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.

For some reason not properly explained, Richard Lander, returned to Fernando Po on the 1st May from the Quorra steam boat, which he had left afloat in deep water, near the River Tchadda. From her he descended the Niger in a native canoe, and arrived on board the brig Columbine, which was lying in the Nun River, having been 13 days on his passage. During this period he stopped to sleep every night at a native village on the banks of the Niger.

At Fernando Po, Mr. Lander was evidently very ill, though he was rapidly recovering from an attack of the dysentery, with which he had been afflicted for some months. His object in returning alone to Fernando Po, was to procure medicines, as well as tea and other condiments, for the use of the invalids on board the steam boats. The reports of the grievous mortality which had prevailed on board the steamers were confirmed by the arrival of Lander; the number of deaths on board the vessels had indeed been frightfully great; no fewer than twenty-five had perished before Mr. Lander undertook his journey to the coast, including most of the officers and engineers.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 573 of 587
Words from 301811 to 302359 of 309561