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It is scarcely possible, therefore, that the latter point can be less, taking the cataracts into consideration than 1500 feet above the sea, whereas the following considerations lead to the belief that the Tchadda is not more than 500 feet in height.
The river now wound a great deal, flowing from the south to south-east, and then to the south-west between lofty hills. On the 25th October, the English found themselves opposite the mouth of a large river. It was the Tchadda or Benuwe. At its junction with the Niger is an important town called Cutum Curaffi.
No traces of inhabitants appeared on the banks of this very interesting river, and Lander and his valuable coadjutor were compelled to return to the Niger for want of provisions. All the natives in this part of the country agreed in the assertion, that the Tchadda communicates with Lake Tchad, the inland sea of Africa.
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.
We learn from the information of Clapperton, confirmed and amplified by that of Lander, that there exists a ridge, which about Kano and Kashna, extends forth the Yeu to the Lake Tchadda on one side, and on the other the river of Soccatoo, which joins the Quorra at a distance from the sea of about 500 miles, measured in the manner above mentioned.
Burckhardt, whose oral inquiries on Bornou, have proved generally correct, concluded that the Shary flowed from N.E. to S.W., and Lyon, though particularly successful in his information on the countries not visited by him, was induced to confound the Shary of Bornou with the Tchadda or Yen, and like Sultan Bello, to carry the Quorra, after passing Youri and Funda, into the Lake Tchadda, and thence into Egypt.
A few Tuaricks from the borders of the desert, and other Arabs were observed by our countrymen in the streets of Rabba. Another important feature of this expedition is, the circumstance that the travellers ascended the river Tchadda, as high as one hundred and fifty miles from its junction with the Niger.
For some reason not properly explained, Richard Lander, returned to Fernando Po on the 1st May from the Quorra steam boat, which he had left afloat in deep water, near the River Tchadda. From her he descended the Niger in a native canoe, and arrived on board the brig Columbine, which was lying in the Nun River, having been 13 days on his passage.
It should also be remembered, that the Tchadda has not received its name, any more than its gigantic namesake, from Europeans, but from the natives themselves, who have never bestowed on it any other appellation. On a small island, near Attah, Lander erected a kind of mud fort, which would answer the purpose of a depot for British goods.
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.
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