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.

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