The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-06-14 00:00:00

THE EXPEDITION TO AFRICA.

It. is now many months since the Quorra and Elburka
left this port on a commercial and scientific expedition up
the river Niger, under the direction of Mr. Richard
Lander, whose arduous attempt to trace it to its ter-
mination had shortly before been crowned with success.
About the middle of October, after a prosperous voyage,
the expedition arrived in the Nun river, previous to
which, however, we regret to state that the death of
the commander of the Quorra, Captain Harris, deprived
the travellers of- the advantage of his admirable judg-
ment and ability. He was a naval officer of great ta-
lents.; perseverance and skill, he had spent several years
on that coast in surveying, and being an excellent drafts-
man, was every way qualified to have facilitated the
success of the undertaking. The expedition proceeded to
Brass, which consists of two towns, governed by King
Boy and King Jacket. The former is an old acquaint-
ance of Mr. Lander's, a confinement in his territories
having terminated the list of the misfortunes of himself and
his brother on their previous route. As they were ap-
proaching the close of their toils, they were attacked
and plundered by the Kirree people, and carried to the
King of Eboe, from whom they were purchased by King
Boy, who counted on transferring them at a handsome
profit to the English. In his dominions they did not ex-
perience much harsh treatment, beyond an equal scanti.
ness of civility and food : in some respects this chief
seems not to be without his good qualities. At, one of
his interviews with the King of Eboe, Lander describes
him as being "dressed in a style far superior to any of
his countrymen, and wearing a jacket and waistcoat
over a neat shirt of striped cotton, to which was an-
nexed a silk pocket-handkerchief, which extended below
the knees. Trousers, I believe, are not permitted to
be worn, either by natives, or strangers of the same
hue as themselves, the king alone being an exception to
this rule. Strings of coral and other beads encircled his
neck, and a pretty little crucifix of seed beads hung on his
bosom. He commenced a long narrative of his great-
ness, power, and dignity, in which he excelled all his
neighbours : and to convince me of his veracity, he pro-
duced a pocket-book, containing a great number of re-
commendatory notes, or ' characters,' as a domestic
would call them, written in the English, French, Span-
ish, and Portuguese languages, and which had been
given him by the various European traders who had vi-
sited the Brass river " These testimonials, it seems,
sometimes tell too much, the ignorance of the bearers,
andtheir turn for ostentation, being made the instruments
of revenge for past impositions and roguery. Amongst
the certificates of King Boy was one under the hand of a
Captain Dow,' stating, that he alone deserved his con-
fidence, for he had not abused it, and possessed more ho-
nesty and integrity than either his father or King Jacket.
When the Landers last left the country, they parted on
very ill terms with King Boy; they had given him an
order on an English captain, then in the river, for the
articles stipulated for their ransom ; but, after carrying
them on board the vessel, the demand was refused in a
peremptory and uncourteous manner by the captain, and
King Boy, in a transport of passion and disappointment,
returned in his canoe to escape being carried to sea.

By the news received from the present expedition Boy
appears to have got over his chagrin, and to have vi-
sited the vessels with the most friendly disposition. His
sable Majesty was treated with the greatest kindness and
respect by the officers of the expedition, and on his
part received them with a liberality which augured fa-
vourably for the ulterior objects of the voyage, and in
order' to improve the good understanding thus com-
menced, he was presented with a splendid highland
dress, with cap and feathers, by Mr. Macgregor Laird,
(who, we are glad to hear, was in excellent health and
spirits,) the custom already alluded to forbidding the con-
cealment of his ebony hue beneath the lower parts of the
European costume. This new array seemed to give him
a still greater admiration for his proper self than he even
usually exhibited; he anticked, chuckled, and surveyed
himself in it with as much complacency and delight as a
boy just put into breeches.
The expedition proceeding forward in the prosecution
of its grand object, King Boy volunteered his company,
and took considerable interest in the affair, the idea of
the steamers " walking the waters like things of life,"
putting all his wits to the stretch. The expedition had
succeeded in reaching the Eboe country, and king Oboe
was staying on board the Quorra when king Boy de-
spatched a canoe to Brass, to announce their safe arrival.
Respecting the character of the natives it is said, in Lan-
der's former journal, " The Eboe people, like most Afri-
cans, are extremely indolent, and cultivate yams, Indian
corn, and plantains only. They have abundance of goats
and fowls, but few sheep are to be seen, and no bullocks.
The city, which has no other name than the ' Eboe coun-
country,' is situated on, an open plain : it is immensely
large, contains a vast population, and is the capital of a
kingdom of the same name. It has, for a series of years,
been the principal sea-mart for native traders from time
coast, between the Bonny and Old Calabar rivers ; and
for the production of its palm oil it has obtained equal ce-
lebrity. Hundreds of men from the rivers mentioned
above come up for the purpose of trade, and numbers of
them are at present residing in canoes in front of the
town. Most of the oil purchased by Englishmen at the
Bonny and adjacent rivers is brought from hence, as are
nearly all the slaves which are annually exported from,
those places by the French, Spaniards, and Portuguese."'

We have conversed with two seamen who happened to
be in Brass River at the time the expedition arrived, from
whom we have learned the above particulars. Their in-
formation, it will be seen, completely disproves the re-
ports of various kinds which have been abroad, that the
natives had risen in hostility against it ; one report even
pretendinc, to know the manner in which they had ex-
pressed their alarm, that " devil ship had gone up the
river to set the towns on tire."

Much progress, we hope, will be made during this voy-
age towards establishing a good understanding. with the
respective chiefs. It is to be lamented that the conduct
of individuals trading to the coast has not always been
such as to conciliate the dispositions of the natives, or
gain their confidence in the good intentions of the British
government. Travellers, on the other hand, have been
too much in the power of the despotic princes to give
their professions much weight, or to induce a reciproca-
tion of friendship. Independence is needful to ensure a
proper respect fur friendly offers, and as this will be the
case to a great extent, in the present instance, we hope
the result of the undertaking will be, not only the accom-
plishment of its vastly important mercantile projects, but
also the removal of hostility and suspicion from the minds
of the African chiefs and people.—Licopool Courier.