Mungo Park was sent to trace the course of the Niger, an assignment he pursued vigorously until he lost his life at Bussa in 1805.Before his death he had established that the River, instead of joining the Nile as was thought, turned South to enter the sea.

Richard Lander ultimately traced the River to the sea in 1830 discovering, to the excitement of European firms, that the Niger actually entered the sea in the form of Delta at a point which he had been the most important centre of European Trade in West Africa.

Read more here:

http://www.naijxclusive.com/west-africa-exploration-for-exploitation/