may say, that every British life which has fallen, as well as every farthing of British treasure which has been expended, throughout the long years of a struggle unparalleled in the annals of the world, has directly ministered to this glorious consummation. We are well aware that in expressing ourselves so strongly in reference to the recent treaty, we run the risk of being classed amongst those who are charged with "indulging in anticipations too sanguine for the facts of the case to justify." We are not however of this opinion. On the contrary we think it scarcely possible that our hopes and expectations can be raised too high. For let us for an instant consider what this decisive measure may fairly and reasonably be expected to accomplish. First. The abolition of the Slave Trade, as far as making the crime capital can abolish it, in the case of the Five Contracting Nations. Secondly. The strengthening of the hands of England in her zealous efforts, either now making or hereafter to be made, for its suppression on the seas. Thirdly. The assurance to the rest of the world that their encouragement of, or connivance at, its continuance, shall henceforth be marked with the very strongest reprobation with which one nation can visit the disgraceful conduct of another, or man denounce against his criminal and degraded brother. Fourthly. The conviction even of the slave dealer himself, (if indeed such a monster be not utterly dead to impressions of the sort,) that Great Britain is now, and has ever been, actuated by no selfish motive of personal aggrandisement in her warfare upon those who wage warfare upon their species, seeing that all the great and good in Continental Europe have done willing homage to her virtue and disinterestedness, by joining themselves with her in one noble bond of Christian brotherhood, against the common enemies of mankind. And, lastly, though assuredly not least, the encouragement of every friend of humanity to redoubled efforts in the cause of universal freedom; just as the traveller, having gained the summit of some toilsome hill, whilst he looks back, and counts over the difficulties already vanquished, derives from the pleasing contemplation fresh vigour to pursue the remainder of his journey Dreary and darksome was the past; yet lo! Such are the considerations which lead us to rejoice in the execution of this noble Treaty. As we cannot distrust the motives of unmixed benevolence in which the measure has originated, so neither is it permitted us to doubt of its incalculable importance in the final and universal settlement of the Slave Trade question*. *We must crave permission to add a word or two more; which, however, to avoid breaking the continuity of our argument, we throw into the form of a note. Have we not reason to see, in the Treaty just concluded, a pledge, more than usually satisfactory, of the preservation of general peace? That every fresh bond of connexion, formed between countries possessing distinct and separate interests, must minister, in its degree, to so desirable an end, is sufficiently clear. But is it less so, that the strongest of all possible ties is that by which the contracting parties bind themselves to the promotion of some object of known and acknowledged benevolence ?" The work of righteousness is peace." LATEST ACCOUNTS FROM THE NIGER EXPEDITION. operations lies before us, and I am persuaded that there is only one feeling amongst us,-that all are animated with a desire to move forward!" The ships were regularly ventilated, and or rain awnings constantly stretched. Up to this period there had been seven deaths,-four from casualties during the sun from fever. Of these last, one was a voyage*, one from apoplexy, and two VARIOUS statements, more or less trust-worthy, having appeared in the public prints regarding the Expedition to the Niger, a general desire may be presumed to have arisen for the most accurate account, drawn from the most authentic sources, of the actual condition and progress of this important enter-coloured man, and the other an Europrise up to the date of the last advices. From the intelligence thus far received, and which extends in part to the 10th of October, the following facts may be gathered. H.M.S. Albert, Wilberforce, and Soudan, with the Harriot transport, and Amelia tender, after a favourable though somewhat tedious voyage, arrived at the entrance of the Nun, on the 9th and 10th of August. On the 15th, after taking out the necessary stores, coals, &c., they parted with the Harriot, which proceeded to Fernando Po. In unloading the transport, they were detained a considerable time, owing to the heavy rolling of the vessels in the swell outside the bar. A further detention arose when they had crossed the bar, from the necessity of refitting the tails of the rudders, which had been carried away during the passage from Cape Coast, and without which the vessels were almost unmanageable. They were fortunate enough to find a good beach, with a sufficient rise and fall of tide, but the unfavourable state of the weather and the strength of the tide prevented them from beaching the Wilberforce till the 18th, so that her repairs could not be completed till the morning of the 20th. This necessary delay does not, how ever, seem to have proved injurious to the general health of the crews. They enjoyed a wholesome sea-breeze nearly the whole of the twenty-four hours, and every precaution was used to preserve the men from illness, especially by taking extreme care that they constantly changed their wet clothes, and by employing every proper means to keep up their spirits. In this they seem to have succeeded, as we learn from the various letters which have been received. "The field of our intended One says, pean, Mr. J. W. Bach, mathematical Their fever was not African, but of a instrument maker to the Expedition. low typhoid kind, and, in the latter case, supervening upon a constitution previously debilitated. The first case Indian negro, at the mouth of the Nun, but he soon got well again. The other cases (chiefly on board the Wilberforce) were of a mild character, and almost entirely confined to the coloured men, and before they reached Eboe there was no sickness whatever in any of the vessels. of African fever occurred with a West Under these favourable auspices they commenced the ascent of the river on the 20th of August. (This has been erroneously stated as beginning on the 13th, when the Albert first crossed the bar.) Their progress was necessarily slow, as they can only make six miles an hour the current runs about three; and they under ordinary circumstances, whilst the Wilberforce, which had been diwere delayed still further by looking for rected to examine a different channel, and had thus got ahead of the others. As Captain Trotter was fearful that she might have got entangled among shoals, the 22nd (Sunday) was partly spent in had taken, but they did not rejoin each endeavouring to ascertain the course she other till they arrived at Eboe on the 26th. This deviation was, however, the means of discovering a new channel of the river, with numerous villages, and a larger population than had yet been seen. Up to this point, (120 miles from the mouth,) the crews appear to have been wholly unaffected by the climate, which *In The Friend of Africa, No. 14, the number of casualties is incorrectly stated as three. was found, indeed, to be "cool and agree- | able, without much rain or sunshine." The medicator was used throughout the passage through the Delta, and, it was thought, with beneficial results. The constitutions predisposed to disease appear, however, to have been silently imbibing its seeds, and on their arrival (Sept. 3rd) at Iddah, (100 miles fur ther up,) remittent fever made its appearance. Whilst there, the Albert buried one man, and had several dangerously ill, and the other vessels were similarly afflicted. From this place to the Confluence (about fifty miles) the sickness continued to increase, as the following table will evince: LIST OF THE SICK ON BOARD THE EXPEDITION, FROM SEPTEMBER 3—17, 1841. Note.-The Officer who died at this period was Mr. Nightingale, one of the Assistant-Surgeons of the Albert. In consequence of this very serious attack, and their inability to examine the higher grounds for a healthy station, Captain Trotter deemed it advisable to send the sick to the seaside; forty-three of the forty-nine remaining cases were accordingly embarked in the Soudan, on the 19th of September. They reached the mouth of the Nun on the evening of the 21st, having run down with the current in little more than two days and a half. On the way they lost Mr. W. B. Marshall, surgeon of the Soudan, and one of her men. Both these cases had been pronounced incurable before they left, and were sent to the sea as a last (Mr. Waters, clerk in charge of the Soudan, and Mr. Woolf, seaman's schoolmaster,) who were not expected to survive, and the Dolphin immediately sailed for Ascension. Ere she arrived at the island of Annabon, seven days after leaving the Nun, eight of the invalids had expired. In the other cases, a sudden and most favourable change took place, which the fresh meat and fruits happily confirmed; and when they arrived at Ascension, (Oct. 10th,) all were restored to health. Two of the officers have since returned to England, (Lieut. Harston of the Albert, and Mr. Belam, master of the Soudan,) accompanied by Assistant-surgeon Stirling, who came in charge of the invalids, and who has again sailed for the Niger. The accompanying table shows the entire amount of mortality from the first setting out of the Expedition, and the number of whites who have died of African fever: LIST OF DEATHS IN EXPEDITION, FROM MAY 12TH TO SEPTEMBER 29TH, 1841. It appears, then, that of the entire number of white officers and men oneeighth have perished by this peculiar disease, of the officers, one-seventeenth and of the men about one-sixth. The scientific men attached to the Expedition have suffered but slightly from illness of any kind. This loss is certainly much less than that of former Expeditions to Africa. Park's whole retinue was almost annihilated ere he himself fell by the hand of violence. Captain Tuckey, in 1816, died with nearly one-half of his officers and crew, and all the scientific men, with a single exception. Captain Owen lost nearly two-thirds of his officers and a proportionate number of seamen and marines, whilst Laird, by the time he had arrived at the Confluence, had buried half his white crew, and more than half his officers*. Nor should we overlook the annual loss of life on board our various cruisers on the African coast, which such an Expedition is directly intended to obviate, and which, if the whole body were to perish at once, it would by no means equal. It is most probable, however, that we have heard the most alarming of the news, and that the worst is really past. The climate at the Confluence is represented as salubrious, the ground elevated and dry, and the senior medical officer Tuckey ascended the Congo in July; Laird the Nun in October. was of opinion, that moving higher up the river would prevent the spread of fever. Captain Trotter, in a letter dated September 19th, immediately before the departure of the Soudan, states that the disease had been going on "till within these two days," (viz., to the date of the last Report up the river, September 17th,) from which we may infer that no new case had subsequently occurred. This is strengthened by his expression, "I do believe through the mercy of God we have got over the crisis." 66 I In this opinion Mr. Laird fully concurs. In a letter to the Spectator, (December 18th,) he gives his reasons for "considering that there is little, if any, occasion for despondency as to the fate of these brave and enterprising men." After drawing a comparison between his own loss and theirs within the same period of time, he observes, think the fair and legitimate inference is, that the seeds of the fever in both cases were imbibed in the swamps by all predisposed to take them; that they remained dormant for a certain number of days, and then broke out simultaneously; that, either owing to the season of the year being more favourable, to the precautions adopted, or to both, the number of men who were predisposed to the fever was much fewer in the one case than the other; that the fever itself was much less malignant, as the ratio of mortality shows; and that those who escaped are not likely to be attacked without returning to the swampy country and being again exposed to the malaria, which, as they have passed through it once unscathed, there is the more hope that they may do again. "Without, therefore, wishing to create the impression that the crews of the Albert and Wilberforce are perfectly safe, I think there exists less cause for alarm now than formerly. They have passed through their greatest danger with much less loss than any reasonable man could have anticipated; for it surely was never expected that they alone should be allowed to pass untouched through that ordeal under which so many brave men had fallen." With these views Colonel Nicolls entirely agrees, and it would be difficult to cite two higher authorities. Of the peculiar character of this fever or its probable causes we have as yet no means of speaking with precision, the active and unceasing duties of the medical officers having prevented them from arranging their observations, or presenting their deductions in any consistent form. The feelings of the commanders under all the circumstances, may be best learned from their own language. One of them writes thus, (dated September 19) "Although I have only a few minutes, I will occupy them in writing a few hurried lines, if it be only to assure you and the rest of our anxious friends in England, that, although it has pleased the Almighty to lay his hand upon us with the chastisement of sickness, yet there are still many spared to try farther; that far from looking back we are still trusting that He who, we know, always heareth prayer, is yet saying to us, Go forward. God has been pleased hitherto to spare all the Commissioners. The absence of one vessel I do not consider of any importance; it will have the advantage of giving us a farther knowledge of the River." Amidst these scenes of sickness and suffering, it is consolatory to find that not only have all the bodily wants of the various individuals composing the Expedition been strictly attended to, but that their souls also have been refreshed with the soothing balms of religion, and due homage offered to that merciful Creator, in whose hand are the issues of life and death. Previously to commencing the ascent of the river, Captain Trotter issued an official order for public prayer in the different ships, recommending also that it should be occasionally resorted to during the passage, and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered to as many of the officers and men as desired to receive it. This tone has been preserved throughout, although religious duties have never been allowed needlessly to encroach on the measures necessary for the preservation of life and health. At home, their earnest request for "the prayers of their friends" has been heard and responded to, and numberless petitions have ascended from the various places of worship throughout the kingdom for the safety and welfare of the Niger Expedition. We turn next to the consideration of the progress which they have been enabled to make in fulfilling the objects of their mission. The successful blockade of the Bights, by which every slaver has been driven from the outlets of the Niger, has been so far serviceable that the chiefs in the interior had begun to feel the want of a traffic which might take the place of the Slave Trade. The Commissioners were accordingly readily received by the two most powerful chiefs below the Confluence, Obi of Eboe, and the Attah (king) of Iddah. On the 26th of August, King Obi, (of whose deportment Captain Trotter speaks as highly as formerly did Mr. Laird,) came on board, and had the Treaty (for the total abolition of the Slave Trade and suppression of human sacrifices) explained to him, which he proved that he thoroughly understood by the pertinent questions which he asked. On the Commissioners assembling together in the cabin of the Albert, (into which he came unattended,) he was told that they were about to pray for a blessing on both parties, and that he might join or not as he liked. He knelt down with them, but rose at the conclusion of the prayer, suffused with perspiration, and calling in great agitation for his |