Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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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.
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