"For the performance of this service, you are furnished with all the articles which you have required for your personal convenience during your journey, together with a sum of two hundred dollars in coin; and in case, upon your arrival at Badagry, you should find it absolutely necessary to provide yourself with a further supply of dollars, you will be at liberty to draw upon this department for any sum not exceeding three hundred dollars.
"During the ensuing year, the sum of one hundred pounds will be paid to your wife in quarterly payments; and upon your return, a gratuity of one hundred pounds will be paid to yourself.
"All the papers and observations, which you shall bring back with you, are to be delivered by you at this office; and you will be entitled to receive any pecuniary consideration which may be obtained from the publication of the account of your journey. "I am, Sir, &c. &c.
(Signed) "R. W. HAY."
"To Mr. Richard Lander."
In pursuance of these instructions, Richard Lander and his brother embarked at Portsmouth, on the 9th January 1830, in the brig Alert, for Cape Coast Castle, where they arrived on the 22nd of the following month, after a boisterous and unpleasant passage. Here they were fortunate enough to engage old Pascoe and his wife, with Jowdie, who had been employed on the last expedition, with Ibrahim and Mina, two Bornou men, who were well acquainted with English manners, and could converse in the Houssa language. These individuals promised to be very useful on the expedition, more especially old Pascoe, whose merits as an interpreter were unquestionable.
After remaining at Cape Coast Castle eight days, they accompanied Mr. M'Lean, the president of the council at that place, on a visit to Mr. Hutchinson, commandant at Anamaboo, about nine miles distant from Cape Coast. Mr. Hutchinson lived in his castle, like an English baron in the feudal times, untinctured, however, by barbarism or ignorance; for the polished, refinements of life have insinuated themselves into his dwelling, though it is entirely surrounded by savages, and though the charming sound of a lady's voice is seldom or never heard in his lonely hall. His silken banner, his turreted castle, his devoted vassals, his hospitality, and even his very solitariness, all conspired to recall to the mind the manners and way of life of an old English baron, in one of the most interesting periods of our history, whilst the highly chivalrous and romantic spirit of the gentleman alluded to, was strictly in unison with the impression. Mr. Hutchinson had resided a number of years on the coast, and was one of the few individuals, who had visited the capital of Ashantee, in which he resided eight months, and obtained a better acquaintance with the manners, customs, and pursuits of that warlike, enterprising, and original nation, than any other European whatever. In the Ashantee war he took a very active part, and rendered important and valuable services to the cause he so warmly espoused.
They resided at the fort till the 4th March, and then sailed in the
Alert for Accra, where they expected to find a vessel to take them to
Badagry, in the Bight of Benin, agreeably to their instructions.
In two days they arrived opposite the British fort at Accra, and, after staying there a week, they embarked on board the Clinker, Lieutenant Matson, commander; and having sailed direct for Badagry, they dropped anchor in the roadstead in the front of that town on the 19th. From the commander of the Clinker they received a young man of colour, named Antonio, son to the chief of Bonny, who eagerly embraced the opportunity of proceeding with them into the interior, being impressed with the notion that he should be enabled to reach his home and country by means of the Great River, or Niger.
In the earlier part of the afternoon of the 22nd March, they sailed towards the beach in one of the brig's boats, and having been taken into a canoe that was waiting at the edge of the breakers to receive them, they were plied over a tremendous surf, and flung with violence on the burning sands.