39& Discoveries in Africa. f Oct. 



Senegal has a course of about one thousand miles ; is navigable for sixty 

 leagues from its mouth, in all seasons ; and, in the rainy season, vessels of one 

 hundred and fifty tons can go tv^'o hundred and sixty leagues from the sea. 



" The next river of importance is the Gambia. It is navigable for vessels of 

 three hundred tons for sixty leagues. The tide is felt, in the dry season, at 

 the distance of two hundred and fifty leagues. For the first three months, 

 even of this season, the current is so strong that vessels cannot ascend the 

 stream. 



" The next river is the St. Domingo, then the Rio Grande, navigable for 

 vessels abont twenty leagues, and for large boats about forty leagues farther. 

 From this river, or more properly from the Gambia to the river Mesurado, the 

 country being flat, the rivers are often united a considerable distance up the 

 country, when they branch oflF, eind discharge themselves into the sea in dis- 

 tinct streams. 



" The Mesurado is a large river, so is the Sierra Leone river. Then follow 

 the Ancobar, St. John's, Volta, and Formosa rivers. The latter can be ascended 

 twenty-eight leagues. 



" From Formosa river are the Rio dos Forcados, the Bonny, the New 

 Calabar, the Old Calabar, and the Rio del Key. These are very large rivers, 

 and not well known. The country about here is low ; and these streams inter- 

 sect the land in every direction, and form numerous islands. 



" Turning southward is the river Cameroons, which has several mouths, but 

 its size has not been ascertained. Then succeed several smaller streams, till 

 we arrive at the Congo or Zaire river, which is very large and rapid, disco- 

 louring the sea for a considerable distance, and tearing away large pieces from 

 its banks. 



" South of the Congo, for about six hundred miles, there are several rivers of 

 a good size ; many of them will admit vessels of one hundred tons. After that, 

 for about eight hundred miles, there is not a single stream of fresh water till we 

 come to the Fish river. Then follows the Orange river, which, although it has 

 a considerable length of course, does not discharge much water into the sea. 



" There are several considerable streams in the colony of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, as well as on the east coast of Africa, the largest of which is the Eramo 

 or Zambese, which has a course of about one hundred and eightj' leagues. The 

 rest are much smaller, but none of these are well known, though many of them 

 are large and deep at their entrances. 



" The Decra river, which runs into the Indian ocean to the north of the 

 equator, is very large at its mouth, and is supposed to take its rise in the moun- 

 tains south of Abyssinia. Beyond this there are no rivers of consequence till 

 we reach the Nile, and indeed it is not known that there is a single stream of 

 fresh water discharged into the Red Sea." 



Such is the continent newly opened ; for we must call Africa a closed 

 world to us, until the discovery of the connection of the Niger with the 

 ocean. Such are the means of access given to us, now that we have 

 purified our hands of the abomination of man-selling, and that we are 

 masters of that most extraordinary means for defying tide and storm, 

 which steam has given. A great duty is imposed upon us, and England 

 is not what she waSj if she does not instantly proceed to fulfil it, and that 

 nobly. 



