AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF TEE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 149 
In liis “ History of Maritime and Inland Discovery,” 
Desborough Cooley thus sums up the results ob¬ 
tained by the travellers whose work we have just 
described :— 
“ The additions to our geographical knowledge of the 
interior of Africa which we owe to Captain Clapperton 
far exceed in extent and importance those made by any 
preceding traveller. The limit of Captain Lyon’s jour¬ 
ney southward across the desert was in lat. 24°, while 
Major Denham, in his expedition to Mandara, reached 
lat. 9° 15', thus adding 14f degrees, or 900 miles, to 
the extent explored by Europeans. Hornemann, it is 
true, had previously crossed the desert, and had pro¬ 
ceeded as far southwards as Niffe, in lat. 10° 30'. But 
no account was ever received of his journey. Park in 
his first expedition reached Silla, in long. 1° 34' west, a 
distance of 1100 miles from the mouth of the Gambia. 
Denham and Clapperton, on the other hand, from the 
east side of Lake Tchad, in long. 17°, to Sokatoo, in 
long. 5° 30', explored a distance of 700 miles from 
east to west in the heart of Africa ; a line of only 
400 miles remaining unknown between Silla and So¬ 
katoo. The second journey of Captain Clapperton 
added tenfold value to these discoveries; for he had 
the good fortune to detect the shortest and most easy 
road to the populous countries of the interior ; and 
he could boast of being the first who had completed 
an itinerary across the continent of Africa from Tripoli 
to Benin.” 
We need add but little to so skilful and sensible a 
summary of the work done. The information given by 
Arab geographers, especially by Leo Africanus, had 
been verified, and much had been learnt about a large 
portion of the Soudan. Although the course of the 
Niger had not yet been actually traced—that was 
reserved for the expeditions of which we are now to 
write—it had been pretty fairly guessed at. It had 
been finally ascertained that the Quorra, or Djoliba, or 
Niger, or whatever else the great river of North- 
AVest Africa might be called—and the Nile were totally 
