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Nor can we be surprised that the question, respecting the termination of the Niger, associated as it was, with so many personal feelings, had such entire possession of Park's mind; since the subject itself, considered as a matter of geographical enquiry, is one of the most interesting that can easily be conceived.
That idea is now exploded, and there is no reason to think that the latter inhabits any part of Africa. It is very likely there are varieties of the African species in different parts of the continent. It is well-known that those of the tropical regions are larger than the others; and a reddish and very fierce kind is said to be met with in the mountains of Africa, upon the river Niger.
They next passed the island of Belee; the sound of music was heard, and an ornamented canoe appeared, conveying an important personage, called by the sounding title of "the King of the Dark Water," who conducted them to his "island-domain," which is called Zagoshi, and is situated in the midst of the Niger.
At seven o'clock on the following morning, they were once more upon the Niger, and about noon they observed a herd of Fellata cows grazing on the banks of the river, and a very short distance from them, they saw an immense crocodile floating on the surface like a long canoe, for which it was at first mistaken, and watching an opportunity to seize one of the cows, and destroy it by dragging it into the river.
It should have been said that it had been long known that two mighty rivers flowed through the interior of Africa, one called the Gambia and the other the Niger, or Quorra; but whereabouts they rose, or the direction they took, or the nature of the country they traversed in their course, no exact information was possessed.
Over all the marshes there hung a thick white mist deadly to all, but the more so to the starving wretches who came from the high lands far north beyond the Niger. Scarcely a day broke without one or more of the lean, weak negroes being attacked, and as a sick slave is only an incumbrance, they were left to die while we were marched onward.
This was especially the case on the coast to the east of the River Niger. The British Government was incensed at this procedure, and all the more so as plans were then on foot for consolidating British influence in the Cameroons.
Did the great Niger expedition turn back when near such a desirable position for its stricken and prostrate members? The distances from top to top of the ridges may be about 10 Deg. of longitude, or 600 geographical miles. I can not hear of a hill ON either ridge, and there are scarcely any in the space inclosed by them.
Though at first swampy, it became woody and well-watered, in many parts densely inhabited, with numerous villages, where even the Mahommedans have penetrated. At last Mount Alantika appeared in sight, eight thousand feet above the plain. Near it flows the Binue, that long looked-for stream, supposed to make its way westward to the Niger, and which it had been Barth's great object to reach.
Those fine nimble brethren small, Armed with pearl-shell helmets all. When Mrs. Puckridge came into the room, she always set her candle on the sill of the storm-window: it was there, happily, when the doctor drew near the village, and it guided him to the cottage-gate. He fastened Niger to the gate, crossed the little garden, gently lifted the door-latch, and ascended the stair.
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