ected, as the coadjutor or the principal, and to whose
perseverance and undaunted courage, we are indebted for some of the
most important information respecting the interior of Africa,
particularly in the solution of the great geographical problem of the
termination of the Niger. At the time when Lander was ransomed by
Captain Laing, of the Maria of London, belonging to Messrs. Forster
and Smith, the papers, which he had with him respecting the travels
which he had performed, as the servant of Captain Clapperton, who had
been promoted on his return from his first expedition, were not very
voluminous. In our personal intercourse with him, however, he
unreservedly dictated to us many interesting particulars respecting
his travels, whilst in the service of Captain Clapperton, which are
not to be found in his published narrative, and particularly of the
occurrences which took place at Whidah, in the kingdom of Dahomey, on
their passage through that territory, in fulfilment of the object of
their mission to sultan Bello of Sockatoo.

Although the second expedition of Clapperton is ostensibly published
under his name, yet it is generally known, that but for the
information given by Lander on his return, after the death of Captain
Clapperton, very little would have transpired relative to any
discoveries which had been made, or towards an elucidation of those
geographical and statistical objects, for which the expedition was
undertaken. We are therefore more disposed to award the merit where
it is most particularly due, for although in accordance with the
received notion, that whatever was accomplished in the second
expedition, is to be attributed to Clapperton, yet, from our private
resources, we are enabled not only to supply many deficiencies in the
published accounts of Clapperton's second expedition, gathered from
the oral communication of Lander himself, but also to give a
description of many interesting scenes, which throw a distinct light
upon the character of the natives, their progress towards
civilisation, and the extent of their commercial relations.

It may be remembered that when Clapperton took his leave of the
sultan at Sockatoo, he delivered into his hands a letter for the king
of England, in consequence of several conversations that had passed
between him and Clapperton, touching the establishment of some
commercial relations between England and the central kingdoms of
Africa. In that letter the sultan propo