They came to an extensive morass, intercepted by narrow channels in every direction. Passing through one of these, they got into clear water, and arrived in front of Eboe town. Here they found hundreds of canoes, some of which were much larger than any they had hitherto seen, being furnished with sheds and awnings, and affording habitations to a great number of the people, who constantly reside in them. The travellers say that one of these canoes, hollowed out of a single trunk, may accommodate seventy individuals. The houses of the people of Eboe are of a superior kind, and are constructed of yellow clay plastered over, thatched with palm leaves, and surrounded by plantations. The people are a savage and dissolute race, and the bad expression of their countenances is a true index of their character.
King Obie determined to detain the Landers till he could extort a large sum for their ransom. He demanded the sum of twenty bars (each equal to one slave or a cask of palm oil). The travellers had the prospect of being detained for an indefinite period, had not King Boy of Brass-town, Obie's son-in-law, undertaken to pay the amount, and convey them to the coast, on condition of receiving a guarantee for thirty-five bars, being determined to retain the difference as profit for his trouble. King Boy then went to the mouth of the river with Richard Lander, John being left at Brass-town. The English brig Thomas, commanded by Captain Lake, was then lying at anchor in the Nun, and Richard Lander went on board, in the hope that Lake would advance the sum, which was sure to be repaid by the British Government. He, however, had no sympathy towards his distressed countrymen, and peremptorily refused to grant them any assistance, and King Boy was with difficulty prevailed upon to bring John Lander to the brig, Richard trusting that the hard-hearted captain would by that time relent. Both brothers were now on board, and were employing all the means in their power to induce Lake to consent to the arrangement; but in place of doing so, he set sail, leaving King Boy to exclaim against what he no doubt considered the treachery of the travellers. The British Government, however, afterwards caused King Boy to be paid more than the sum which he had stipulated for.
The Landers suffered much discomfort on board the vessel from the tyrannical and harsh behaviour of Lake; and they encountered a severe storm in crossing the bar of the river Nun. On the 1st of December, they landed at Fernando Po, where they experienced great friendship and hospitality from the British residents. Thence they found a passage home in the Carnarvon, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 10th June 1831.
The great problem of African geography was now solved, and the enterprising travellers met with the praise so justly due to their sagacity, prudence, and fortitude. "For several hundred miles of its lower course, the river was found to form a broad and magnificent expanse, resembling an inland sea. Yet must the Niger yield very considerably to the Missouri and Orellana, those stupendous rivers of the new world. But it appears at least as great as any of those which water the old continents. There can rank with it only the Nile, and the Yang-tse-Kiang, or Great River of China. But the upper course of neither is yet very fully established; and the Nile can compete only in length of course, not in the magnitude of its stream, or the fertility of the regions. There is one feature in which the Niger may defy competition from any river, either of the old or new world. This is the grandeur of its Delta. Along the whole coast, from the river of Formosa or Benin to that of Old Calabar, about 300 miles in length, there open into the Atlantic its successive estuaries, which navigators have scarcely been able to number. Taking its coast as the base of the triangle or Delta, and its vertex at Kirree, about 170 miles inland, we have a space of upwards of 25,000 square miles, equal to the half of England. Had this Delta, like that of the Nile, been subject only to temporary inundations, leaving behind a layer of fertilizing slime, it would have formed the most fruitful region on earth, and might have been almost the granary of a continent. But, unfortunately, the Niger rolls down its waters in such excessive abundance, as to convert the whole into a huge and dreary swamp, covered with dense forests of mangrove, and other trees of spreading and luxuriant foliage. The equatorial sun, with its fiercest rays, cannot penetrate these dark recesses; it only exhales from them pestilential vapours, which render this coast the theatre of more fatal epidemic diseases than any other, even of Western Africa. That human industry will one day level these forests, drain these swamps, and cover this soil with luxuriant harvests, we may confidently anticipate; but many ages must probably elapse before man, in Africa, can achieve such a victory over nature."[29]
[29] Edinburgh Review, vol. 55.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The Steam Voyage of the Quorra and Alburkah.
The peculiar characteristic of British enterprise is in general its practical tendency; wherever a way is opened which promises to afford a competent return for labour and even hazard, the path is pursued; and though the advantage may not be immediately held out, the experiment is nevertheless made. Notwithstanding that the remarkable voyage of which we are about to give some account, failed in effecting the desired end, enough was done to shew the possibility of establishing commercial intercourse between Britain and Interior Africa, when due care and management are employed in the choice of that season of the year when the influence of the climate is comparatively little felt.
Some Liverpool merchants being desirous of opening a trade with the countries on the banks of the Niger, by the exchange of British manufactures for native produce, fitted out two steam boats: one of which, the Quorra, was of 150 tons, and of the ordinary construction; while the other, the Alburkah, was only of 57 tons. The latter vessel was entirely iron-built, with the exception of her decks; her bottom was 1/4 of an inch in thickness, her sides from 3/18 to 1/8 of an inch. She was seventy feet in length, 13 in beam, 6-1/2 in depth, and had an engine of 16-horse power. The great inconvenience apprehended from the vessel was, that from her construction, the crew would suffer much from heat; but so far from this having been the case, the iron, being an universal conductor, kept her constantly at the same temperature with the water. To these vessels was added the Columbine, a sailing brig of 150 tons, which was intended to remain at the mouth of the river, to receive the goods brought down by the steam-boats.
Richard Lander volunteered his valuable services to this expedition,—the last in which he was destined to take part; Messrs. Laird and Oldfield, with a considerable number of Europeans also embarked. They left England about the end of July 1832, and arrived off the Nun on the 19th of October, after having touched at Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, and other settlements, to lay in provisions, and secure the services of some Kroomen.[30]