Chap. XXXV. THE GREAT ARM OF THE KWA'RA. 4G7 
opposite shore, along the Faro and below the junction, 
some fine clusters of trees were faintly seen. 
I looked long and silently upon the stream ; it 
was one of the happiest moments in my life. Born 
on the bank of a large navigable river, in a com- 
mercial place of great energy and life, I had from my 
childhood, a great predilection for river-scenery ; and 
although plunged for many years in the too exclu- 
sive study of antiquity, I never lost this native in- 
stinct. As soon as I left home, and became the in- 
dependent master of my actions, I began to combine 
travel with study, and to study while travelling, it 
being my greatest delight to trace running waters 
from their sources, and to see them grow into brooks, 
to follow the brooks, and see them become rivers, till 
they at last disappeared in the all-devouring ocean. 
I had wandered all around the Mediterranean, with 
its many gulfs, its beautiful peninsulas, its fertile 
islands — not hurried along by steam, but slowly wan- 
dering from place to place, following the traces of 
the settlements of the Greeks and Romans around 
this beautiful basin, once their terra i7icognita. And 
thus, when entering upon the adventurous career in 
which I subsequently engaged, it had been the object 
of my most lively desire to throw light upon the 
natural arteries and hydrographical network of the 
unknown regions of Central Africa. The great eastern 
branch of the Niger was the foremost to occupy my 
attention ; and, although for some time uncertain as 
to the identity of the river of A'damawa with that 
H H 2 
