Through unknown Nigeria

by John R. Raphael

This broad river is not so easy for navigation as it looks, for there are plenty of shallows and submerged islands where our little craft might easily run aground. “Cappy,” therefore, does not take a direct line, but frequently has the boat in a diagonal course, as though he were tacking against the wind, giving directions by a slight move of the hand to the sailor at the wheel.

Although no stop was made on the journey down, it was quite dark half-an-hour before arriving at Lokoja, where Mr A. Coombe, also a fellow-passenger on the voyage from England and District Agent of the Niger Company, was waiting on the beach with a lamp to guide “Cappy” to his moorings alongside the bank.

Lokoja has a past. Not in the sense applied to Mrs Ebbsmith, but in the place it has occupied in the record of West African exploration. The story, even given briefly, may convey some notion of the climatic deterrents on the one hand and, on the other, how the British outlook on colonial expansion has changed—completely reversed—and how that policy was, it may be said, almost involuntarily effected.

I do not propose, at least here, to take a literary jaunt along the 2,500 years since the Niger River was first mentioned by a writer, the worthy Herodotus. I merely venture to sail lightly over the 82 years that have elapsed since the course of the waterway was discovered by the brothers Lander. That is done by reason of the very important trading position Lokoja occupies and the dominating influence it has had in the political advancement of the country.

The connection of Lokoja to the Niger is as strong as London is to the Thames or Liverpool to the Mersey, though the famous African town does not correspond topographically to either, for it is 337 miles from the sea.

That part of the Niger was unknown to whites until the brothers Lander came down the stream in a canoe from Boussa and, continuing, traced the river to its outlet. Europeans had traded in the delta for hundreds of years but did not suspect it was the same stream Mungo Park and other travellers had struck in the hinterland.

Two men had, however, formed theories concerning the course of the Niger from Boussa. One, Herr Reichard, argued in print, in 1808, that the river took the line which was to a large extent eventually proved, but he did not indicate accurately how it was disposed at the mouth. The other, James McQueen, issued in 1816 a small publication in which he traced the direction of the Niger to the sea; five years later he elaborated his views in a volume, illustrating them by maps. As McQueen—a merchant of the West Indies—had never been in Africa, his conclusion was scorned. Nine years afterwards he heard its accuracy verified, when Richard and John Lander came out at the southernmost arm of the mighty stream.

The news acquired by the Landers in 1830 that the river was navigable from the delta, in 1832 induced two vessels propelled by steam to be fitted out at Liverpool for trading up the river. The expedition was financed and organised by the pioneer of British commerce in this part of Nigeria, McGregor Laird. The vessels together carried a crew of 45, of whom, in a couple of years, the climate killed 36. This heavy mortality shocked people at home, and for some time the country was looked upon as impossible for Europeans.

However, in 1841 another attempt was made, though for a different purpose. Three steamers went out from England, carrying 145 persons. Their object was towards the abolition of slavery solely by peaceful measures. The officers were all drawn from the Royal Navy. The expedition, like the former one, were absent two years, and although the deaths were not so overwhelming in this case, they were appalling: practically 33 per cent., for 49 succumbed. In the main design of the journey nothing was effected. A piece of land was purchased adjoining the river. The intention was to work it as a model farm, using free labour. When the ships turned homewards the plot of ground was abandoned. It was, however, subsequently to be one of the most-talked-of spots in Northern Nigeria. Lokoja stands there.