Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/213





SOUTH SENEGAMBIA.

HE river Gambia might at first sight appear to be the most important waterway in West Africa for penetrating into the interior. Over the Senegal it enjoys the advantage of being much more accessible to shipping, its estuary opening on less stormy waters, while its bar at all times admits vessels drawing 10 feet. Its banks are also more fertile than those of the northern river, and may be cultivated as well in the dry season as after the floods. This artery is, moreover, navigable farther east than the Senegal, and affords direct access to the auriferous regions and fertile valleys of Futa-Jallon, inhabited by the industrious Fulah people. It represents the chord of the vast arc described by the Senegal.

In 1618 the Gambia was explored by Thompson, who ascended as far as the Tenda country, near the Futa-Jallon highlands; but he was murdered on the way, either by his followers or by the Portuguese. Two years afterwards the same route was followed by Jobson, and later by several other explorers, who reached the Barra-Kunda rocks, and unanimously reported that the Gambia was the most direct road to the Upper Senegal regions, and to the auriferous districts of Bambûk and Buré. At that time it was even supposed to be a branch of the Senegal itself, and even now Mitchinson asserts that during the floods the two rivers communicate with each other.

But despite all these advantages the Gambia has always remained greatly inferior to its northern rival in political and commercial importance, owing mainly to its more deadly climate, and partly also to the different character of the riverain populations, amongst whom are found neither the enterprising Berbers nor the industrious Toucouleurs.

Nor has this artery an area of drainage at all in proportion to the length of its course. From its source in the Futa-Jallon uplands to the estuary at Bathurst its winding channel develops a total length of about 720 miles, while the basin has a mean breadth of scarcely 40 miles, and a total area of no more than 20,000 square miles. In the southern districts, which have escaped the Mohammedan invasions, the population is reported to be tolerably dense, and the Mandingoes,