"We had heard so unfavourable an account of the state of the river at one
particular place which we should have to pass, that our people were
compelled to disembark and walk along the banks a considerable way till we
had passed it, when we took them in again. We found the description to be
in no wise exaggerated; it presented a most forbidding appearance, and
yields only to the state of the Niger near Boossa in difficulty and danger.
On our arrival at this formidable place, we discovered a range of black
rocks running directly across the stream, and the water, finding only one
narrow passage, rushed through it with great impetuosity, over-turning and
carrying away everything in its course. Our boatmen, with the assistance
of a number of the natives, who planted themselves on the rocks on each
side of the only channel, and in the stream at the stern of the canoe,
lifted it by main force into smoother and safer water. The last difficulty
with respect to rocks and sand-banks was now overcome, and in a very
little time we came to the termination of all the islands, after which, it
is said, there is not a single dangerous place up the Niger.
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