THE CONGO. 
4^8 
The extraordinary magnitude of this last river, 
— the prodigious mass of waters which it pours 
into the ocean, whose waves it freshens to the dis- 
tance of many leagues — its perpetual state of full- 
ness, or rather flood, to which other tropical rivers 
are incident only during a few months of the year 
—the occurrence, at two seasons, instead of one, 
of a perceptible swelling of its waters— these cir- 
cumstances are supposed to indicate a river, which 
not only drains a vast extent of country, but is fed 
by the rains of both the tropics. Both these con- 
ditions are fulfilled, by supposing it to be the hi- 
therto unknown termination of the Niger. Thus 
too, it is said, wdll the mystery be withdrawn, 
which now veils the mysterious course of that 
great central river. No receptacle hitherto dis- 
covered, or reported, nothing except a great in- 
land sea, like the Aral or the Caspian, could, it 
is conceived, contain the waters of the vast stream 
which flows through Bambarra, swelled, as it must 
be, by continual accessions during an additional 
course of more than 1000 miles. 
Considering the plausibility of these arguments, 
and the enthusiastic zeal with which the system 
bad been adopted by our great African traveller, 
it cannot be wondered, that a general impression 
arose in its favour. This was greatly aided by the 
able manner in which it was supported by the two 
leading critical journals, which, though sometimes 
