Notes on the Congo River . 169 
1804), he addressed a memoir to Lord Camden, 
explaining the causes of his conversion. It is 
curious to note his confusion of “ Zad,” his belief 
that the “ Congo waters are at all seasons thick 
and muddy/’ and his conviction that “ the annual 
flood,” which he considered perpetual, “commences 
before the rains fall south of the equator.” The 
latter is to a certain extent true; the real reason 
will presently be given. Infected by the enthu¬ 
siasm of his brother Scot, he adds, “ Considered in 
a commercial point of view, it is second only to the 
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; and, in a 
geographical point of view, it is certainly the 
greatest discovery that remains to be made in this 
world.” 
Thereupon the traveller set out for the upper 
Niger with the conviction that he would emerge 
by the Congo, and return to England vid the 
West Indies. From the fragments of his Journal, 
and his letters to Lord Camden, to Sir Joseph 
Banks, and to his wife, it is evident that at San- 
sanding he had modified his theories, and that he 
was gradually learning the truth. To the former 
he writes, “ I am more and more inclined to think 
that it (the Niger) can end nowhere but in the 
sea and presently a guide, who had won his 
confidence, assured him that the river, after passing 
Kashna, runs directly to the right hand, or south, 
which would throw it into the Gulf of Guinea. 
