34. Seventific Reviews. 
ments, form an almost insuperable barrier against approach. And 
the incapacity of the human frame to endure such constant suffer- 
ing as all our travellers have experienced, accompanies the indivi= 
dual through all his toils, and increases with his advance. Hence 
it arises that the progress of discovery has been tardy, and the _ 
amount small, 
_ The real knowledge acquired by the various expeditions to this: 
portion of Africa, may be expressed in a few words ; but the title 
of the work at the head of this article, leads the mind to dwell ra- 
ther on the hypotheses which ingenuity has contrived, than on the 
facts which have hitherto appeared on the surface of our ignorance. 
It will be necessary, however, to state what we know, before we 
enter upon a detail of the theories which have usurped the place of 
that of which we have no knowledge ; and an histerical view of 
the discoveries and opinions which have successively had credence 
amongst European geographers, may most advantageously intro= 
duce the avowal of the extent of our present information. 
. Before the labours of the Portuguese, the relations respecting 
this region are in general liable to too many interpretations to be 
relied upon as evidence of facts. Nor, indeed, till the establish- 
ment of our African Association, can we claim much authority for 
the publications which originated in this inquiry. ’ 
The direction of the river, a fact which, it would be supposed, 
needed only to be once observed to be finally determined, was for 
a long period a debatable question.. Whilst Herodotus, and suc- 
ceeding ancient geographers, supposed the Niger and Nile to be an 
identical stream, the former rising in the mountains of Mauritania, 
its course was necessarily believed to be from west to east. Pto- 
lemy, however, who laid down the true soyrce of the Nile, is net 
so distinct in his statement of the direction of the stream of the 
Niger. But the Arabian geographers, amongst whom Edrisi and 
Abulfeda are the most eminent, attribute to the river a westward 
course, stating that the Niger and the Nile spring from the same 
source, (the true origin of the latter,) and afterwards divide into 
the two rivers, one flowing to the west into the Sea of Darkness, 
(the Atlantic,) and the other rolling to the north, to mingle its 
waters with the Mediterranean. And Leo Africanus distinctly © 
states, that he had personally observed the western direction of the 
stream, in navigating from Tombuctoo to Ginea. From a con- 
tracted knowledge of the western portion of Africa, the Portu- 
guese also, on seeing the Senegal, the Gambia, and other rivers; 
pour their contents into the Atlantic Ocean, imagined them to be 
mouths of the Niger, and appropriated te it accordingly a westward 
course. But all these erring suppositions were resolved into cer- 
tainty on the 21st of July 1796, when Mungo Park, from the 
heights of Sego, saw “ the majestic Niger flowing slowly from 
west to east.” 
. Equally as unsettled were the early notions as to the source of 
this river ; for whilst many believed it to originate in the moun- 
