Miscellaneous Intelligence. 207 



V9th degree of south latitude. By what fatality have points of such high 

 intcrest'remained undetermined until the present day ? and have we not 

 strong grounds for reproaching the Portuguese for having left (he science 

 of Geography in complete ignorance respecting them during the space of 

 forty years ? We may date in the year 1785 the commencement of their ex- 

 peditions into the interior. Discoveries succeeded each other during up- 

 wards of fifteen years. Gregorio Mendes, Captain Lacerda, Pereira, and 

 others, followed several oblique lines crossing the meridian, which, without 

 meeting, extend to different distances, by which means we have a continued 

 succession of districts observed and described by Europeans. The report 

 made by the Portuguese travellers rectifies the idea given by Captain 

 Tuckey respecting the course of the Congo, and this rectification is a point 

 of great importance for the physical geography of Central Afriea. In fact, 

 if it be true that the Congo or Zair does not take its rise to the north -of 

 the Equator, as was supposed previous to the expedition of Tuckey, but 

 on the contrary, at about the 10th degree of south latitude, what becomes 

 of the explanations given by geographers and travellers of the cause of the 

 swelling of the waters of Zair, and respecting the epoch of its increase, com- 

 pared with that of the swelling of the Niger? Does the general rule rela- 

 tive to the period of the rains, between the Equator and the southern 

 Tropic, absolutely oppose the possibility of a. river comprised within that 

 space, assuming a rapid increase betbre the arrival of that period? It 

 would be vain, therefore, to rest upon the conjecture of Captain Tuckey, to 

 make one and the same river of the Niger and the Zair, and to force it to 

 describe, by an unusual and retrogade course, the three sides of a trape- 

 zium of fifteen hundred leagues in extent, — a supposition still less probable 

 than the fall of the Niger into the Nile, and arising like the first, from the 

 necessity of finding some great mouth for the river Niger. 



The route followed by Pereira, the Portuguese, in 1796, also sheds new 

 light over the eastern part of Africa. In addition to the great river Zam- 

 bezi, he furnishes us with information respecting another river situated 

 much farther towards the west, even more so than the source of the Coanza, 

 and which at the same time Hows in the direction of the channel of Mosam- 

 bique — so much so, that in those latitudes the great longitudinal chain of 

 mountains must diverge towards the west, and approach the Atlantic at a 

 much nearer distance than was before supposed. 



It will be seen from the above that the science of Geography has made a 

 valuable acquisition relative to this side of the African continent. For this 

 we are almost entirely indebted to the exertions of the late Bowdich, in re- 

 editing these ancient Portuguese MSS., which he procured, translated, and 

 left as a legacy to his country. 



The excursions of the Portuguese along the upper course of the Zair 

 naturally lead us to the consideration of the unfortunate expedition of 

 Captain Tuckey. The principal result of his expedition is its having ex- 

 posed au error in longitude respecting the position of the western coast of 

 Africa, w hich was placed at least one degree too much to the west ; and his 

 statement is coufirmed by the Portuguese charts. On the eastern coast 

 there is also au error, but in the inverse sense : according to the same charts, 

 the mouth of the Zambezi has been hitherto placed one degree too far to 

 the east; the continent of Africa is thus diminished in breadth two degrees 

 under the 17th degree of south latitude, and at least one degree under the 

 6th, at the mouth of the Zair. This latter river, at ninety leagues above 

 its mouth, is at least one league and a half in breadth, and like the Niger, 

 the Upper Nile, and all the rivers of the interior, is peopled by an immence 

 multitude of crocodiles and hippopotami. 



Thus, from the 5th degree of south latitude to the Cape of Good Hope, 

 the linrs followed by travellers scarcely leave any unexplored vacuum but 

 between the 19th and the 26th degrees of south latitude, with the exception 

 of the north-east part, a space which the chart laid down by Bowdich after 

 the Portuguese, leaves entirely empty, with the exception of the course of 

 a river of (assau. If we advance farther on, the entire equatorial zone, 

 from the 5th degree of south latitude to the 10th degree of north latitude, is 

 completely unknown, with the exception of its two skirts; and it is in this 

 vast space that an extensive career is opened to the speculations of geogra- 

 phers, and that they trace out, in imagination, great rivers falling into the 

 »>vo seas, and direct their course over the most lofty mountains without the 



