Niger

“ The forests gave place to jungles, which alligators, hippopotami, and the rhinoceros, made their haunts.
“It will not be long before we see the Niger,” said the doctor. “The face of the country always changes in the vicinity of large rivers. These moving highways, as they are sometimes correctly called, have first brought vegetation with them, as they will at last bring civilization. Thus, in its course of twenty-five hundred miles, the Niger has scattered along its banks the most important cities of Africa.” ”

“ It is to you, dear friends, dear companions on the Niger, that I add—“Let people say what they will; a hundred years hence many things and many men will be forgotten, but for all that, it will be as true then as it is now, that our hydrographical expedition was the first to descend the Niger, the first to explore its course from Kolikoro to the sea.” ”

“ The Niger, after running northward as far as that city, sweeps around, like an immense water-jet from some fountain, and falls into the Atlantic in a broad sheaf. In the elbow thus formed the country is of varied character, sometimes luxuriantly fertile, and sometimes extremely bare ”

“ The Niger, or as the natives call it, the Joliba, or Quorra, is not connected with the Nile, and does not lose itself in the desert sands or in the waters of Lake Tchad; it flows in a number of different branches into the ocean on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, at the point known as Cape Formosa. The entire glory of this discovery, foreseen though it was by scientific men, belongs to the Brothers Lander. The vast extent of country traversed by the Niger between Yaoorie and the sea was completely unknown before their journey. ”

“ The Niger, with its vast and misty horizons, is more like an inland ocean than a river. I engaged for my voyage up-stream a boat which was a whimsical mixture of a European barge and an aboriginal canoe, in which a thatched hollow served me amidships as bedroom, dining-room, study, and dressing-room. A small folding bedstead was the only piece of furniture. The crew consisted of Bosos, the true sailors of the Niger, of whose skill, patient endurance, and loyalty I had full experience. ”

“ The Niger in fact belongs to a region wholly different from that of the Nile in the form and disposition of its plateaux. On the other side of the hills where it takes its rise, the Congo, Rio Grande, Gambia, and several other streams flow to independent estuaries on the west coast, while farther north the Senegal, rising on the same slope as the Niger, sweeps round the hills, forcing its way to the Atlantic through a series of rocky gorges and rapids. ”

“ For say what you like, if the Royal Niger had not got on well with the natives in its territories—dealt cleanly, honestly, rationally with them—it would never have extended its influence in the grand way it has, represented only by a mere handful of white men, in what is, as far as we know, the most densely populated region with the highest and most organised form of native power in all tropical Africa. ”

“ This region—apparently the Wangara country of Idrisi—is sometimes called Bambara, the name of the chief race inhabiting it. The lakes or widening of the Niger itself occupy vast areas; Lake Debo, the Lake of Horo, the Lake of Dauna, Lake Faguibini are all to the south or west of Timbuktu, and are permanent. The greater part of the colony lies within the bend of the Niger, but westward it includes both banks of the Senegal as far as the Faleme confluence. It also extends north of the Niger so as to include the fertile land on the borders of the Sahara. ”

“ At their confluence the Niger is about three-quarters of a mile broad and the Benue rather more than a mile. The united stream forms a lake-like expansion about 2 m. in width, dotted with islands and sandbanks; the peninsula at the junction is low, swampy, and intersected by numerous channels. On the western bank of the Niger at this point is situated Lokoja (q.v.) , an important commercial centre. The stream, as far south as Iddah (Ida) , a town on the east bank, rushes through a valley cut between the hills, the sandstone cliffs at some places rising 150 ft. high. ”

“ Truly we French may be proud of our work in the French Sudan. We have done better than the English on the Upper Niger; our colonization is far superior to theirs. On the Lower Niger they have neither telegraph wires, for these go no further than Akassa and Brass, at the mouth of the river, no road at all to be compared with our line of revictualling posts, and of course, need we add? they have no railway!
It seems to me a fact that of all the Niger districts, the richest and the most favoured by Nature from every point of view are those we occupy in the French Sudan. ”

“ The Royal Niger Company has demonstrated its adaptation to its environment. Without any forced labour, without any direct taxation, it has paid. I venture to think, though I have no doubt it would severely hurt the feelings of the R.N.C., that we may regard the Royal Niger Company as representing the perfected system of native government in West Africa plus English courage and activity. ”

“ The question regarding the termination of the Niger is one of the most doubtful and obscure in modern geography, and in the present defective state of our information with regard to the interior of Africa, seems hardly to admit of a clear and satisfactory solution. Of the difficulties with which the subject is attended, some judgment may be formed from the various and even opposite opinions which have been maintained relative to the course of the Niger, since Park's discoveries have ascertained that it flows from west to east. ”

“ The Niger affords a channel of communication with the most fertile, most industrious, and most improved regions of interior Africa. Its navigation is very easy and safe, unless at intervals between Boussa and Youri, and between Patashie and Lever, and even there it becomes practicable during the malca or flood, produced by the periodical rains. British vessels may, therefore, by this stream and its tributaries ascend to Rabba, Boussa, Youri, Soccatoo, Timbuctoo, Sego, and probably to other cities as great, but yet unknown. ”

“ The Military Territory dependent on the colony extends E. of the Niger to the Lake Chad territory of French Congo, being bounded S. by Nigeria (British) . The colony and its dependent territory thus form the link connecting all the possessions of France in north, west and central Africa. Their area is estimated at 210,000 sq. m., with a population of some 3,000,000. Those tribes living north and east of the Niger are mainly of Berber (Tuareg) stock; the inhabitants of the Niger bend are chiefly Negroids, such as the Mandingo, with Fula in certain districts. ”

“ Just before it was dark, we took up our lodging for the night at a small village, where I procured some victuals for myself, and some corn for my horse, at the moderate price of a button; and was told that I should see the Niger (which the Negroes call Joliba, or the great water) , early the next day. The lions are here very numerous: the gates are shut a little after sunset, and nobody allowed to go out. The thoughts of seeing the Niger in the morning, and the troublesome buzzing of musketoes, prevented me from shutting my eyes during the night ”

“ It is a territory some thirty-five hundred miles by six hundred miles, containing two million square miles, and has to-day a population of perhaps eighty million. It is thus two-thirds the size of the United States and quite as thickly settled. In the western Sudan the Niger plays the same role as the Nile in the east. In this chapter we follow the history of the Niger.
The history of this part of Africa was probably something as follows: primitive man, entering Africa from Arabia, found the Great Lakes, spread in the Nile valley, and wandered westward to the Niger. ”

“ As far as I have been ever able to learn, by a very diligent and cautious inquiry, from the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries, I believe the origin of the Niger is in lat. 12° north, and in long. 30° from the meridian of Greenwich nearly; that it is composed of various rivers falling down the sides of very high mountains, called Dyre and Tegla; and runs straight west into the heart of Africa. ”

“ As further lights continued to be thrown upon the course of the Niger, that geographical problem of many years, and as its importance in a commercial point of view, opening a way into the interior of Africa, becomes more appreciable, our attention was naturally drawn to every circumstance connected with its exploration. ”

“ Amongst the states mentioned, were Kashna, Kano, Daura, Solan, Noro, Nyffe, Cabi, Zanfara and Guber. Most or all of these were tributary to Bornou, described as decidedly the most powerful kingdom in central Africa, and which really was so regarded before the rise of the Fellatah empire caused in this respect, a remarkable change. The Niger, according to the unanimous belief in the northern provinces, was said to flow from Timbuctoo eastward through Houssa, and holding the same direction till it joined or rather became the Bahr-elabiad, the main stream of the Egyptian Nile. ”

“ Sir Percy Girouard and others have warned the public against confusing Northern and Southern Nigeria, and running away with the idea that there is no great difference between them. As Colonel Mockler-Ferryman says: “Commencing with what is called the Niger Delta, we have a land of swamps and impenetrable forests, intersected by a vast network of streams and creeks and inhabited by numerous pagan tribes addicted to every species of vile custom, including even cannibalism and human sacrifices.... ”

“ On the banks of the Niger, they are tolerably industrious, have a considerable share of vivacity, and at the same time a female reserve, which would do no discredit to a politer country. They are modest, affable, and faithful; an air of innocence appears in their looks and in their language, which gives a beauty to their whole deportment.
When, from the Niger, we approach toward the East, the African women degenerate in stature, complexion, sensibility, and chastity. Even their language, like their features, and the soil they inhabit, is harsh and disagreeable. ”

“ I. According to the oldest of these opinions, and that which is supported by the greatest authorities (being the opinion not only of some of the principal Geographers of antiquity, but of D'Anville and Rennell among the moderns) , it is supposed, that the Niger has an inland termination somewhere in the eastern part of Africa, probably in Wangara or Ghana: and that it is partly discharged into inland lakes, which have no communication with the sea, and partly spread over a wide extent of level country, and lost in sands or evaporated by the heat of the sun. ”

“ In one expedition after another sent out from the island of Ascension, nine white men out of ten fell victims to the “beautiful, but awful climate.”
Nevertheless, news from the interior more or less distinct has found its way over this belt of danger and death. Being a land of mystery, it should be borne in mind that there is a strong tendency to exaggeration in all that comes from it. The Niger, one of the noblest of rivers, skirts this unknown country for some hundreds of miles, after sweeping away through the middle portion of Central Africa already described. ”

“ At no great distance from this place, and within sight of it, all the branches of the Niger meet, and form a beautiful and magnificent sheet of water, at least seven or eight miles in breadth, and it excited the surprise of the Landers, to know what became of so extraordinary a body of water, for at Boossa, the river is no more than a stone's throw across, and its depth is in proportion to its narrowness, but about an hour's walk from thence, it again becomes a noble river, and maintains its width, it was reported, even to Funda. ”

“ As soon as it was ascertained that the Niger reached the ocean in the Bight of Benin, and that its upper waters had been navigated by Caillié and Park, a private association, aided by the British government, fitted out a brig and several steamers, with a large party of scientific men, who, in 1833, entered the Niger from the sea. ”

“ The Niger must after all yield very considerably to the Missouri and Orellana, those stupendous rivers of the new world. But it appears at least as great as any of those which water the old continents. There can rank with it only the Nile, and the Yangtse-kiang, or Great River of China. But the upper course of neither is yet very fully ascertained; and the Nile can compete only in length of course, not in the magnitude of its stream, or the fertility of the regions which it waters. There is one feature in which the Niger may defy competition from any river, either of the old or new world. ”

“ The Niger, in fact, has been for them a more interesting problem than the Nile. The German travellers Rüppell and Russegger, however, by their explorations within the last twenty-five years, have made important contributions to our knowledge of Eastern Soudân, while D’Arnaud, Werne, and more than all, Dr. Knoblecher, have carried our vision far into the heart of the mysterious regions beyond. ”

“ Sometimes it joins the mysterious Niger, and together they flow through country labelled "Unknown" or "Desert" or "Negroland," or an enterprising cartographer fills up vacant spaces with wild animals stalking through the land.
The coast tells a different tale. The west shores are studded with trading forts belonging to English, Danes, Dutch, and Portuguese, where slaves from the interior awaited shipment to the various countries that required negro labour. ”