420 THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER. 
Captain Stibbs, from his voyage to the upper 
parts of the Gambia. This personage reported, 
that " its original, or head, is nothing near so 
" far in the country as by the geographers has 
" been represented ; nor does it arise from any 
" other lake, nor hath it a communication with 
** any other river ; — that the natives say the 
" Gambia comes from near the gold mines, 
" twelve days' journey from Barraconda, and 
" that there fowls walk over it." He admitted, 
indeed, " that the Gambia is a river of the long- 
" est course of any that falls into the Atlantic 
" Ocean, and that it is the Niger, if any J* " But 
" it seems," says Moore, " as if bethought there 
** was no Niger at all." Upon this ground, he 
endeavours to overwhelm him, by the testimonies 
of Edrisi, Leo Africanus, Ludolphus, Labat, and 
other learned writers. Stibbs, however, though 
he did not presume to compare himself, as to 
learning, with those great personages, continued 
not the less to assert the plain facts which he had 
«een with his own eyes ; so that Moore was left 
still in a very serious perplexity. 
In this state of fluctuation the question remain- 
ed, till the truly important discoveries of Park 
gave a new face to African geography. This il- 
lustrious traveller finally ascertained, that the 
Niger was entirely distinct from any of the rivers 
which fell into the Atlantic j that it flowed east- 
