A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 / Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and / Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth / Century, By William Stevenson

by Robert Kerr; William Stevenson

The west coast of Africa, ever since it was ascertained that slaves, ivory, gold dust, gums, &c. could be obtained there, has been eagerly colonized by Europeans; and though these colonies have now existed for upwards of three hundred years, and though the same love of gain which founded them must have directed a powerful wish on those interior countries from which these precious articles of traffic were brought, yet such have been the difficulties, and dangers, and dread, that the most enthusiastic traveller, and the most determined lover of gain, have scarcely penetrated beyond the very frontier of the coast. If we turn to the east coast, still less has been done to explore the interior from that side; the nature, bearings, &c. of the coast itself are not accurately known; and accessions to our knowledge respecting it have been the result rather of accident than of a settled plan, or of any expedition with that view. The Cape of Good Hope has now been an European settlement nearly two hundred years: the inhabitants in that part of Africa, though of course barbarians, are neither so formidable for their craft and cruelty, and strength, nor so implacable in their hatred of strangers, as the inhabitants of the north and of the interior of Africa; and yet to what a short distance from the Cape has even a solitary European traveller ever reached!

But though a very great deal remains to be accomplished before Africa will cease to present an immense void in its interior, in our maps, and still more remains to be accomplished before we can become acquainted with the manners, &c. of its inhabitants, and its produce and manufactures, yet the last century, and what has passed of the present, have witnessed many bold and successful enterprizes to extend our geographical knowledge of this quarter of the globe.

As the sovereigns of the northern shores of Africa were, from various causes and circumstances, always in implacable hostility with one another, and as, besides this obstacle to advances into Africa from this side, it was well known that the Great Desert spread itself an almost impassable barrier to any very great progress by the north into the interior, it was not to be expected that any attempts to penetrate this quarter of the globe by this route would be made. On the other hand, the Europeans had various settlements on the western coast: on this coast there were many large rivers, which apparently ran far into the interior; these rivers, therefore, naturally seemed the most expeditious, safe, and easy routes, by which the interior might, at least to a short distance from the shore, be penetrated.

But it was very long before the Senegal, one of the chief of these rivers, was traced higher than the falls of Felu; or the Gambia, another river of note and magnitude, than those of Baraconda. In the year 1723, Captain Stebbs, who was employed by the Royal African Company, succeeded in going up this river as far as the flats of Tenda. Soon afterwards, some information respecting the interior of Africa, especially respecting Bonda, (which is supposed to be the Bondou of Park, in the upper Senegal,) was received through an African prince, who was taken prisoner, and carried as a slave to America.

All the information which had been drawn from these, and other sources, respecting the interior, was collected and published by Moore, the superintendent of the African Company's settlements on the Gambia; but though the particulars regarding the manners, &c. of the inhabitants are curious, yet this work adds not much to our geographical knowledge of the interior of this part of the world.

In the year 1788, the African Institution was formed: its object was to send persons properly qualified to make discoveries in the interior of Africa. The first person engaged by them was Mr. Ledyard; and, from all accounts of him, no person could have been better qualified for such an arduous enterprise: he was strong, healthy, active, intelligent, inquisitive, observant, and undaunted; full of zeal, and sanguine of success; and, at the same time, open, kind, and insinuating in his looks and manners. At Cairo he prepared himself for his undertaking, by visiting the slave market, in order to converse with the merchants of the various caravans, and learn all the particulars connected with his proposed journey, and the countries from which they came. But be proceeded no farther than Cairo: here he was seized with an illness, occasioned or aggravated by the delay in the caravans setting out for Sennaar, which proved fatal.

Mr Lucas was the next person employed by the African Institution. In October, 1788, he arrived at Tripoli, from whence he set out with two shereefs for Fezzan, by the way of Mescerata. On the fourth day after his departure, he reached Lebida, on the sea coast, the Leptis Magna of the Romans. He found, on his arrival at Mescerata, that he should not be able to procure the number of camels necessary to convey his goods to Fezzan; and was obliged to abandon his enterprize. From the information which he derived, at Mescerata, confirmed as it was by what the Association had learnt from the narrative of a native of Morocco, the geography of Africa was extended from Fezzan, across the eastern division of the Desert, to Bornou, Cashna, and the Niger.

In a year or two after the return of Mr. Lucas, the African Association, who were indefatigable in endeavouring to obtain information from all sources, learnt some interesting and original circumstances from an Arab. This person described a large empire on the banks of the Niger, in the capital of which, Housa, he had resided two years: this city he rather vaguely and inconsistently described as equalling London and Cairo in extent and population. As it was necessary to scrutinize the truth and consistency of his narrative, what he related was at first received with caution and doubt, but an incidental circumstance seemed to prove him worthy of credit; for in describing the manner in which pottery was manufactured at Housa, which he did by imitating the actions of those who made it, it was remarked that he actually described the ancient Grecian wheel.

In order to learn whether the accounts of this man were true and accurate, the African Institution sent out Major Houghton: he was instructed to ascertain the course, and, if possible, the rise and termination of the Niger; to visit Tombuctoo and Housa, and to return by the Desert. Accordingly he sailed up the Gambia to Pisania, and thence he proceeded to Medina, the capital of the Mandingo kingdom. His course from this city was north-east, which led him beyond the limit of European discovery, to the uninhabited frontier which separates Bondou and Mandingo. After some time spent in endeavouring to ingratiate himself with the king of the latter country, but in vain, he resolved to proceed into Bambouk. On arriving at Firbanna, the capital, he was hospitably treated by the king. Here be formed a plan to go with a merchant to Tombuctoo; but on his way he was robbed, and either perished of hunger, or was murdered: the exact particulars are not known. To Major Houghton we are indebted for our first knowledge of the kingdom of Bondou; and for the names of several cities on the Niger, as well as the course of that river.

Mr. Park was next employed by the African Association; and what he learnt, observed, did, and suffered, fully justified them in the choice of such a man. "His first journey was unquestionably the most important which any European had ever performed in the interior of Africa. He established a number of geographical positions, in a direct line of eleven hundred miles from Cape de Verde: by pointing out the positions of the sources of the Senegal, Gambia, and Niger, he has given a new aspect to the physical geography of this continent; he has fixed the boundaries of the Moors and Negroes; unfolded to us the empire of Ludamar; and described, from personal observation, some important towns on the banks of the Niger, or Joliba. The information which he has communicated concerning this part of Africa, and their manners, is equally new and interesting. He has traced with accuracy the distinction betwixt the Mahometans and Pagans." This journey was accomplished between the 2d of December, 1795, when he left Pisania, a British factory two hundred miles up the Gambia, and the 10th of June, 1797, when he returned to the same place, an interval of eighteen months.