Taking Its Coast As The Base Of The Triangle Or Delta,
And Its Vertex At Kirree, About 170 Miles Inland, We Have A Space Of
Upwards Of 25,000 Square Miles, Equal To The Half Of England.
Had this
Delta, like that of the Nile, been subject only to temporary inundations,
leaving behind a layer of fertilizing slime, it would have formed the
most fruitful region on earth, and might have been almost the granary of
a continent.
But, unfortunately, the Niger rolls down its waters in such
excessive abundance, as to convert the whole into a huge and dreary
swamp, covered with dense forests of mangrove, and other trees of
spreading and luxuriant foliage. The equatorial sun, with its fiercest
rays, cannot penetrate these dark recesses; it only exhales from them
pestilential vapours, which render this coast the theatre of more fatal
epidemic diseases than any other, even of Western Africa. That human
industry will one day level these forests, drain these swamps, and cover
this soil with luxuriant harvests, we may confidently anticipate; but
many ages must probably elapse before man, in Africa, can achieve such a
victory over nature."[29]
[29] Edinburgh Review, vol. 55.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
_The Steam Voyage of the Quorra and Alburkah_.
The peculiar characteristic of British enterprise is in general its
practical tendency; wherever a way is opened which promises to afford a
competent return for labour and even hazard, the path is pursued; and
though the advantage may not be immediately held out, the experiment is
nevertheless made. Notwithstanding that the remarkable voyage of which we
are about to give some account, failed in effecting the desired end,
enough was done to shew the possibility of establishing commercial
intercourse between Britain and Interior Africa, when due care and
management are employed in the choice of that season of the year when the
influence of the climate is comparatively little felt.
Some Liverpool merchants being desirous of opening a trade with the
countries on the banks of the Niger, by the exchange of British
manufactures for native produce, fitted out two steam boats: one of
which, the Quorra, was of 150 tons, and of the ordinary construction;
while the other, the Alburkah, was only of 57 tons. The latter vessel was
entirely iron-built, with the exception of her decks; her bottom was 1/4
of an inch in thickness, her sides from 3/18 to 1/8 of an inch. She was
seventy feet in length, 13 in beam, 6-1/2 in depth, and had an engine of
16-horse power. The great inconvenience apprehended from the vessel was,
that from her construction, the crew would suffer much from heat; but so
far from this having been the case, the iron, being an universal
conductor, kept her constantly at the same temperature with the water. To
these vessels was added the Columbine, a sailing brig of 150 tons, which
was intended to remain at the mouth of the river, to receive the goods
brought down by the steam-boats.
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