Richard Lander Volunteered His Valuable Services To This Expedition, - The
Last In Which He Was Destined To Take Part; Messrs.
Laird and Oldfield,
with a considerable number of Europeans also embarked.
They left England
about the end of July 1832, and arrived off the Nun on the 19th of
October, after having touched at Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, and
other settlements, to lay in provisions, and secure the services of some
Kroomen.[30]
[30] The Kroomen inhabit the country which extends along the coast,
from Simon River to Capes Palmas and Lahoo; they voluntarily engage
themselves in bands to aid the crews of vessels.
Having safely moored the brig, they proceeded to unload the merchandize
on board of her, and to transfer it to the steam-vessels. They then began
to sail up the Nun branch of the Niger. This part of the river is most
unhealthy; it is one entire swamp, covered with mangrove, cabbage, and
palm trees. "The fen-damp rose in the morning cold and clammy to the
feeling, and appeared like the smoke of a damp wood fire." The bodies of
the natives are covered with ulcers and cutaneous eruptions; they spend a
short and miserable life in profligacy. After they had gone up about
thirty miles, the banks had an appearance of greater consistency, and the
beautiful, but deadly mangrove tree was no longer visible. The river was
now about 300 yards broad, and from four to five fathoms deep. They met
with no obstruction from the natives, till they came to Eboe, where an
unfortunate quarrel took place, which seems to have arisen from a mere
misunderstanding. The discharge of a gun had been agreed upon as the
signal from the Alburkah for the Quorra to anchor; which being fired
after dark, before the village, alarmed the natives, who opened a brisk
discharge of musketry from the banks. The voyagers found it necessary to
put a stop to this attack, by the discharge of their great guns, and in
about twenty minutes the musketry from the shore was silenced. At
day-break they made farther reprisals, and in order to terrify the
natives, landed and set fire to the village - an act of barbarity which
appears to have been entirely gratuitous and uncalled for. After they had
passed the scene of this unfortunate rencontre, the river increased in
breadth to one thousand yards; the banks were higher, and the woods were
more frequently diversified with plantations of bananas, plantains and
yams. Soon after they anchored off Eggaboo, to take in a supply of wood;
it was the first town which they had observed built at a short distance
from the river, and not upon its margin. It contained about two hundred
houses, each of which was surrounded with a bamboo fence about nine feet
high. They gratified King Obie by a visit, who gave them various
presents, and also visited the steamers in state, escorted by upwards of
sixty canoes, seven of which were of great size, and were each manned by
crews of seventy men.
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