CHAPTER IL 
HISTORICAL VIEW OP THEORIES RESPECTING THE 
COURSE AND TERMINATION OF THE NIGER. 
Herodotus, — Strabo, Pliny, and Mela The Arabians, — Leo 
and the Portuguese. — Delisle and D'Anville, — Moore. — 
Major Rennell. — Reichard. — The Congo Hypothesis. — 
Another — The Mar Zarah. 
The course and termination of this celebrated 
stream is now the most interesting problem which 
remains to be solved, not only in Africa, but in 
any other portion of the globe. Hoping still, 
notwithstanding one failure, that this great dis- 
covery may not be far distant, it is not proposed 
to enter into the elaborate illustration of any one 
view of the subject ; — ^but rather to exhibit the 
succession of reports and opinions, which, from 
the earliest ages, has prevailed among curious 
inquirers relative to the course of these celebrat- 
ed waters. Whatever may be the present opi- 
nion of the reader, or the final result of the in- 
quiry, this will, it is conceived, form an interest- 
ing chapter in the history of human speculation. 
To the earlier geographers, the Nile, and the 
mystery of its distant springs, formed the leading 
