XXI. STILL STRUGGLING TOWARDS THE GREAT RIVER 208
XXV. NEW ENTERPRISES AND NEW THEORIES 254
XXVII. THE TERMINATION OF THE NIGER--(_continued_) 277
XXIX. THE FRENCH ADVANCE TO THE NIGER 301
XXXI. THE ROYAL NIGER COMPANY--(_continued_) 319
2. Facsimile Extract of Letter from Mungo Park to Dr. Anderson _facing page_ 42
6. Facsimile Extract of Mungo Park’s Letter to his Wife „ 180
7. Rock Scenery of the Upper Senegal „ 212
Portrait of the Sultan of Sokoto’s Brother „ 328
III. Libya Secundum Ptolomæum, A.C. 130 _at end_
V. Catalan, Map of the World, Western Half, 1375 „
VI. Guinea and the Sudan, according to D’Anville, 1749 „
VII. Guinea and the Sudan, according to J. Rennell, 1798 „
O. Dapper, Nigritarum Regio, 1671 _page_ 24
Reduced Fac-simile of Mungo Park’s Autograph Map „ 185
To find the first allusion to the River Niger we have to go back to the very dawn of history.
Many centuries before the Christian era the spirit of geographical inquiry was abroad. There were then, as in later times, ardent minds whose eager curiosity would not let them rest content with a knowledge of their own countries. Then, as in the Middle Ages, kings and emperors thirsted for political aggrandisement, merchants for new sources of wealth, and enterprising spirits for opportunities to do deeds of high emprise which would send their names down to posterity.
Phœnicia, Greece, Carthage, Rome, had each its bold navigators and travellers, whose explorations can be more or less credibly gleaned from the mass of fable and misrepresentation which time and ignorance have gathered round them.
Even in those early days--twenty or more centuries ago--Africa was the chief centre of attraction to such as longed to extend their possessions or their knowledge of the earth’s surface. Already the mystery of the Nile and Inner Africa beyond the Great Desert had asserted its fascination over men’s minds. The Mediterranean nations vied with each other in sending expedition after expedition to explore the coast-line, and if possible circumnavigate the continent. Of these some ventured by way of the Straits of Gibraltar--the Pillars of Hercules, as they were then called--while others tried the Red Sea and the eastern coast. What these ancient mariners actually accomplished has been for centuries a matter of keen dispute, with but small clearing up of the obscure horizon. It is not therefore for us to enter into the debatable land, and happily the questions involved lie outside our province. Sufficient for our purpose is it to know that very extensive voyages were undertaken along both the east and west coasts of Africa. Among the most noteworthy and credible of these is the expedition sent by Necho, King of Egypt, with Phœnician navigators, which is said to have accomplished the circumnavigation of the continent; and the Carthaginian expedition of Hanno, which undoubtedly explored the western coast for a very considerable distance towards the equator.