and Mr Maxxioell respecting the Congo and'the Niger. 105 
(Mayacka mansamba) is a virulent poison in that state, and must 
undergo a certain preparation and boiling, before it can be used 
as food. Neither would it (on the supposition that the natives 
would be friendly to such an adventure) be at all practicable on 
horseback. For, as they have none of those animals themselves, 
their paths lead over hill and dale, across deep ravines, and 
along the edge of precipices, without any regard to a mode of 
travelling which they know nothing about, and where it would 
be absolutely impossible for a horse to keep his footing. It ap- 
pears very strange to Mr Maxwell, that the African Association 
have never thought of conducting their researches into the In- 
terior of Africa by means of the natives ; which he considers to 
be the only infallible and sure mean of prosecuting that mis- 
sion, by educating a sufficient number of the African youth in the 
different branches of learning, suited to the duty they are intended 
to perform, whether as schoolmasters, missionaries, traders, his- 
torians, draughtsmen, or naturalists, and rewarding their labours 
according to the diligence and exertion displayed in their re- 
spective callings. Their bodies, being naturalized to the cli- 
mate, would suffer nothing on that score ; and, with a little ad- 
dress, their colour would exempt them from all suspicion, — so 
that they might travel in perfect safety from one end of Africa to 
the other. It would indeed take ten or twelve years to fit them for 
this service, but ever after that it would not meet with any in- 
terruption ; and we have incontrovertible evidence of their hav- 
ing talents, susceptible of sufficient improvement for such an un- 
dertaking.” 
Mr Maxwell’s second letter to Mr Keir, is dated July 20. 
1804, fourteen months after the former, during which time Mr 
Keir had mentioned to Mr Park, his conjecture of the Congo be- 
ing the mouth of the Niger. It states, that he had sent Mr Park 
his chart of the river Congo, (published by Lawrie and Whittle,) 
as he had promised ; and that long before Mr Park made us ac- 
quainted with the course of the Niger, it had occurred to him that 
the Congo drew its source far to the northward ; from the floods 
commencing long before any rains take place to the southward 
of the equator, as it begins to swell perceptibly the latter end 
of October, and yet no heavy rains set in before December ; 
— remarking, farther, that the heavy rains in both tropics 
