a great river of Africa, supposed to have its origin near that of the Nile; but this is very uncertain. We are assured, however, that it is a river of very great extent: especially if we suppose, according to the opinion of the best modern geographers, that it has its source in the kingdom of Gorhan, not far from the confines of Upper Ethiopia; for then it will cross almost the whole continent of Africa, where it is widest. In its course it receives many considerable rivers, which swell it high enough to be able at all times to carry vessels of good burden; so it splits itself into several branches, which uniting again form very large and fertile islands, well filled with towns and villages. It passes also through several lakes, and has many cataracts. After having run from east to west, during a prodigious long course, it turns at last short to the south, at a league and a half distance from the western ocean; leaving but a very narrow tract between it and the sea, into which it opens its way in lat. 15° 55′ after having run about 25 leagues from north to south. Its mouth is sometimes half a league broad; but is shut up by a bank of quick-sand called the bar of Senegal, where the water is so shallow, that it is very difficult and dangerous to pass over it. The bar is formed by the mud and sand which the river brings with it during the inundation, and which the sea continually drives back upon the shore. This would effectually exclude all shipping, had not the violence of the current, and the weight of the waters, made two openings or channels, which are commonly called the passes of the bar. The largest of these is generally not above 150 or 200 fathoms broad, and about 10 feet deep, so that none but barks of 40 or 50 tons can get through this channel; the other is so narrow and shallow, that it is passable by canoes only. These channels are not always in the same place; for the river, as it is more or less swollen, or the current more or less rapid, opens those passes sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another. The bar itself also frequently shifts its place; so that the island of Senegal is sometimes four leagues distant from it, at other times only two. It is this bar only which hinders ships of 400 or 500 tons to go up the river.