water which it pours into the ocean. Lopez and Merolla represent the breadth at its mouth not to fall short of twenty-eight miles. Cavazzi, however, gives only three leagues, which nearly agrees with ten miles, Mr Maxwell's estimate. The rapidity of the current is such, that no advantage of wind and tide can enable any vessel to make head against it. The ascent can be effected only, by first keeping close to the shore, and then getting under shelter of one of the numerous islands which lie at its mouth. In proceeding upwards, there occurs a continued succession of such islands, each of which, for a certain space beneath, breaks the force of the stream, so that those who are well acquainted with the river, will always find a channel which they can navigate, without encountering its entire force. At 120 leagues above its mouth are found the falls or cataracts, which are nowhere particularly described. They are said, however, to be of great magnitude, and their noise so tremendous, as to be heard at the distance of eight miles. About seventy miles higher, near the city of Concobella, there appears, according to every report, to be a great union of rivers, flowing from different quarters of the interior. D'Anville, in his map (1731), remarks, that the origin and early course of all these streams is involved in very great uncertainty. The early accounts, making

them rise from the lakes of Zaire and Zambre, which also give rise to the Nile, are evidently fabulous, and founded on an erroneous system of African geography. The only statement at all distinct, is that given by Labat, chiefly from the report of Cavazzi. According to him, two of these great rivers, the Coango, and Berbela, have their rise in or near the kingdom of Matamba, and, flowing southwards along the eastern frontiers of Congo, at length unite and take a westerly direction. D'Anville, whose authority is certainly better, makes only one river, instead of two. He gives to it the name of Coango, but that of Berbela has since been generally applied to it. The next river is the Vambre or Umbre, said to flow from east to west, through the kingdom of Fungeno, a region known only by name. The last and most northerly is the Bancaro, described as flowing through the kingdom of Anziko, which lies to the north-east of Concobella. evidently must be the river, if any, which forms the yet unknown termination of the Niger, and to trace its course upwards, must therefore be the main object of European investigation.

This

CHAPTER II.

EARLY DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH.

Early Voyages to Africa.-Windham.-Lok.-Towrson.-Baker. -Fenner.-First Voyages to the Senegal and Gambia.-Plans for penetrating to Tombuctoo.-Thompson.-Jobson.-Vermuyden.-Stibbs.-Job-Ben-Solomon.-Moore.

As the Portuguese engrossed the exclusive glory of circumnavigating the continent of Africa, so they reigned long the undisputed lords, both of the African and Indian Seas. As soon as the king had fortified the castle of Mina, and assumed the title of Lord of Guinea, he claimed a right of prohibiting the other European powers to land or traffic on any part of this immense continent. As this exorbitant pretension was sanctioned by the still revered authority of the court of Rome, he hesitated not to maintain it by force of arms, and to consider every attempt to disregard it as an unjustifiable aggression. Other maritime powers, however, were now rising to greatness, and would not long suffer so rich a prize to be withheld from their grasp. In 1481, a movement was made in England for the purpose of obtaining a share of

the African commerce. John Tintam and William Fabian are stated to have been then employed in equipping a fleet for the coast of Guinea, at the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia; but whether they sought to cover their enterprise by the name of this great Spanish grandee, or whether Spain sought thus covertly to obtain a share of her neighbour's wealth, our slender documents do not enable us to ascertain. John II. of Portugal, alarmed at the intelligence of this armament, immediately despatched an embassy to the English king, (Edward IV.) The ambassadors, after sundry compliments, and much courtesy, proceeded to make his Majesty acquainted with the claims which their master had to Guinea, requesting, "that he should give charge through all his kingdom, that no man should "arm or set forth ships to Ginnee," and also that he should "dissolve a certain fleet," equipped, as we have noticed, for the above purpose. The narrative concludes by stating, that the king, well pleased, had granted every thing thus demanded; so that this path, for a long series of years, was entirely shut against British enterprise.

The career of discovery was thus checked ; but as Britain became more and more a maritime country, and as accounts multiplied of the tide of wealth which flowed in upon Portugal from these

eastern settlements, the energies of her commercial genius were more and more roused, and a passage to India became the object of eager and unremitting search. Still, either respect for the claims of Portugal, or dread of her naval predominance, deterred any other nation from following in the same track. It was not, therefore, by any known course through tropical seas, but by the Northern ocean, and across the storms of the icy pole, that our navigators sought to reach the golden treasures of India. These efforts were made for a long series of years, and with extraordinary perseverance. But when fleet after fleet had returned disappointed and shattered, and when the pale and exhausted navigators had only to tell of desolate shores, eternal snows, and mountains of moving ice, the courage of the nation was exhausted, perhaps even before the experiment had been fully tried. They turned their views to another quarter, and began to inquire why the oceans of the south should be traversed by one nation only, and why the safe and easy route around Africa should be so inexorably shut against British navigators. Eden, in his preface to the narrative of the first English voyage to Guinea, animadverts strongly on the unreasonableness of those, (who, though not named, are evidently the Portuguese), who, because they have landed at some remote points, and erected a few forts,