westward towards the Atlantic. The reason on which this opinion was
founded, will be evident, when we observe that it was in Kashna, that
Ben Ali considered himself as having crossed that river. His Niger,
therefore, was the Quarrama, or river of Zermie, which flows westward
through Kashna and Sackatoo, and is only a tributary to the Quorra or
great river, which we call the Niger. He describes the stream as very
broad and rapid, probably from having seen it during the rainy
season, when all the tropical rivers of any magnitude assume an
imposing appearance.

Mr. Lucas made no further attempt to penetrate into Africa. The next
expedition was made by a new agent, and from a different route. Major
Houghton, who had resided for some years as consul at Morocco, and
afterwards in a military capacity at Goree, undertook the attempt to
reach the Niger by the route of Gambia, not, like Jobson and Stibbs,
ascending its stream in boats, but travelling singly and by land. He
seems to have been endowed with a gay, active, and sanguine spirit,
fitted to carry him through the boldest undertaking, but without that
cool and calculating temper necessary for him, who endeavours to make
his way amid scenes of peril and treachery. He began his journey
early in 1791, and soon reached Medina, the capital of Woolli, where
the venerable chief received him with extreme kindness, promised to
furnish guides, and assured him he might go to Timbuctoo with his
staff in his hand. The only evil that befell him at Medina, arose
from a fire that broke out there, and spreading rapidly through
buildings roofed with cane and matted grass, converted a town of a
thousand houses, in an hour, into a heap of ashes. Major Houghton ran
out with the rest of the people into the fields, saving only such
articles as could be carried with him.