ABSTRACT
BETWEEN two lines drawn roughly north and south from Sierra Leone to Bojador, and the Bight of Biafra to Fezzan, there lies a vast quadrangular tract of northern Africa, through the heart of which the Niger flows. The story of this region is more or less bound up with that of the great river, for throughout the greater portion of a thousand years rumours of the fertility and wealth of the Niger basin led adventurous explorers, first from the ancient East and then from the young West, onwards into the wilds of the Sudan. Many races, differing widely in origin, character, and mode of life, dwell there, and for the clearer understanding of its aspect and history it may be divided into three zones.
