The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-28 00:00:00

MISFORTUNES AND FAILURES

OF EXPEDITIONS TO THE NIGER

,(FROM THE EARLIEST TO THE PRESENT TIME.)
Pf lee undiscovered tracts and countries which
form *. immense area of Interior Africa, though
centuries have gone by, and Romans, Arabs, Por-
tuguese, and English have endeavoured to pene-
Aw,e into their circuits, 3et it is astonishing how
iqe at the present day is known, to satisfy the in-
quiring mind. All that we know, may be almost
contained in the description given by the mallam
or learned priest of the Sultan Bello, who, when
Clapperton asked him, answered, that "Of the
weat,Tiver, we know not its source, nor of any one
wito 'has seen it. It rushes and precipitates itself
through the country from left to right, and con-
tains many islands inhabited by fishermen, herds-
men, husbandmen, and settlers. As to the variety
of its abimals, birds, and fish, it is only known
to the Lord Creator."

Among the most formidable difficulties in this
country to travellers, there are none more alarming
and insuperable than those arising from climate.
Imminent dangers arising from the presence of sa-
vage men or animals are of a transient nature,
and capable of being guarded against by vigilance
and strength ; but the secret and devastating opera-
tions of a pestilential climate are too subtle and
deadly to permit in almost any shape of device for
counteraction. The treachery of the tribes of
Africa has done little towards destroying travellers
and explorers, compared with the destructive and
exterminating influences of her noxious clime ; and
it is almost solely to this that the slow progress of
African discovery is to be attributed. The banks
Of the Joliba, Quorra, or Niger, seem invisibly sen-
tinelled by an ever-repelling power.
In the ensuing paper, a brief recapitulation of
all former rtistrnodern attempts to discover the
source of theyiger,. aint-the misfortunes, failures,
and partial sucetsSes that have attended upon the
travels and investigations of inquirers, will show
the absolute fatality, attending in some shape or
other all expeditions of a similar nature to that
which has just dispatched homeward its new ad-
dition to the catalogue of calamities which have
already been its precursors.
The first notice in history on this point, appears.
in Herodotus, who states in his " Geography of
Africa," that some young Nasamonians, a people
who dwelt on the borders of the Mediterranean,
travelled in a westerly direction from Egypt, until
they came to a large river full of crocodiles, and
flowing towards the rising sun, and they were con-
ducted by the natives to a considerable city, situated
on its banks. The difficulty of determining the ex-
pression due west at this period of time, leaves the
passage doubtful. Colonel Leake, however, in a
recent letter read by him to the Geographical
Society, considers that they travelled along the
Niger, and the city to which they were conducted
was Timbuctoo.

Strabo speaks little of the Niger, but Pliny
largely ; he traces it through Mauritania, but falls
into the error of Herodotus, who considers the
Nile and Niger one river. Mela was the most
reasonable geographer, and coincides as to the
general opinion of the source of the Niger, but
with proper candour acknowledges, that no one
knew what became of it at the centre of the con-
tinent. Ptolemy, whose account of the Niger is
very vague, closes all that the ancients knew of it.

From the Arabians some fuller accounts of the
geograpy of the country are to be gleaned. Abul-
feda and Edrisi knew it, and state that it assumed
a westerly course across the continent, until it
reached the Atlantic Ocean, or " Sea of Dark-
ness," and to distinguish it from the Nile, called it
the " Nile of the Negroes."
The maritime enterprise of the Portuguese led
them early into the interior, but though they ob-
tained a considerable store of information respect-
ing the Niger, they turned it but to little account.
In their maps a remarkable circumstance is ob-
servable regarding the position of Timhuctoo.
This city is placed so near the sea, as to excite
suspicion of its being the same as that on the Niger,
and another place called Tamboucanee, on the
Senegal, is mentioned as answering their Tim-
buctoo.

The source of the Niger, however, as well as its
course, remained in obscurity till English geogra-
phers and travellers took the field. With Great
Britain, a new era in the progress of African geo-
graphy commenced, and in 1788, a number of
wealthy and philanthropic individuals formed them-
selves into a Society for the express purpose of pro-
moting discovery in that country.
Mr. John Ledyard, was the first person de-
spatched under the auspices of the " African Asso-
ciation " upon this mission ; he had already been
round the world with Captain Cook, and had
undergone hardships and privations in a journey
through Russia, which, as the exploits of a single
traveller, stand unrivalled. In June, 1788, he de-
parted, and reached Cairo in the month of August
following—when, becoming impatient and vexed by
the delay of the caravan with 2which he was
to have travelled, his anxious mind sunk under
disappointment, and death quickly terminated his
career. His instructions were, to have penetrated
into Africa by way of Egypt, and to traverse the
Continent in the latitude of the Niger.
Mr. Lucas was the next who went to explore
the Niger. The journey of this traveller is remark-
able for the additions he contributed to African
geography, but he did not penetrate further titan
to the south of Mesurata, five days' journey from
ripoli. In h's account of the Fezzan merchants,
who crossed the Niger at a ferry two miles south of
Cassena, may probably be discerned the ferry of
Comic, below Boossa.

Major Houghton, on the part of the African
Association, next undertook the task. Travelling
as far as Jarra, he was plundered and deserted by
the Moors who accompanied him, and he died,
after several days' wandering, from hunger and
exhaustion.

Mungo Park, in 1795, next took up this
hazardous enterprise.
The terrible sufferings that Park underwent are
related in his own Journal. In his first journey,
he nearly fell a prey. Having encountered all the
horrors- of the rainy season, and being worn down
with fatigue, his health had, at different times, been
seriously affected. But soon after his arrival at
Kamalia, he fell into a severe and dangerous fit
of sickness, by which he was closely confined for
upwards of a month. His life was preserved by
the hospitality and benevolence of Karfa Taura, a
negro, who received him into his house, and at-
tended him with the kindest solicitude.

In Park's second expedition, arranged with the
Secretary for Colonial Affairs, the plan was to
send him with a detachment of soldiers, and a few
seamen and carpenters, to construct vessels for the
navigation of the Niger. With these 35 soldiers,
their Lieutenant, and the others, he arrived at the
wished-for-point, ready to embark on the Niger,
but the rains destroyed his men with a fatal rapi-
dity. He lost the whole of his companions,
except Lieutenant Martyn and three soldiers, of
whom one was in a state of mental derangement.
The death of his friend and brother-in-law, Mr.
Anderson, affected him most deeply. " No event,"
says he, " ever threw the smallest gloom over my
mind, till I laid Mr. Anderson in the grace ; I
then felt myself as if left a second time lonely and
friendless amidst the wilds of Africa."
Of this melancholy affair, he writes to Lord
Camden thus,—" Your Lordship will recollect
that I always spoke of the rainy season with
horror, as being extremely fatal to Europeans; and
our journey from the Gambia to the Niger will
furnish a melancholy proof of it. We had no
contest with the natives, nor were any of us killed
by wild animals, or any other accident ; and yet, I
am sorry to say, that of 44 Europeans who left the
Gambia in perfect health, five only are at present
alive."—Dated Sansanding, Nov. 17, 1805.
At thin most trying moment, however, his habi-
tual constancy did not forsake him. Though about
to embark on a vast and unknown river, through
the midst of savage nations, and a long succession
of rapids and cataracts, this voyage, one of the
most formidable ever attempted, was to be under-
taken by him in a crazy and ill-appointed vessel,
which, principally by his own labour, he had con-