584 
ed as a very curious and interest- 
ing subject of enquiry. Such an 
enterprise, according to the opi- 
nion of Mr. Maxwell; ‘would not 
be attended with much difficulty. 
In a letter to Mr. Park, dated 
Oct. 12, 1804, alluding to the 
subject of the Congo, he speaks 
of an intention which he had 
formed some time prior to Park’s 
discoveries, of exploring that 
river. His scheme was, to carry 
out with him from England six 
supernumerary boats, well adapt- 
ed for rowing and sailing; each 
being of such.a size as to be easily 
carried by thirty people, and 
transported across several catar- 
acts, with which the course of the 
river is known to be impeded, 
On his arrival at the coast, he 
meant to hire about thirty or forty 
black rowers, and to sail up the 
Congo with proper arms, pro- 
visions, and merchandize, in the 
month of Hay (the dry season 
south of the equator) calculating 
upon an absence from the coast 
of about ten weeks. Mr. Max- 
well considered this scheme as 
perfectly practicable, and likely 
to be attended with no very great 
expense; but he was prevented 
from executing his intention by 
the war of 1793, which made it 
inconvenient and unsafe for him 
to encumber the deck of his ves- 
sel with supernumerary boats. 
IV. The fourth and last opinion 
respecting the termination of the 
Niger is that of a German geo- 
grapher, M. Reichard, which was 
published in the ‘* Ephemerides 
Géographiques,’’ at Weimar, in 
August, 1808, and is referred to | 
in a respectable French work, en- 
titled, «« Précis de la Géographie 
Universelle, par M,. Malte-brun.” 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
The fourth volume of this work, 
which appeared at Paris in the 
year 1815 (p. 635), represents. 
M. Reichard’s hypothesis, to. be, 
that the Niger after. reaching 
Wangara, takes a direction to- 
wards the south, and being join- 
ed by other rivers from that part, 
of Africa, makes a great turn 
from thence towards the south- 
west, and. pursues its course till, 
it approaches the north-eastern, 
extremity of the gulph of Guinea, 
when it divides and discharges it- 
self by different channels into the 
Atlantic, after having formed a 
great Delta, of which the Rio 
del Rey constitutes the eastern, 
and the Rio Formoso, or Benin 
River, the western branch. 
Without entering into the de- 
tails of M. Reichard’s reasoning, 
in support of this hypothesis, 
which is often somewhat hazard- 
ous and uncertain, it may be suffi- 
cient for the present purpose to 
observe, that his principal argu- 
ment.is founded on a consideration 
of the peculiar character belong- 
ing to the tract of country situated, 
between the two rivers, which 
consists of a vast tract of low, 
levelland, projecting considerably 
into the sea, and intersected by 
an infinity of small branches from 
the principal rivers. In these 
and other respects, it appears, 
according to the best descriptions 
of the coast which we possess, to 
bear a considerable resemblance 
to the Deltas at the mouths of the 
Nile, the Ganges, and such other 
great rivers as by depositing large 
quantities of alluvial matter pre- 
vious to their discharge into the 
sea, form gradual additions to the 
coast. For it may be proper in 
this place.to remark, that, the 
