The Issue Of Both These Expeditions, Particularly Of The
Former, Was Singularly Melancholy And Unfortunate:
Captain Tuckey, and
fifteen persons out of the thirty who composed it, perished in consequence
of the excessive fatigue which they underwent after they had reached above
the cataracts of the river, the want of sufficient and proper food, and a
fever brought on, or aggravated, by these causes.
Captain Tuckey was the
last who fell a victim, after having traced the Zaire, till it became from
four to five miles in breadth. The mountains were no longer seen, and the
course of the river inclined to the north; these circumstances, joined to
that of its becoming broader, render the opinion that it is the same with
the Niger more probable than it previously was: the accounts given to
Captain Tuckey were also to the same effect. The second expedition, under
the direction of Major Peddir, reached Kauendy on the Nunez, where he died:
his successor in the command, Captain Campbell, penetrated about 150 miles
beyond this place, but not being able to procure the means of proceeding,
he was obliged to return to it, where he also died.
Within 150 miles of the British settlement at Cape Coast Castle, there is a
powerful and rich nation, called the Aahantees: they seem first to have
been heard of by Europeans about the year 1700; but they were not seen near
the coast, nor had they any intercourse with our factories till the year
1807: they visited the coast again in 1811, and a third time in 1816. These
invasions produced great distress among the Fantees, and even were highly
prejudicial to our factory; in consequence of which, the governor resolved
to send a mission to them. Of this journey an account has been published by
Mr. Bowdich, one of those engaged in it. The travellers passed through the
Fantee and Assen territories. The first Ashantee village was Quesha; the
capital is Coomastee, which the mission reached on the 19th of May, 1817.
Mr. Bowdich paints the splendour, magnificence, and richness of the
sovereign of the Ashantees in the most gorgeous manner; and even his
manners as dignified and polished. But though his work is very full of what
almost seems romantic pictures and statements of the civilization and
richness of the Ashantees, and gives accurate accounts of their kingdom,
yet, in other respects, it is not interesting or important, in a
geographical point of view. There are, indeed, some notices which were
collected from the natives or the travelling Moors, regarding the countries
beyond Ashantee, and some of their opinions respecting the Niger. The most
important point which he ascertained was, that the route from the capital
to Tombuctoo is much travelled; and it is now supposed that this is the
shortest and best road for Europeans to take, who wish to reach the Niger
near that city. Indeed, we understand that merchants frequently come to the
British settlement at Sierra Leone, who represent the route into the
interior of Africa and the neighbourhood of the Niger from thence, as by no
means arduous or dangerous.
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