THE GREAT RIVER. 283 



Africa of the Mediterranean and the Nile, and in the 

 oases of the Sahara, but also throughout that part of 

 the Continent which we have termed the platform of 

 the Niger. 



In 1797 Mungo Park discovered the Niger in the 

 heart of Africa, at a point where it was as broad as 

 the Thames at Westminster; in 1817 Rene - Caillie' 

 crossed it at a point considerably higher up ; in 1822 

 Major Laing attempted to reach it by striking inland 

 from Sierra Leone, but was forced by the natives to 

 return when he was only fifty miles distant from the 

 river; and in 1869 I made the same attempt, was 

 turned back at the same place, but made a fresh expe- 

 dition, and reached the river at a higher point than 

 Caillie and Park. But my success also was incom- 

 plete, for native wars made it impossible for me to 

 reach the source, though it was near at hand ; and 

 that still remains, a splendid prize for one who wall 

 walk in my footsteps, as I walked in those of Laing. 

 The source of the Niger, as given in the maps, was 

 fixed by Laing from native information, which I ascer- 

 tained to be correct. There is no doubt that this river 

 rises in the backwoods of Sierra Leone, at a distance 

 of only two hundred miles from the coast. It runs 

 for some time as a foaming hill-torrent, bearing obscure 

 and barbarous names, and, at the point where I found 

 it, glides into the broad calm breast of the plateau, 

 and receives its illustrious name of the Joliba, or Great 

 River. 



It flows north-east, and enters the Sahara, as if 

 intending, like the Nile, to pour its waters into the 

 Mediterranean Sea. But suddenly it turns towards 

 the east, so that Herodotus, who heard of it when he 

 was at Memphis, supposed that it joined the Nile ; and 



