While In The Act Of Making This Dastardly Appeal, A Musket Ball From The Enemy Entered His Mouth, And Killed Him On The Spot.

The others behaved with the greatest coolness and intrepidity.

The fugitives gained on their pursuers, and when they found the chase discontinued altogether, Lander stood up for the last time in the canoe, and being seconded by his remaining associates, he waved his hat, and gave a last cheer in sight of his adversaries. He then became sick and faint from loss of blood, and sank back exhausted in the arms of those who were nearest to him. Rallying shortly afterwards, the nature of his wound was communicated to him by Mr. Moore, a young surgeon from England, who had accompanied him up the river, and whose conduct throughout this disastrous affray was most admirable. The ball could not be extracted, and Lander felt convinced his career would soon be terminated. When the state of excitement to which his feelings had been wrought, gave place to the languor which generally succeeds powerful excitement of any kind, the invalid's wound pained him exceedingly, and for several hours afterwards, he endured with calmness the most intense suffering. From that time he could neither sit up, nor turn on his couch, nor hold a pen, but while he was proceeding down the river in a manner so melancholy, and so very different from the mode in which he was ascending it only the day before, he could not help indulging in various reflections, and he talked much of his wife and children, his friends, his distant home, and his blighted expectations. It was a period of darkness, and distress, and sorrow to him, but his natural cheerfulness soon regained its ascendancy over his mind, and freely forgiving all his enemies, he resigned himself into the hands of his Maker, and derived considerable benefit from the consolations of religion. He arrived with his surviving companions at Fernando Po on the 25th January. It was there found that the ball had entered his hip, and worked its way down to the thick of the thigh. He died on the 2nd February. His clothes and papers were all lost.

"Various conjectures have been urged as to the probable cause of this cold-blooded and heartless attack on Lander and his party. Some persons imagine that the natives had been stimulated to the perpetration of this disgraceful deed by the Portuguese and South American slave dealers, who have considerable influence in the country, and whose interests would unquestionably decline by the introduction into the interior of British subjects and British manufactures. It is, however, generally supposed that the hostility of the natives may be in some degree traced to the shameful and scandalous conduct of some of the Liverpool merchants, who had used their private influence to poison the minds of the natives by attributing particular motives to the travellers, which were at variance with the interests of the country, and subversive of the authority of the chiefs. Nor is this scarcely a matter of doubt, when we peruse the following extract from a letter addressed by John Lander to the editor of the Literary Gazette.

"I cannot close this letter, without apprising you of a fact, which will appear incredible to you. Can you believe me when I assert, on the most unquestionable authority, that there are merchants here (the letter was dated from Liverpool) so heartless and inhuman as to instruct the masters of their vessels who trade to the African coast to refuse any assistance to the expedition of which it may stand in need; to reject all letters that may be sent from the parties connected with it, and, in fine, to hold no communication whatever with the steamers or the brig, does it not startle you, that jealousy and selfishness can go so far? Believe me, I blush at the reflection of a crime so hideous and un-English like as this?" In a postscript, John Lander says, "The fact of the merchants' instructions to the masters of their vessels may be safely depended on. Nothing can be more true. They have gone even farther than I have ventured to hint. They have taken measures to prejudice the minds of the natives against the expedition."

Thus is human life, thus are the interests of science sacrificed on the shrine of a sordid love of gain and pelf. It is true that the merit of the fitting out of the expedition belongs to the enterprising spirit and the liberality of a few Liverpool merchants, but greatly indeed is that merit eclipsed, in a general point of view, when it is considered, that in the same town could be found a set of individuals, who, for the purpose of enabling them to carry on an illegal and infamous traffic, could be the instruments of circumventing the life of an individual, who was nobly employed in the extension of geographical science, and who was perhaps actually laying the foundation of the civilization of the countries through which he might pass, and extending the commercial relations of his country. An indelible stain will it be upon the merchants of Liverpool, who could so far forget that they were Englishmen, as to make a horde of barbarous savages their instruments for the destruction of an expedition by which the general interests of the human race might be promoted, our commercial relations extended, and ultimately, the blessings of Christianity diffused over the dark and unenlightened children of Africa.

As a palliative to the statement of John Lander, and as some relief to the dark picture which we have just exhibited, it must be confessed, that when the circumstances are taken into consideration, which have already been detailed, when Lander first visited the Eboe country, his conduct was not exactly regulated by prudence or policy, in proceeding towards a country, not in the simple guise and unostentatious manner of the solitary traveller, but attended by a force sufficient to excite the fears and jealousy of the native chiefs, and to instil into their suspicious minds the belief, that the travellers, whom they had formerly seen in their country, had returned, equipped with the means of subjugating the country, and reducing the chiefs themselves, perhaps to a state of slavery.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 299 of 302
Words from 305428 to 306481 of 309561