Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797

by Mungo Park

Ptolemy is positive in describing the Niger as a separate stream from the Senegal and Gambia, which two rivers are designed by him under the names of Daradus and Stachir; and they are by no means ill expressed; falling into the sea on different sides of the Arsinarium promontory, or Cape Verd.[31] The Niger of Ptolemy is made to extend from west to east, over half the breadth of Africa, between the Atlantic ocean, and the course of the Nile.

These may suffice for the ancient authorities, which in very early times fixed the course of the Niger in the systems of geography, to be from west to east. Who it was that first led the way, in the opposite opinion, I know not; but we find Edrisi, in the twelfth century, not only conducting the Nile of the Negroes, or Niger, westward, and into the Atlantic, but also deriving it from the Egyptian Nile; which is diametrically opposite to the opinion of Herodotus.

Such an opinion marks the very imperfect state of his knowledge of African geography; and should induce a degree of caution in receiving other opinions of the same author, where they rest absolutely on his own authority. It is very probable that the waters which collect on the west of Nubia, may run to the west, and be lost in lakes: and it is possible, though very improbable, that a branch of the Nile may take the same course: but fortified by the present state of our knowledge, we may certainly pronounce the general scope of the intelligence communicated by Edrisi, respecting the course of the Niger, to be erroneous.

I conceive, however, that his error may easily be accounted for, in this way. He was probably told, that the waters on the west of Nubia, &c. ran to the westward. He also knew that a great river (the Senegal) discharged itself into the Atlantic, nearly in the same parallel; and moreover, that a great river, whose line of direction lay between the east and west, and between Nubia and the just mentioned embouchure, watered a very extensive tract, in the midland part of Africa. Now, what so natural (admitting the fact of the western waters from Nubia, and which I trust, I shall go near to prove in the sequel) as to suppose, when he had found a head, and a tail of a great river, together with a long extent of course of a river between them, that they were parts of each other? It must also be taken into the account, that he supposed the continent of Africa to be about 1000 miles narrower than it really is, in the line between Nubia and the mouth of the Senegal.

Abulfeda followed Edrisi in the same opinion, respecting the Niger; which he calls a twin river with that of Egypt. He also calls it the Nile of Gana. Abulfeda also knew, and has described, the general form of the continent of Africa: and, of course knew that it was surrounded by the sea.[32] But his descriptions are limited to the north and north-east parts. He wrote in the fourteenth century.

It was Edrisi, probably, who influenced and determined the opinions of the moderns, respecting this question. An author, long supposed to be of the same region with that which he describes,[33] and who had entered more into the detail of the African geography, than any other, would, according to the usual mode of decision, on such pretensions, be preferred to those who went before him, and had treated the subject in a more general way. Mankind had no criterion by which to judge of the truth.

Since then the Arabian geographer, who had written the most extensively on the subject, had conducted the Niger into the Atlantic, we cannot wonder that the early Portuguese discoverers, who doubtless learnt from the Arabian authors the particulars of African geography, should adopt the same idea; and that they should regard the Senegal river as the Niger; as we find it, in the histories of their discoveries in the fifteenth century. The Portuguese, who at this period took the lead, in matters of navigation and discovery, might well be expected to set the fashion, in what related to African geography. So that in despite of Ptolemy, and of the ancients in general, the great inland river of Africa was described to run to the west; and to form the head of the Senegal river. Nay more, it was at last supposed to be the parent stock of all the great western rivers of Africa.

Sanuto, whose Geography of Africa, is dated 1588, describes one branch of the Niger to be the Rio Grande, the other the river of Sestos; regarding the Senegal as a different river.

M. Delisle’s map of Africa (1707) gives the Niger a direct course through Africa, from Bornou, in the east, and terminating in the river of Senegal on the west. But in his maps of 1722 and 1727, this was corrected: the source of the Senegal was placed at a shallow lake named Maberia, between the 14th and 15th degrees of longitude east of Cape Verd; and in latitude 12°; whilst the river of Tombuctoo, named Guien, was described to issue from another lake, in the same neighbourhood, and to flow towards Bornou, where it terminated in a third lake.

The cause of this change, may be easily traced, in the intelligence collected by the French traders and settlers in Gallam:[34] the substance of which is to be found in Labat’s collection, published in 1728; although the detail differs in some points. He says, Vol. ii. p. 161, et seq. that the Mandinga merchants report that the Niger (by which he always means the Senegal river) springs from the lake Maberia, whose situation could not be ascertained. That the Gambia river was a branch of the Niger; separating from it at Baracota (a position also unknown) and that it passed through a marshy lake, in its way to Baraconda; where the English and Portuguese had settlements. That the Niger, at a point below Baracota, sent forth another branch, namely the Falemé river; which encompassed the country of Bambouk, and afterwards joined the Niger in the country of Gallam. And finally, that the same Niger, by its separation into two branches, formed a very considerable island above Kasson. It may be remarked, that a belief of these circumstances, manifests a gross state of ignorance respecting the interior of the country; since such derivations from rivers, are found only in alluvial tracts: and it happens, that scarcely any levels vary more than those, through which the rivers in question pass; as will appear in the sequel.