INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 



If this conjecture sliould turn out to be well founded, such an eastern stream, 

 being next in point of interest, will claim the second place in point of attention ; 

 and if it should appear to be navigable through the heart of southern Africa, 

 to the high lands on the eastern coast, it may probably hereafter be considered 

 as the first in point of importance ; by opening a convenient communication 

 through a fine country, from the southern Atlantic to the proximity of the In- 

 dian or eastern ocean ; and with the once opulent kingdoms of Melinda, 

 Zanzibar, Quiloa, &c. 



With regard to a large branch proceeding from the southward, out of a lake 

 called Aquelundn, so many details, though loose and vague,have been given by 

 the early Spanish and Italian missionaries, than one can scarcely be permitted to 

 doubt of its existence. As this branch is likely to be, from the barren nature of 

 the country to the southward, and along the western coast, the least important 

 and least interesting, it will be adviseable to leave it unexplored until the re- 

 turn of the expedition from examining the others ; unless indeed, what would 

 be contrary to all expectation, and irreconcilable with the peculiar phenomena 

 of the river, this southern Iiranch should turn out to be the main trunk. But 

 though less interesting than the others, this branch will require a more accu- 

 rate examination than has hitherto been given to it, which however may be 

 left, untU the more important branches, whose existence we have supposed, may 

 have been explored. 



If, after all, it should be found that unforeseen and invincible obstacles op- 

 pose themselves to your penetrating, by any of the branches of the Zaire, to a 

 considerable distance into the interior (obstacles which it is hoped may not oc- 

 cur,) you are, in that case, after collecting all the infoniiation in your power, 

 during your descent of the river, to proeeed without loss of time to the Bight of 

 Benin, where you will endeavour to ascertain whether the great Delta, suppo- 

 sed to be formed by a river, one branch of which usually known by the name 

 of Rio del Rey, flows into the Atlantic on the eastern, and the other the Rio 

 Formosa, on the western side of the said Delta, be actually so formed : or whe- 

 ther these branches be two separate and distinct rivers. The determining this 

 question is the more interesting, as, on the supposition of the union of these two 

 great streams, the continential geographers have raised an hypothesis that the 

 Niger, after reaching Wangara, takes, first, a du-ection towards the south, and 

 then bending to the south-west, discharges itself into the Gulf of Guinea. In 

 the eventual prosecution of this discovery, the same instructions wiU apply as 

 those for your guidance up the Zaire. 



Keeping therefore the general principles above mentioned in view, the mode 

 of carrying the examination of either of the rivers into effect must be left, in a 



f 



