ZAIRE. 



he concluded, that tl.e C«n-o and the Niger were one 

 and the fame ftream. Mr. Maxwell's reafonmg confirmed 

 Mr. Park in his opinion ; and in this opinion he perleverea 

 to the end of his life. . „ 



Since the difcoveries of Mr. Park, it is very generally 

 aUowed that the courfe of the Niger is from weft to eaft ; 

 and his opinion with regard to its termination in the Congo, 

 or, as it is fometimes called, the Zaire, has received a con- 

 fiderable degree of confirmation from the account of the 

 Congo given by Mr. Maxwell. "Before ever the Niger 

 came to be the topic of converfation," fays Mr.M., 'it 

 ftruck me, that the Congo drew its fource far to the north- 

 ward, from the floods commencing long before any rains 

 take place S. of the equator ; fince it begins to f well per- 

 ceptibly about the latter end.of Oaober, and no heavy rains 

 fet in before December, and about the end of January, the 

 river muft be fuppofed to be at its higheft. At no time, 

 however, can the rains to the fouthward of the line be com- 

 pared with thofe in the Bight of Guinea, where (hips are 

 obliged to liave a houfe erefted over them during thefe 

 months."—" If the Niger has a fenfible outlet, I have no 

 doubt of its proving the Congo, knowing all the rivers be- 

 tween Cape Palmas and Cape Lopas to be inadequate to the 

 purpofe ; nor need the immenfe courfe of fuch a river fur- 

 prife us, when we know that the river St. Lawrence, con- 

 temptible in fize compared with the Congo, encompaffes the 

 whole of North America, iffuing through a chain of lakes. 

 But infteadof feven or eight lakes, the Congo may be fup- 

 pofed to pafs through feventeen or eighteen ; which will 

 folve any difficulty as to the floods of the Niger not imme- 

 diately affefting the Congo." He adds, the river Congo, 

 compared with other rivers, muft rank as the third or fourth 

 in magnitude. Confidering the force of the current it pro- 

 duces in the fea, carrying out floating iflands fixty orfeventy 

 leagues from the coaft, the Amazon or Plata only can cope 

 with it. At the diftance of 600 miles from its mouth, the 

 Congo traders report that it is as large at the place from 

 which they came, and that it went by the name Enzaddi, as it 

 does among all the nations upon the coaft. If the fhallow 

 water oppofite to Suenda fhould be thought to detract from 

 the afTumed fize of the Congo, it fhould be confidered, that 

 the river there is fpread out ten miles in width, the middle 

 channel of which has never been accurately founded. " It 

 has long been my opinion, that Leyland's or Molyneux 

 ifland at Embomma, (a fettlement on the banks of the 

 Congo, diftant thirty leagues from its mouth,) either of 

 which might be rendered as impregnable as Gibraltar, at a 

 very fmall expence, could be a choice ftation foreftablifhing 

 an extenfive commerce vnth the interior of Africa. Indeed, 

 if the idea of the Congo being the outlet of the Niger 

 prove fo upon trial, we may confider it is an opening de- 

 ligned by Providence for exploring thofe vaft regions, and 

 civilizing the rude inhabitants." The Congo appears from 

 other teftimonies to be a river of the firft clafs, and larger, 

 probably, than the Nile. The waters of the Congo, it is 

 faid, may be diftinguifhed at fea more than thirty leagues 

 from the coaft ; and the water is frelh at the diftance of 

 thirty miles. If thefe accounts are thought to be exaggera- 

 tions, it is a general opinion among navigators that this 

 river has a wonderful fize and force. All accounts con- 

 cur in reprefenting that the ftream of the Congo is of a 

 more uniform height, and fubjeft to much lefs variation from 

 the dry and rainy feafons, than any tropical river which is 

 known ; and that on a comparifon with fuch rivers, it may 

 be confidered to be in *' a perpetual ftate of flood." The 

 average rifing of the Ganges in the rainy feafon is ftatcd by 



major RenncU to be thirty-one feet, being almoft the fame 

 with that of the Nile ; whereas, the difference between t he 

 highefl point of the Congo about February, and the loweft, 

 in September, is only about nine feet ; and the river, at the 

 latter period, has all tbe appearance to a ftranger of being 

 in full flood. It is this remarkable peculiarity which diftin- 

 guiflies the Congo from other great rivers of a fimilar de- 

 fcription, and which leads to important conclufions with re- 

 gard to its origin and caufe. " In fupport then of the hy- 

 pothefis which identifies the Congo with the Niger, the fol- 

 lowing arguments deduced from the preceding facts and ob- 

 fervations may be alleged : i. The great magnitude of the 

 Congo. 2. The probability that this river is derived from 

 very remote fources, perhaps confiderably north of the 

 equator. 3. The faft, that there exifts a great river N. of 

 the equator (the Niger), of which the termination is un- 

 known, and which may, perhaps, form a principal branch 

 of the Congo. 



" Such being the evidence in favour of the hypothefis 

 refpefting the Congo, the objections muft be admitted to 

 be weighty and formidable : the principal of thefe are, 

 I. That it fuppofes the courfe of the Niger to be through 

 the vaft chain of the mountains (anciently Monies Luna), 

 the great central belt of Africa." — " It is difficult to un- 

 derftand how the Niger could penetrate this barrier, and 

 form a paflage fouthwards. 2. The courfe of the Niger, 

 eftimated from its fource in the mountains of Senegal, (fup- 

 pofing it to be the fame river with the Congo, and to flow 

 by Wangara and Cafhna, through the centre of Africa into 

 the Atlantic, ) would be confiderably more than 4000 miles. 

 But the courfe of the Amazon, the greateft river in the 

 old or new world, is only about 3500 miles ; and although 

 the exiftence of a river confiderably greater than any yet 

 known may be within the limits of phyfical poffibility, yet 

 fo improbable a fuppofition ought not to be adopted upon 

 flight or conjeftural reafoning, or upon any thing much 

 Ihort of diftindl and pofitive proof." 



The editor of Mr. Park's Travels, &c. in 2 vols. 8vo. 

 1816, which we are now citing, very laudably expreffes a 

 hope, " that this diftinguifhed river, which hitherto has been 

 only known as one of the greateft marts of the Slave Trade, 

 may at length be rendered conducive to objefts of civiliza- 

 tion and fcience ; and that fome ufe will now be made of 

 this great inlet into Africa, for the purpofe of exploring a 

 part of that continent which as yet is entirely unknown ; or, 

 at leaft, of obtaining more complete and authentic informa- 

 tion relative to the Congo itfelf, which muft unqueftionably 

 be confidered as a very curious and interefting fubjeft of 

 inquiry." 



Another opinion with regard to the termination of thfc 

 Niger has been advanced by M. Reichard, a German geo- 

 grapher, and pubhfhed in the " Ephemerides Geogra- 

 phiques," at Weimar, in Auguft 1808. This opinion is, 

 that the Niger, after reaching Wangara, takes a direftion 

 towards the fouth, and being joined by other rivers from that 

 part of Africa, makes a great turn from thence towards the 

 fouth-weft, and purfues its courfe till it approaches the 

 north-eaftern extremity of the gulf of Guinea, where it 

 divides, and difcharges itfelf by different channels into the 

 Atlantic ; after having formed a great Delta, of which the 

 Rio del Rey conftitutes the eaftern, and the Rio Formofa, 

 or Benin river, the weftern branch. This hypothefis, - 

 though it diminifhes the diftance which the Niger has to 

 flow in its courfe to the Atlantic, does not remove the ob- 

 jeftion arifing from the Niger's being conceived to penetrate 

 the Kong mo'untains. But we mufl notpurfue this fubjefl 



6 any 



