By the 18th century, European travelers had mapped Africa’s entire coastline in detail. However, the interior of the continent remained largely unexplored. Many Europeans believed that the River Niger led to rich trading opportunities further inland. In 1795, Mungo Park traveled along the River Gambia and reached the River Niger in 1796. He discovered that the Niger flowed eastwards, not westwards as most people believed. He revisited Africa in 1805 and followed the course of the Niger inland. In 1830, English brothers, Richard and John Lander, set out from Bussa in West Africa to explore the River Niger. The local people kidnapped the Lander brothers, en route to the coast,…