in the midst of vast projects, rises over the caprices of fortune, as Olympus, rearing itself above the clouds, hears the storms and thunders which echo along its girdle 1."

A still more instructive illustration is presented by Castera. "Behold what makes great writers. Those, who pretend to give us nothing but the fruit of their own growth, soon fail, like rivulets which dry up in summer. Far different are those which receive, in their course, the tribute of a hundred and a hundred rivers; and which, even in the dog-days, carry mighty waves triumphantly to the ocean 2."

Guicciardini says, that by numberless examples it is proved, that human affairs are as subject to fluctuation as the waters of the sea, agitated by the wind3. Montesquieu has several instances. Thus Charles XII. having left Sweden to conquer Russia in Poland, exposed his own kingdom, by enabling his enemy to make settlements along the Baltic; therefore, says Montesquieu*, Sweden resembled a river, whose waters are cut off at the fountain head, in order to change its course. Again: a fear of the Persians supported the laws of Greece. Carthage and Rome were alarmed, and strengthened by each other. Strange—that the greater security those states

1 Lente fluit Nilus, sed cunctis amnibus extat
Utilior, &c. &c.

Nec te tot limina rerum,

Aut tantum turbavit onus, sed ut altus Olympi
Vertex, qui spatio ventos, &c. &c.

2 Camoens. Mickle. Castera, in Notis. B. ix.

Beautiful Scenery on the Ba Bing and Ba Bee. 21

enjoyed, the more, like stagnated waters, they were subject to corruption 1.

With these associations continually floating in the imagination, how delightful were it, in the season of autumn, to listen to the melody of innumerable birds, animating the immense forests, which bound the country between the Ba Bing and the Ba Bee; two tributaries of the Senegal'; presenting scenes rugged and grand, beyond all power of description. What interesting reflections, too, are excited by the mere mention of the Congo and the Niger! The former unknown in its source: the latter in its termination. D'Anville3 and

Rennel believed, that the Niger loses itself in the Wangara and Ghana; Hornemann, Jackson, and other writers, esteem it a branch of the Nile 5. Reichard believes, that it empties itself into the Gulf of Guinea, by the name of Formosa; while Park and Maxwell seem strongly impressed with the belief, that the Niger and the Congo are the same river. Park was so well convinced

3 For D'Anville's Memoir on the Rivers of the Interior of Africa, vide Mém. Acad. Inscript. tom. xxvi.

Appendix to Park's Travels, 4to. p. lxxvii. Also Proceedings of the African Association, vol. 1. p. 533.

5 Lucan says, that Nature concealed the origin of this river, in order tha it should never be seen as a rivulet.

Arcanum Naturæ caput non protulit ulli,

Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre.

PHARSAL. X.

Bernini, designing to show the obscurity of its origin, covered the head

of its statue, at Rome, with a veil.

"Letter to Sir William Keir, July 20, 1804.

of this, that he undertook a journey into the interior of Africa, in order, if possible, to prove it: and having reached the Niger, which the natives say flows to the rising sun, he proceeded some way beyond the Lake Wangara; where all authentic trace of him is lost. But it has been supposed, that he was seized upon the Niger, and taken to Haoussa, where, being detained two years, he died of a fever. Reichard believes, that the Niger, after passing Wangara, takes a southerly direction, till it approaches the Gulf of Guinea; where, dividing itself after the manner of the Rhine and the Ganges, it discharges itself into the Atlantic by several channels; of which the Formosa is the western branch, and the Rio del Rey the eastern1. The whole of this supposition rests merely upon conjecture; yet there are many reasons to render it quite as probable as the hypothesis of Maxwell.

Pliny, Strabo, Hornemann, Jackson, Burckhardt, Ritchie, and Mollien, associate the Niger with the western branch of the Nile, called the White River: thus making a communication between Tumbuctoo and Grand Cairo; a voyage which, Jackson says, was absolutely performed by seventeen Negroes, in 1780, in the space of fourteen months. To this two difficulties may be opposed. First, that the inundations of the two rivers rise precisely at the same season of the year, and fall nearly at the same time. If they were the same river, it may

Savary says, that the Ethiopians of his time believed, that the branch of the Nile, known by the name of Aserac, or the Blue River, traversed the African continent from east to west; and, after joining the Niger, flowed into the Atlantic!-Letters, vol. 1. 108.

be contended, that the inundations of the Nile would last a considerable time longer than those of the Niger; as the waters have to travel more than a thousand miles. And, secondly, that the Niger, in that instance, would seem to flow up hill; for Bruce1 states, that Abyssinia is so elevated a country, that, from barometrical observation, he calculated the source of the Nile, in Gojam, to be upwards of two miles above the level of the sea; whereas the Niger is not more than one-third of that height above the level of the Atlantic.

These objections, however, are met by the probability, that Bruce's calculation is erroneous. It certainly wants confirmation, let the result be as it may. In respect to the coincidence of the inundations, some have endeavoured to account for it upon the principle, that the Nile would be soon exhausted, if it were not joined by the waters of the Niger. Bruce says, it would be dry eight months in the year, unless it were joined by the Abiad, which alone enables the Nile to keep a regular stream. Added to this, it is stated, that almost all the Arabs of Africa are of opinion, that the Niger of the Soudanis? the same river as the Nile of Egypt: and when Hutchinson said to the Moors, that the Niger was lost in a large lake, the Moors answered, "God made all rivers to run to the sea: you say that small rivers go there: the Quolla is the largest in the world; and why should it not go there also?" This hypothesis, however, like all the others, requires actual experiment. But should it be, hereafter, proved, the circumstance will constitute one of

1 Vol. 3. p. 642. 652. 712.

2 Eschylus (in Prometheo) calls the Upper Nile the " Nigris."

the most stupendous instances of Sovereign Power, tha the whole globe contains.

Upon the loss of Park, another expedition was fitted out, varying in point, under the direction of Captain Tuckey. As Park had began with the Niger, Tuckey began with the Congo. Up this river the tide runs more than 140 miles; and 280 miles above Cape Padron it wears a most majestic appearance; being four miles wide, and its scenery not inferior to the Thames. Flowing with a gentle current, the natives declared, they knew no impediment to its navigation higher up: but that the river divided into two branches: that to the north-east was only obstructed by a ledge of rocks; which a canoe could pass with safety, though with some difficulty,

It is matter of great regret, that Captain Tuckey was unable to proceed farther: but, from many corresponding circumstances, he was persuaded, that the main body of the river did not proceed from Southern Africa, where every thing was entirely parched; but from the North; more especially as rains had prevailed in that quarter for five or six months; whereas, it had been the dry season southward of the Line. He believed, therefore, from these and other data, that the Congo issues from some large lake, or chain of lakes, considerably to the northward of the Line.

That the Congo and Niger are one derives, also, some confirmation from the similarity of their interior names. For the Niger is called ZADI at Wassanah; and ZAD eastward of Tumbuctoo; the Congo is also called ENZADDI at Embomma.

The chief objections to this theory appear to resolve themselves, first, into the difficulty of conceiving that