"To return by the Niger to the westward he apprehends would be impossible; to proceed to the northward equally so; and to travel through Abyssinia extremely dangerous. The only remaining route that holds out any hopes of success, is that towards the _Bight of Guinea_. If the river should take a southerly direction, Mr. Park would consider it as his duty to follow it to its termination; and if it should happily prove to be the river Congo, would there embark with the troops and Negroes on board a slave vessel, and return to England from St. Helena, or by way of the West Indies. "The following considerations have induced Mr. Park to think that the Congo will be found to be the termination of the Niger. "1st. The total ignorance of all the inhabitants of North Africa respecting the termination of that river. If the Niger ended any where in North Africa, it is difficult to conceive how the inhabitants should be so totally ignorant of it; and why they should so generally describe it as running to the Nile, to the end of the world, and in fact to a country with which they are unacquainted. "2dly. In Mr. Horneman's Journal the Niger is described as flowing eastwards into Bornou, where it takes the name of _Zad_. The breadth of the Zad was given him for one mile, and he was told that it flowed towards the Egyptian Nile, through the land of the _Heathens_. [Footnote: Proceedings of African Association. Vol. II. p. 201.] The course here given is directly towards the Congo. _Zad_ is the name of the Congo at its mouth, and it is the name of the Congo for at least six hundred and fifty miles inland. "3dly. The river of _Dar Kulla_ mentioned by Mr. Browne [Footnote: Browne's Travels. 2d edit. 4to. p. 354.] is generally supposed to be the Niger; or at least to have a communication with that river. Now this is exactly the course the Niger ought to take in order to join the Congo. "4thly. The quantity of water discharged into the Atlantic by the Congo cannot be accounted for on any other known principle, but that it is the termination of the Niger. If the Congo derived its waters entirely from the south side of the mountains which are supposed to form the Belt of Africa, one would naturally suppose that when the rains were confined to the north side of the mountains, the Congo, like the other rivers of Africa, would be greatly diminished in size; and that its waters would become _pure_. On the contrary, the waters of the Congo are at all seasons thick and muddy. The breadth of the river when at its _lowest_ is _one mile_, its depth is _fifty fathoms_, and its velocity _six miles per hour_. "5thly. The annual flood of the Congo commences before any rains have fallen south of the equator, and agree correctly with the floods of the Niger, calculating the water to have flowed from Bambarra at the rate of three miles per hour.