20S Dr Brown m the Correspondence between Mr Parle 
motions below, and the suction above the falls, as it would do , 
during the flood ; and besides, it would be the very best time 
to encounter the rains, which constitute the only formidable ob- 
stacle to such an adventure, as they would have commenced in 
North Africa three months before the boats set out from Oyster 
Haven, and by thus leaving the rains behind them, they could 
experience no^wet weather until dropping down the river four 
months afterwards, ^he best time therefore, according to Mr 
Maxwell, for Mr Park and his party to leave England, allow- 
ing the vessel a three months’ passage out, would be the end 
of May. 
Such was the correspondence between Mr Maxwelfn^nd Mr 
Park ; the whole of which evidently turns upon two points ; 
1st, Whether the Congo can reasonably be admitted as the 
mouth of the Niger.? and, 2dly, If admitted, whether it would 
be better to ascend the stream in quest of AV angara, or descend 
the Niger in quest of the Congo f The first of these points, 
viz. that the Congo is the outlet of the Niger, appears probable 
from the immense size of the river, when compared with the 
short distance between the sea and the back-bone of the country; 
from its having the colour of brick even at the end of the dry sea- 
son, when all the other great rivers of Africa, beyond the reach of 
the tide, are of a blue or dark colour. From the vast number 
of floating islands, of which it is never free, (Mr Maxwell inform- 
ed me that he saw generally three or four large ones every day, 
all the time he was in the river), and especially from its annual 
increase into full flood six weeks before the rains commence in 
South Africa ; — “ these circumstances evidently shew, that its vo- 
lume of water is entirely disproportioned to its apparent geogra- 
phical domain ; and that it draws its resources from a greater 
distance to the northward than is generally supposed. In fact, 
it appears to have robbed all the rivers on the western shore of 
Africa of their birth-right ; for though many of them are navi- 
gable as far as the tide goes, yet when compared with the Con- 
go, they dwindle into brooks, which proves that it can be no 
great distance from the sea to their source, and that there must, 
during the rainy season of four months, be a prodigious accu- 
mulation of waters to the eastward of tlie mountains from which 
they take their rise, such as, without an adequate drain, like 
