MacGregor Laird - Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa

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CASS LIBRARY OF AFRICAN STUDIES

TRAVELS AND NARRATIVES

No. 68

Editorial Adviser: JOHN RALPH WILLIS
Department of History, University of California, Berkeley

NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION
INTO THE
INTERIOR OF AFRICA

AFRICAN TRAVELS AND NARRATIVES

No. 59. John MLeod

A Voyage to Africa with Some Account of the Manners and Customs of the Dahomian People (1820).
New Impression

No. 60. Captain Hugh Crow

Memoirs of the late Captain Hugh Crow, of Liverpool, comprising a narrative of his life, together with descriptive sketches of the Western Coast of Africa; particularly of Bonny; to which are added, anecdotes and observations, illustrative of the Negro character (1830).

New Impression

No. 61. James Richardson

Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-1851 (1853).

New Impression

No. 62. James Richardson

Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara in the years of 1845 and 1846, Including a Description of the Oases and Cities of Ghet Ghadames and Mourzuk (1848).
New Impression

No. 63. Thomas J. Hutchinson

Impressions of Western Africa with Remarks on the Diseases of the Climate and a Report on the Peculiarities of Trade up the Rivers in the Bight of Biafra (1858).
New Impression

No. 64. Joseph Hawkins

A History of a Voyage to the Coast of Africa, and Travels into the interior of that country, containing particular descriptions of the Climate and Inhabitants, and interesting particulars concerning the Slave Trade (1796; 2nd ed. 1797).
New Impression

No. 65. Henry Jules Blanc

A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia; with Some Account of the late Emperor Theodore, his Country and People (1868).
New Impression

No. 66. Filippo Pigafetta

A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, and of the Surrounding Countries; Drawn out of the Writings and Discourses of the Portuguese, Duarte Lopez (1591).

Translated from the Italian and edited with explanatory notes by Margarite Hutchinson (1881).
New Impression

No. 67. Lyons McLeod

Travels in Eastern Africa; with the Narrative of a residence in Mozambique (1860).
New Impression

NARRATIVE

OF

AN EXPEDITION

INTO THE

INTERIOR OF AFRICA

BY THE RIVER NIGER,

IN THE STEAM-VESSELS QUORRA AND ALBURKAH IN 1832, 1833 AND 1834

BY

MACGREGOR LAIRD AND R. A. K. OLDFIELD

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME I

First published 1971 by Frank Cass and Company Limited

First Edition 1837

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RN

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

First issued in paperback 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

ISBN 13: 978-0-7146-1826-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-01100-7 (pbk)

THE QUORRA AGROUND BELOW THE JUNCTION OF THE SHARY AND NIGER.

NARRATIVE

OF

AN EXPEDITION

INTO THE

INTERIOR OF AFRICA,

BY THE RIVER NIGER,

IN THE STEAM-VESSELS QUORRA AND ALBURKAH, IN 1832, 1833, AND 1834.

BY

MACGREGOR LAIRD AND R. A. K. OLDFIELD,

SURVIVING OFFICERS OF THE EXPEDITION.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

TO THE

MERCHANTS AND PHILANTHROPISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN,

IN the hope that the attempt recorded in these Volumes, to establish a Commercial Intercourse with Central Africa, vi the River Niger, may open new fields of enterprise to the Mercantile world, and of usefulness to those who labour for the amelioration of uncivilized man, the following Narratives are respectfully inscribed by

THE AUTHORS.

PREFACE.

THE following pages detail an attempt to open a direct commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of Central Africa. It is well known that the attempt ended in a complete failure to make that intercourse a profitable one, and was attended with a melancholy loss of life. As far as proving the navigability of the Niger, and the ease and facility with which that mighty stream may be used for the purposes of commerce, it was successful in no ordinary degree, considering the novelty of the undertaking, the complicated nature of a steam-vessel, and the excessive mortality of the crews.

I also hope that it has in some measure dispelled the mystery which has so long enveloped the interior of that interesting country, and that it has proved that any man with common sense and common ability may ascend and descend the main artery of Africa (provided he escapes the effects of the climate) with perfect safety, in moderate sized vessels, from the sea to Boussa.

That my successors in the same field may avoid the errors that were committed, and profit by the experience acquired, is the principal reason why these Narratives are published.

The parties who, I hope, may, and trust will be principally interested, are those who look upon the opening of Central Africa to the enterprise and capital of British merchants as likely to create new and extensive markets for our manufactured goods, and fresh sources whence to draw our supplies; and those who, viewing mankind as one great family, consider it their duty to raise their fellow-creatures from their present degraded, denationalised, and demoralised state, nearer to Him in whose image they were created.

As I consider the happiness of my fellow-creatures ought to be the great end of all enterprise, and as the misery I witnessed made a great impression on my mind, I shall offer no apology for having, in the concluding chapter, stated freely and unreservedly my opinions and sentiments regarding Africa! perhaps their chief value consists in their having been formed upon the spot.

If the publication of these Narratives advances the cause of African civilisation in the slightest degree, I shall consider the money, the time, and the life that has been lost, as in some degree compensated.

Mr. Oldfield having returned to the coast of Africa, his Journal has not had the advantage of his supervision while passing through the press.

MACGREGOR LAIRD.

London, 1st June, 1837.

CONTENTS

OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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