The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-28 00:00:00

THE NIGER EXPEDITION

[We had prepared the following brief particulars of this
ill-fated expedition prior to the receipt of the Times of last
night, which contained Captain Trotter's official report; but
as our own account contains several interesting facts not
mentioned by Captain Trotter, we present our readers with
both.l

We are happy to announce the arrival at this port, by the
Warree, last from Cameroons, in the Gulf of Guinea, of
Captain Trotter, commander of the African expedition, toge-
ther with two of his officers, namely, Mr. Stanger, surgeon
of the Albert, and the Rev. Mr. Schon, chaplain. Captain
Trotter set off, a few hours after landing, by railway, for the
metropolis, with a view to lay before the government, with-
out delay, the unfortunate result, up to the period of his leav-
ing the coast, of the efforts of himself and his companions to
explore that portion of Africa bordering on the Quorra. The
Warree, in which these gentlemen returned home, belongs
to our respected townsman, Robert Jamieson, Esq., and they
one and all express, in the strongest terms, their grateful
sense of the great attention and valuable services of her com-
mander, Captain Beecrott, who appears to have had unlimited
instructions from the owner to render every possible assist-
twee to any part of the expedition that might fall within the
sphere of his operations.
We had not an opportunity of seeing Captain Trotter pre-
vious to his departure hence ; but have borrowed the follow-
ing few but instructive particulars from a friend who con-
versed with him, and also from the lips of Dr. Stanger and
Mr. Schou, to whom that gentleman kindly introduced us.
They are valuable, inasmuch as they supply some additional
facts to the latest possible date, and go to correct some inac-
curacies that have appeared.
The furthest interior point reached by the expedition was
Egga, on the Brass river, one of the mouths of the Niger or
Quorra, and which is at no great distance_from the coast.
After disease had broken out in two of the fleet, and its ra-
vages had alarmingly spread, it became necessary for the pre-
, servation of the survivors to return with all possible alacrity
to the sea-board. The Soudan, commanded by Lieutenant
Fishburn, was the first that came down the river, on Sunday,
the 19th September. The Wilberforce sailed on the 21st—
two days afterwards. The Albert proceeded up to Egga on
the same day, and remained until the sth, when she too being
visited by the fatal epidemic, also returned to Fernando Po.
Captain Trotter and all the officers—with the exception
named—being ill, the vessel was taken in charge by Mr.
Nl` William, physican of the fleet, and the management of the
engine was undertaken by Dr. Stanger. Dr. M`William
escaped the disease while in the river, but had a severe at-
tack of it after reaching Fernando Po. He was, however,
convalescent, and has since proceeded to the island of Ascen-
sion.

The Soudan is laid up in ordinark in Clarence Cove, Fer-
nando Po, to await the orders of the admiralty.
The Warree (in which Captain Trotter arrived at this port),
was towed by the Albert out of the Gulf of Guinea, as far
as the Island of St. Thomas, across the equator—which, by
giving him a good oiling, from the land on the north of the
gulf, and which towed to the westward, enabled her with the
prevailing winds of the coantry to make a quick passage
home. The Albert, after parting company with the Warree,
was to return to Fernando Po, and proceed thence to Ascen-
sion, under Lieut. Fishburn, who had acting orders from
Capt. Trotter, head of the expedition. There she was also
to await the decision of the admiralty and the government,
as to the further prosecution or abandonment of the expedi-
tion,—the result of the representations of Capt. Trotter,
whose opinion will doubtless meet with marked attention. _

We may add that the vessels and machinery were all in
excellent order when Captain Trotter left, and, we under-
stand, that they were found completely to answer the pur-
pose for which they were constructed and fitted nu : the un-
fortunate result of the expedition being solely attributable to
the fatality of the climate to most European constitutions.
Dr. Stanger, a tall, portly young gentleman, appears to be
in his accustomed health, having suffered little or nothing
from his sojourn on the coast. The Rev. M. Schon, we
are sorry to say (though he was not affected by the fever),
has lost his accustomed healthy look—though we hope but
for a time—and appears to be somewhat debilitated. Both
gentlemen proceeded yesterday evening by the railway to
Birmingham.