Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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Nearly All The White Men Belonging To These Vessels Had
Died, And The Remainder Appeared In The Most Wretched State, And They
Had Abandoned All Intention Of Attempting To Proceed Up The River
With The Schooners, It Being Considered Impossible To Do So With Any
Sailing Vessel.
The brig intended to procure a cargo of palm oil, and
proceed to the United States.
The Agenoria was fitted out secretly by
the company, and had cleared out for a whaling voyage.
No doubt whatever exists, and the sequel fully confirms the opinion,
that the conduct observed by the crews of the steamers in attacking
and destroying the town of the natives was highly impolitic and
uncalled for. It is true the natives had commenced the attack, and we
have only to refer to the accounts transmitted to us, of various
travellers on penetrating into the country of a savage people, and
especially a people of the depraved nature of the Africans, with whom
Lander had to deal, that they are generally the first to resort to
force, not so much with the hope of victory, as with the desire of
plunder. In the generality of cases, however, it is to be found that
the hostility on the part of the natives was more easy to be quelled
by a show of forbearance and an inclination to enter into terms of
amity with them, than by an open desire to meet force by force.
Lander was by no means ignorant of the African character, he came not
amongst them as a perfect stranger, and in all his former
transactions with the natives, he had invariably found that he
ultimately obtained their good will by a show of forbearance and
lenity, more than by a determined spirit of resistance and reprisal.
In no instance was this principle more completely verified than in
the travels of Major Denham, in which in several instances, had he
not maintained a complete control over his temper, on the insults and
affronts offered to him by the natives, the consequences, would
doubtless have been fatal to him, and although the natives were, in
the case of Lander, undoubtedly the aggressors, yet had a temper of
conciliation been manifested towards them, that spirit of hatred and
of vengeance would not have been awakened in their breasts, which led
to a most fatal catastrophe, and to the death of one of the most
enterprising travellers, who ever attempted to explore the interior
of Africa.
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