APPENDIX. No. lY. 
cxiii 
coHsiderable weight in determining this question : since there is good reason 
lo believe, that the knowledge of the ancients concerning the interior of Africa 
was much more extensive and accurate than that of the moderns. It is justly 
observed by Dr. Robertson, that the geographical discoveries of the ancients 
were made chiefly by land, those of the moderns by sea ; the progress of 
conquest having led to the former, that of commerce to the latter. (Hist, of 
America, vol. ii. p. 3l6, 8vo.) Besides which, there are several distinct and 
peculiar causes which have essentially contributed to our present ignorance 
respecting the interior of Africa; namely, the great prevalence of the slave 
trade, which has confined the attention of European adventurers exclusively 
to the coast ; the small temptation which the continent of Africa held out, 
during the continuance of that trade, to internal commerce; and the almost 
impenetrable barrier raised up against Europeans in modern times, by the 
savage intolerance of the Mcors. 
The ancient opinion, respecting the termination of the Niger which has 
just been alluded to, receives a certain degree of confirmation from the best 
and most authentic accounts concerning that part of Africa, in which the 
Niger is supposed to disappear. This is represented by various concurrent 
testimonies to be a great tract of alluvial country, having several permanent 
lakes, and being annually overflowed for three months during the rainy season. 
Against the hypothesis of an inland termination of the Niger, several ob- 
jections have been urged, which are well deserving of attention. They 
are principally founded on a consideration of the vast magnitude which the 
Niger must have attained after a course of more than 1600 geographical 
miles, and the difficulty of conceiving so prodigious a stream to be discharged 
into lakes, and evaporated even by an African sun. To account for such 
a phenomenon, a great inland sea, bearing some resemblance lo the Caspian 
or the Aral, appears to be necessary. But, besides that the 'existence of so 
vast a body of water without any outlet into the ocean, is in itself an 
improbable circumstance, and not to be lightly admitted; such a sea, if it 
really existed, could hardly have remained a secret to the ancients, and 
entirely unknown at the present day. 
It may just be observed, that D'Anviile, following Ptolemy and other 
writers whom he considers as the best informed on the internal geography 
of Africa, is satisfied that there are two considerable rivers, the Niger and the 
Gir ; both of which are said to terminate in the same quarter of Africa, and 
precisely in the same manner. The Gir, totally unknown at the present day, 
VOL. IJ. n 
