africa is very considerable,
and annually increasing. The number of slaves annually exported from
Bonny, and Old Calabar rivers, were formerly, and still continue to be,
very great. They are chiefly brought from the interior by a water
conveyance. The people are every where fond of trade, generally civil
and obliging to Europeans who deal honestly; and they are anxious to
cultivate commercial connections with them. All around the Delta, the
population on the sea coast are busily employed in making salt for the
interior market. In the kingdom of Qua, situated between the Andonny and
Old Calabar river, this is particularly the case. The land on the coast
is called the _salt ground_, and is, perhaps, the place where Ibn-al-
Vardi mentions the numerous salt-pits on the shore of the sea. This salt
is carried into the interior, along with other merchandize, in canoes or
vessels, built around Bonny river, so large as to contain 200 people,
and having a cannon placed on each end. They are covered with hides to
keep them dry. (_Robertson_, p. 308.) Boussa, on the Niger, is a great
emporium for this trade, and the place where the people from the sea-
coast meet the caravans from Barbary, to exchange their merchandize.
(_Robertson_, p. 301 and 209.) The natives on these coasts also talk
familiarly of their trade, intercourse, and communication with Houssa
and Timbuctoo. West of the New Calabar river also, is a country famous
for the manufacture of salt, and called the brass-pan country, from the
great demand for articles of this description from Europeans.
The rivers on the Bights of Benin and Biafra are in flood from May till
December, but the height of the inundation is during the months of July
and August. Then the Rio de Formosa covers all the land as far as Gatto,
forty miles from its mouth, and fifteen from its bed. The inhabitants
amongst the islands formed by its numerous branches, erect temporary
villages, in which they live during the dry season, but which are all
swept away during the rains. Such also is the situation of the country
round the mouths of the New Calabar and Bonny Rivers, and, in fact,
throughout all these coasts. Inland, the overflow of the river is very
great; but we have no accurate account of the height. Shabeeny says,
that it is so great that all the sheep, camels, goats, and horses, which
feed on the banks of the river when low, are removed to the uplands
during the flood. The land is constantly gaining on the sea, from the
quantity of alluvial matter brought down by the different streams.
Places near the mouth of Bonny River, which, within the recollection of
traders of the present day, were stagnant pools, are now become dry and
cultivated ground. In this manner, and during a succession of ages, has
all the land in the Delta of Benin been formed. Every one of the natives
on these coasts agree in stating, that, in the interior, near Benin, a
great river from the northward throws off three branches, which pursue a
southerly course to the sea, and one branch which runs westward to
Lagos.
The time of the inundation of these rivers shew in the clearest manner
that they can have no communication with the Congo. Their rise begins in
May, and is at the height in July and August. The Congo does not begin
to rise at the distance of 200 miles from its mouth, till the beginning
of September. The distance from the Bight of Biafra, or the point
eastward and inland, over which the Niger, if it flowed south to the
Congo, would have to pass to the point where Tuckey first perceived the
rise of the latter, is only about 560 miles. The current in flood from
six to seven miles per hour, as Park found it in the Niger, (without
reckoning any accelerated rapidity from rocks and cataracts) would reach
the spot mentioned by Tuckey, in the Congo, in four days, and in six
days, allowing one-third more for the turnings and windings of the
river. For similar reasons, the Niger cannot be the Nile, because that
river reaches its greatest height in Egypt, by the time the flood in the
Niger is at its height about Yaoora, which is 4000 miles distant from
Egypt, by the supposed course of the river, and one third more, making a
moderate allowance for turnings and windings. The height of the flood
also in the Bights of Benin and Biafra, being in August, is a most
convincing proof that the waters which occasion it, come from places far
to the northward and westward of nine or ten degrees of latitude, and in
the same meridians, because the rains in the same parallels of latitude
as the mouths of these rivers, are greatest in May and June. Their
violence is past before August, whereas in the parallels between 10° and
20° north latitude, their violence is greatest in July and August. This
being the case, shews that the height of the flood from those waters
which pass Timbuctoo, and which come from Dar Saley, cannot be before
August in the Bights of Benin and Biafra.
From the immense volumes of fresh water poured into the sea on these
coasts, the currents are rendered exceedingly strong, and the swell and
agitation of the waves very great and dangerous. The current in the sea
sets to the northward, from the Congo along the coast of Africa, till it
approaches the Bight of Biafra. Thence it is bent westward, through the
Bight of Benin, and along the coast of Guinea. From the mouth of the Rio
de Formosa it runs particularly strong to the westward. Bosman describes
the excessive roll and turnings of the sea in this part in the strongest
language: “The tide, from the eastward,” he says, “is so strong, that no
shallop can stem it by rowing.” Having gained the shore through these
terribly agitated waters, is, he says, to have “_passed from hell to
heaven_.” Similar tides, swells, and currents, are invariably found off
the mouths of large rivers, particularly all such as are flooded by the
tropical rains. The mouths of the Maranon, the Orinoco, and the Ganges,
have all similar phenomena near them.
[Illustration: _Page 139._
CALABAR AND Bonny Rivers. Surveyed by CAPTN. NEWTON
W. H. Lizars Sculpt.]
When we reflect, for a moment, on the number and magnitude of the rivers
which join the sea in the Delta of Benin, we are filled with wonder and
amazement. From the Rio Lagos to the mouth of the Cross river inclusive,
the number exceeds 20. The breadth of their surfaces connected together,
would exhibit an expanse of fresh water perhaps 50 miles broad. Three of
these only, viz. the Rio de Formosa, the chief outlet of the Bonny, and
the estuary of the Old Calabar and Cross rivers, would make 27 miles.
The depth of these rivers greatly exceeds that of other rivers of the
first magnitude at their mouths. Thus, the Rio de Formosa has 13 feet
water on the bars at its outlet, and deepens to several fathoms as it
leaves the coast. The mouth of the New Calabar and Bonny has 7, 8, 10,
12, and, considerably upwards in the Bonny river, 18 fathoms; while the
New Calabar, 40 miles from the sea, is six and seven fathoms deep. The
chief mouth of the Orinoco has only 17 feet water on the bar, and the
navigable part is no more than three miles broad. The Mississippi enters
the sea by six channels, the two principal of which have only 12 feet
water on the bar in each. Thus the outlets of the Niger greatly exceed
either of these mighty rivers in the depth of their mouths. The distance
from the source of the Missouri to the mouths of the Mississippi exceeds
4000 miles. The Delta formed by the Niger, exceeds in extent that formed
by the Ganges, the Mississippi, the Orinoco, or the Wolga. In difference
of longitude the Delta of Benin is nearly 260 miles. That of the Ganges,
much larger than any of the others, is 200 miles. The navigation also of
the outlets of every one of these mighty rivers is much more obstructed
than the navigation in the mouths of the Niger. They have less water,
and are more intricate and dangerous than either the Rio Lagos, the Rio
de Formosa, the Bonny, and Old Calabar rivers. Of the depth of the Niger
in the interior we are wholly ignorant; but, judging by the depth and
magnitude of its branches at their mouths, we may form some idea of the
depth of the united stream: It must be great. Inland, the Niger, before
it is joined by any of the eastern rivers, is represented as two and
three miles broad, and in its lower course five miles. (_Bowditch_, p.
201.) The united stream of the Orinoco at St. Thomas’ is four miles
broad, and 65 fathoms deep, when the stream is lowest. The Ganges,
inland, is three miles broad, and ten fathoms deep, when in flood. The
united stream of the Mississippi, at New Orleans, is nearly one mile
broad, and 20 fathoms deep. Higher up its breadth is rather more than a
mile in some places, and from 200 feet to 35 feet deep. If we calculate
from its breadth, the Niger will yield to none of these rivers in depth.
The extent of country from whence it collects its waters, is, in breadth
from east to west, greater than that part of South America which forms
the immense Maranon; but, except in the meridian of Benin, little more
than one-half the extent from north to south. The features, however,
throughout the greater part, are of the same stupendous and magnificent
description which are met with in those parts of South America. From the
sources of the Misselad to the junction of the great eastern river with
the Niger, the length of the Gir will, on general bearings, exceed 1600
miles. The Niger itself has a still longer course; and the stream that
descends from Dar Kulla will have a course of 1000 miles to the place
where it unites its waters with the former streams. Although the
clearest information which we can obtain, leads us to fix the junction
of these mighty rivers at the point mentioned, yet it is by no means
improbable that this junction may take place lower down, or in the
alluvial country nearer the sea.
It has been, and at various periods, stated, that vessels of
considerable burden, navigated with sails and oars, and some of them
manned by white people, came up the Niger from the eastward to
Timbuctoo. Mandingo merchants informed de la Brue at Galam, that, some
leagues from Timbuctoo, the Niger was navigated by “_masted vessels_.”
Dr. Laidley, who resided long at Pisania, was informed, that vessels of
100 tons burden frequented Houssa, by which might be meant the country
as well as the city of Houssa. A priest, who had visited Timbuctoo,
informed Mr. Park, that “the canoes on the Niger were large and not made
of a single tree, but of various planks united, and navigated _by white
people_.” Major Houghton was informed by a Shereef whom he met with at
Medina, and who had formerly known the Major when he was British Consul
at Morocco, and who had been at Timbuctoo, that “they had decked vessels
with masts, with which they carry on trade from Timbuctoo, eastward to
the centre of Africa.” The crews of these vessels have been stated
sometimes to exceed 150. These things were considered as fables. Late
accounts, however, explain these relations in a satisfactory manner, and
also confirm the accuracy of the earliest accounts which we have of
Africa. Robertson has informed us of the great magnitude of the canoes
or vessels built about Bonny river. We hear of no such vessels employed
on either the Rio Grande, the Gambia, or the Senegal. With these vessels
they trade up the river into the interior. He also states, that the
natives from Tebo to the north of Benin “are _whiter than Arabs_, but
are silky haired; and that the people on the coast give them the same
appellation as white men, namely, _Evoo_.” These people are great
traders, and go far into the interior; and there is no doubt but that it
has been some of these people, with the large vessels mentioned, which
have, at different times, made their appearance at Timbuctoo. It is far
from being improbable also, but that they are “the particular kind of
people” mentioned by Jackson, and the “white people” who dress in the
style of Barbary Moors, and wear turbans, but do not speak Arabic, and
who dwell on the borders of that lake into which the Niger discharges
itself,” which Barnes heard of. It is very remarkable, that, in these
parts of Africa, (for, if we examine his work accurately, we will find
that it is hereabouts,) Ptolemy mentions and places a nation of _white
Ethiopeans_, (Leucæ Ethiopeans.) The circumstances which we have
mentioned prove the navigation of the Niger to be free and open; and
Edrisi distinctly states that the Gir is so also, when he mentions that
the vessels with salt from Ulil go up the Nile through the provinces of
Ghana, Vancara, and Kaugha. All accounts concur in stating that the
canoes which come down the rivers from the interior to the coast, are
large and much finer vessels than those generally used on the south or
the west coasts of Africa.
Some articles of European manufacture found in the interior also
establish the fact of this channel of communication. Thus the
schoolmaster at Tripoli informed Mr. Ritchie, that the uniforms of the
King’s guards at Timbuctoo were red; and “that they were armed with
musquets brought from the great Sea.” This must be the Bight of Benin,
to which Europeans carry a great quantity of fire-arms. These articles
do not come from the northward, for L’Hage Shabeeny expressly states
that the traders from Morocco to Timbuctoo “_carry neither swords,
musquets, nor knives, except such as are wanted in the caravan_.”
(_Jackson’s Shabeeny_, p. 21.) The reason for this is obvious, for, if
they carried these articles, they would arm and enable the Negroes to
defend themselves, which is not the policy of either Moors or Arabs.
Consequently, these articles must come through countries where neither
of these nations possess any influence. All these things prove, in the
clearest manner, the open, easy, and extensive communication by water,
from the coast adjoining Benin, with the interior; a communication only
found on this part of the coast.
In the northern, and north-eastern parts of central Africa, from
Mourzook, to Darfur, and from the mountains of Eyrè to Timbuctoo,
instead of burning deserts, and sterile wastes, and boundless swamps, we
now, from good authority, find that there are numerous, powerful,
fertile, cultivated, well wooded, watered, populous, and industrious
states. Every where mighty rivers, from the east, from the north, and
from the west, are found pursuing their course to the ocean, and verging
to one grand point. Benin, Bornou, Asben, Bagherme, Dar Saley, Darfur,
Kashna, Houssa, Timbuctoo, Sego, and Wassanah, and many others, are
populous kingdoms, abounding in metals, minerals, fruits, grain, cattle,
animals wild and tame. Kashna comprehends 1000 towns and villages. The
population of Timbuctoo is estimated on the lowest scale at 50,000.
Houssa is still larger. Wassanah nearly double, and Bornou still more
extensive. The sovereign of Houssa, according to Shabeeny, can raise
70,000 horsemen, and 100,000 infantry. I am aware much must be allowed
for Negro amplification, but still sufficient remains to shew us the
importance of these places. Beyond Kashna, the camel, “_that ship of the
desert_,” is no longer found; thus ceasing to be produced where his
labours could no longer be generally useful or necessary, and in
countries where he is not calculated to live. After passing Kashna to
the southward and south-westward, the face of the country changes
greatly. It becomes less open, and more intersected with great rivers,
inundated roads, prodigious forests, and stupendous mountains, all the
way to the gold coast. All these countries, all Central Africa, abounds
with the elements of commerce; and her noble rivers afford the easiest,
the safest, the cheapest, and most expeditious roads for the collecting
and the conveyance of these. In all things, it is superior to what any
portion of America, in the same parallels, or indeed in any parallel,
afforded when Europeans first visited that quarter of the globe.