Both Brothers Were Now On Board, And Were Employing All The Means
In Their Power To Induce Lake To Consent To The Arrangement; But In Place
Of Doing So, He Set Sail, Leaving King Boy To Exclaim Against What He No
Doubt Considered The Treachery Of The Travellers.
The British Government,
however, afterwards caused King Boy to be paid more than the sum which he
had stipulated for.
The Landers suffered much discomfort on board the vessel from the
tyrannical and harsh behaviour of Lake; and they encountered a severe
storm in crossing the bar of the river Nun. On the 1st of December, they
landed at Fernando Po, where they experienced great friendship and
hospitality from the British residents. Thence they found a passage home
in the Carnarvon, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 10th June 1831.
The great problem of African geography was now solved, and the
enterprising travellers met with the praise so justly due to their
sagacity, prudence, and fortitude. "For several hundred miles of its
lower course, the river was found to form a broad and magnificent
expanse, resembling an inland sea. Yet must the Niger yield very
considerably to the Missouri and Orellana, those stupendous rivers of the
new world. But it appears at least as great as any of those which water
the old continents. There can rank with it only the Nile, and the
Yang-tse-Kiang, or Great River of China. But the upper course of neither
is yet very fully established; and the Nile can compete only in length of
course, not in the magnitude of its stream, or the fertility of the
regions.
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