the sea. They never reached the sea. The
fate of Park was like the fate of Franklin—
a long mystery. After five years, a man,
Isaaco, who had been Park's guide through
one part of his travels, and had brought the
last news from him to the Gambia, was sent
to obtain tidings, if he could. Isaaco found
the native who had served as pilot to the
Joliba, and learned from him that the
Europeans had been checked at Bussah, by
the rapids, and had been shot at while among
the rocks, by order of the king, with bows
and arrows. This account was confirmed by
the admission of the king, to Clapperton and
Lander. His Majesty deplored the accident,
declaring that he had mistaken the party for
Felatahs—an extremely lame excuse, as the
incursions of the Felatahs are not made in
boats. Quite a new version of the death of
Park, however, is derived from a recent
traveller, Mr. Duncan, who, on his road to
the Kong mountains, under a friendly escort
from the King of Dahomey, broke from his
friends, to dart aside into a chase after a good
Mussulman, and worthy merchant, who was
said to have been present at the death of
Park. This person, Terasso-wea, a man of
note in his own country, was present as a
young mallam (priest) at the tumult, and
beheld the death of Park, which he describes
in so circumstantial a manner, as to leave no
doubt that he relates a real scene. It may
have been the calamity of other white men.
"Park," says Terasso-wea, "was killed at
Yauri, higher up than Bussah, which he
never reached. His pilot, a native of Yauri,
was set ashore there, with his wages paid;
but he complained before the king that he
had been defrauded. Park was stopped and
questioned, but refused to answer. The King
of Yauri was a tyrant; and recently the populace
was in Park's favour. There was a mob
about the boat. Park and his party endeavoured
to escape. The boat was held. A
hand that held it was cut off. There followed
an affray; and so Park perished."

The Niger was now partly traced. In 1811,
Captain Tuckey was sent up the Congo River,
with a hope it might prove to be the Niger,
and another expedition followed on the trace
of Park, to descend the Niger, and perhaps
meet Capt. Tuckey. Both expeditions failed
of their design, and many lives were lost.

Other attempts at exploration followed,
failures all.

Clapperton, Oudney, and Denham, in 1822,
crossed the Sahara from Tripoli, discovering
the Kingdom of Bornou and Lake Chad.
Clapperton, through Soudan, came to Socatoo,
a capital of the Felatah country, and there
heard that he was near the Niger.

In 1825, Clapperton, with Captain Pearce
and two other gentlemen, left Badagry for
Socatoo. All died upon the way, excepting
Clapperton and his servant, Richard Lander.
These arrived at Bussah, where they confirmed
the account of the death of Park, crossed the
Niger, and reached Socatoo. There Clapperton
died, possibly poisoned. Lander returned
alone, bringing his master's papers.

Major Laing, at the same time, reached
Timbuctoo, across the Desert, the first
European who had done so. He was
murdered by the Arabs in returning, and his
papers have not been recovered. M. Caillié,
a Frenchman, also reached Timbuctoo, and
we possess his narrative.

Richard Lander next offered to trace the
River Niger down from Bussah. Furnished
with means by Government, he started, with
his brother John, from Badagry, reached
Bussah, and embarked there with four
negroes in an open canoe, protected by
umbrellas from the sun. They passed the spot
at which the Chadda pours into the Niger a
broad stream; at Kiri market they were
made prisoners by Ibu traders, and taken
before King Obi, from whom they were
ransomed by King Boy, of Brasstown, near
the outlet of the Niger. This fortunate
captivity procured for them a safe conveyance
down the last part of the river, and prevented
them from floating out in their canoe, helpless,
into the broad Atlantic, through the selection
of an unfrequented outlet. Thus, as Park
was the first who saw the Niger, so Lander
was the first who traced it to the sea.

Tidings of ivory brought home by the two
Landers induced merchants of Liverpool to
fit out a trading expedition. One brig, to
wait at the mouth of the river, and two
steamers to ascend and return with cargo (the
Quorra and Alburkah), went out, in 1832,
under the superintendence of Messrs. M'Gregor
Laird and Richard Lander. Arriving late,
they ascended the river in the season when
its flood was falling, and when they reached
the confluence of the Chadda, one vessel
grounded, and remained fast till the next
year's rising of the water. Of forty-seven
officers and men, all perished but eight. Mr.
Laird, half dead and wholly disappointed,
went home in the brig. Lander persevered:
Lieutenant, now Captain Allen, who had been
sent by the Admiralty with this expedition, for
the purpose of making surveys, mapped the
Niger up to Rabba, and explored eighty miles
upon the Chadda also. Lander fitted out the
Alburkah at Fernando Po, to make a fresh
ascent, and sent it up the Niger, under Mr.
Oldfield, the surviving surgeon, presently
following himself, in a canoe, with an
additional supply of goods. These he exposed on
a sand bank in the Delta. He was attacked
by the natives, fled down the river, and
reached Fernando Po with a wound from a
musket-ball in the upper portion of his thigh,
of which, in a few days, he died. Mr. Oldfield
abandoned the river, and the two steamers
rot upon the beach at Fernando Po.

Mr. Becroft, an African trading captain,
afterwards ascended the river to the distance
of fifty miles beyond Rabba.

In 1841, Government sent out the Niger