Trading description, conducted at the entire expense of a body of
Liverpool merchants, that the speculations would be attended with
profitable results, and finally with great advantages to open a trade
between this country and the whole of Western Africa.
The expedition sailed from Liverpool in the month of July, 1822, and
put into Milford, there to wait for orders, and also for Richard
Lander who was expected to join them over land. They were also to
obtain at Milford clean bills of health. On Tuesday the 19th June the
Columbine brig and the Alburkha were towed out to sea by the Quorra,
which vessel returned to Milford to wait the arrival of Lander, and
then to sail immediately for Porto Praga on the African coast, the
place of rendezvous.
From the unfortunate issue of the expedition we are excluded from the
general information, which would otherwise have been obtained, had
Lander survived to communicate the result of his researches on his
return to England. We know that he was bound in honour not to send
public intelligence, except to the owners of the vessels employed,
and therefore all the information that can be gleaned, is from his
private letters to his friends and relatives, and that even would be
necessarily confined to the news of his personal situation.
