SKETCH OF AFRICAN DISCOVERY 43'J 



scene of his former adventures. Having reached the Niger 

 at Boussa, where Park was killed, he passed through various 

 countries, and reached Sockatoo, where he died ; and Lan- 

 der, his friend and servant, commenced his return to Eng- 

 land with Clapperton's journals and papers. Major Laing, 

 meanwhile, had visited Timhuctoo, and transmitted home 

 accounts of this famous city, where he spent some weeks ; 

 but on his return he was murdered, and his papers have 

 never been recovered. We have not space to allude to the 

 many well-executed expeditions which have proceeded 

 from Cape Town for the purpose of exploring South 

 Africa, but have confined ourselves to those exertions which 

 had for their object the elucidation of the question concern 

 ing the course and termination of the Niger, and were con- 

 sequently directed to Central Africa. 



The termination of the Niger had long been one of the 

 most interesting problems in African geography, and we 

 have now reached the period when, on this point, facts 

 were substituted for conjecture and hypothesis. The river 

 had first been seen by Park, near Sego, the capital of Bam- 

 barra. It was called by the natives the Joliba, or " Great 

 Water;" and Park described it as "flowing slowly to the 

 eastward." He followed the course of the river for about 

 three hundred miles, and was told that a journey of ten 

 days would bring him to its source. At Sockatoo, Lieut. 

 Clapperton found that it was called the Quorra, by which 

 name it is known in the most recent maps, it having re- 

 ceived the name of the Niger, in the first instance, from its 

 supposed identity with the Nigir of the ancients. The 

 want of information concerning the course and termination 

 of this mysterious river, until determined by actually pro- 

 ceeding down its channel to the sea, was, as may be sup- 

 posed, a fruitful source of speculation among geographers. 

 By some it was supposed to flow into the Nile; others 

 imagined that a great central lake received its waters. 

 Major Kennel, an authority of great weight, came to the 

 conclusion that, after passing Timbuctoo, the Niger flowed 



