ABSTRACT
Although during the dry season, no communication or intercourse is maintained by water between Boossa, and the countries or states lower down the river, by reason of the dangerous rocks which have been already alluded to; yet in the wet season, after the ‘Malca’ 1 (or fourteen days’ incessant rain) has set in, when all the rivers which are dry during the remainder of the year, pour their overplus into the ‘great Father of Waters’, as the Niger is emphatically styled, then canoes, it is said, pass to and fro, between Yaoorie, Nouffie, Boossa, and Funda. It is immediately after the ‘Malca’ also, that the Niger, by the depth and velocity of its current, sweeps off the rank grass which springs up annually on its borders. Every rock and every low island is then completely covered, and may be passed over in canoes without difficulty, or even apprehension of danger. The enterprising Mr Park must have had a thousand difficulties to overcome in his voyage down the Niger. It was about this time of year that he arrived at Yaoorie, and the river, it is said, was then about the same height as it is at present. The canoe-men, who in all probability were his slaves, were said to be chained to the canoe, in order to prevent their running away; his pilot was unacquainted with the river any further, and therefore he received his wages here in Yaoorie, and returned to his own country; 2 and Mr Park, with a companion, and three white boys, continued their journey clown the Niger without any person whatever to point out the safest channel, or warn them of the clanger. When the accident happened at Boossa by which they lost their lives, it is said they preferred being drowned to avoid as they imagined a more dreadful death.
