ed its
continuous progress for upwards of a thousand miles. The present
voyage has exhibited it following a farther course, which with its
windings must amount to about eight hundred miles, and finally
emptying itself into the Atlantic. This celebrated stream is now
divested of that mysterious character, which surrounded it with a
species of supernatural interest. Rising in a chain of high
mountains, flowing through extensive plains, receiving large
tributaries, and terminating in the ocean, it exhibits exactly the
ordinary phenomena of a great river. But by this discovery we see
opened to our view a train of most important consequences. The Niger
affords a channel of communication with the most fertile, most
industrious, and most improved regions of interior Africa. Its
navigation is very easy and safe, unless at intervals between Boussa
and Youri, and between Patashie and Lever, and even there it becomes
practicable during the _malca_ or flood, produced by the periodical
rains. British vessels may, therefore, by this stream and its
tributaries ascend to Rabba, Boussa, Youri, Soccatoo, Timbuctoo,
Sego, and probably to other cities as great, but yet unknown. They
may navigate the yet unexplored Tchadda, a river, which at its
junction, is nearly as large as the Niger itself, and no doubt waters
extensive and fertile regions. It was even stated to the Landers by
different individuals, that by this medium, vessels might reach the
Lake Tchadda, and thereby communicate with the kingdom of Bornou. But
this statement appears erroneous, for though the Tchadda be evidently
the same with the Shary, which runs by Adomowa and Durrora, yet
flowing into the Niger, it must be a quite different stream from the
Shary, which flows _into_ the Tchad, and in a country so mountainous,
there is little likelihood of any connecting branches. The decided
superiority of the interior of Africa to the coast, renders this
event highly important. Steam, so peculiarly adapted to river
navigation, affords an instrument by which the various obstacles may
be overcome, and vessels may be enabled to penetrate into the very
heart of the African continent.

On the return of the Landers, the question was mooted by the
Geographical Society of London, whether the Quorra or _Niger_, as
discovered by Lander, was the same river as the _Kigir_ of the
ancients. Upon the whole subject it would have been sufficient to
refer to D'Anville and Rennell, who favour the a