MISCELLANIES. 
reckoned at 20 miles each day 
(and they count them by the moon 
Gonda), would make 600 miles; 
and they spoke of it as equally 
large where they came from, and 
that it went by the name of En- 
zaddi, as it does among all the na- 
tives upon the coast. Should the 
shallow water, as laid down op- 
posite Saenda, detract from the 
assumed size of the Congo, let it 
be remembered, that the river 
there is spread out ten miles in 
width, the middlechannel 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 expence ) 
would bea choice station for es- 
tablishing an extensive com- 
merce 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 Provi- 
dence for exploring those vast re- 
gions, and civilizing the rude in- 
habitants.” 
Besides this account given by 
Mr. Maxwell, there are other tes- 
timonies to the magnitude of the 
Congo, shewing it to be a river 
of the first class, and larger pro- 
bably than the Nile. In a journal 
(which the editor has seen) of an 
intelligent and respectable naval 
officer, Captain Scobell, who vi- 
sited the coast of Africa, in the 
year 1813, in H. M. sloop of war, 
the Thais, the Congo is described 
as “an immense river, from which | 
issues a continued stream at the 
rate of four or five knots in the 
dry, and six or seven in the rainy 
season.”’ Inasubsequent passage 
he'says, ‘In crossing this stream, 
458T 
I met several floating Islands, or 
broken masses from the banks of 
that noble river, which, with the 
trees still erect, and the whole 
wafting to the motion of the sea, 
rushed far into the ocean, and 
formed a novel prospect even to 
persons accustomed to the pheno- 
mena of the waters.” He adds, 
that there are soundings to the 
distance of from 30 to 40 miles 
from the coast, arising probably 
from the vast quantity of alluvial 
matter brought down by the force 
of the stream. 
Other accounts state, that the 
waters of the Congo may be dis- 
tinguished at sea more than thirty 
leagues from the coast, and that 
the water is fresh at the distance 
of thirty miles. These, possibly, 
are exaggerations: but they may 
be received, in confirmation of the 
preceding testimonies, as sufficient 
proofs of a general opinion among 
navigators with regard to the size 
and force of this prodigious river. 
It is mentioned by Major Rennell, 
in his very interesting account of 
the Ganges, that the sea in the 
bay of Bengal ceases to beaffected 
by the waters of that river, and 
recovers its transparency, only at 
the distance of about 20 leagues 
from the coast. (Phil. Transac- 
tions, vol. Ixxi.) But the Ganges 
being obstructed by its Delta, and 
passing through eight channels 
into the sea, is much less rapid 
and impetuous than the Congo. 
To these particulars it must be. 
added, that all the accounts con- 
cur in representing, thatthestream 
of the Congo, is of a more uni- 
form height, and subject to much 
less variation from the dry and 
rainy seasons, than any tropical 
river which is known; and that 
