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Updated: June 28, 2025
Briggs, the medical officer attached to the expedition, had died in February; and only three or four of the original crew of the vessel survived. We shall now follow Mr. Oldfield's narrative. As Mr. Laird was on his return to Fernando Po, he passed the Alburkah, with Messrs. Lander and Oldfield on board, on their way to Boussa.
He made a second attempt in 1805, hoping by sailing down the Niger to prove its identity with the river known at its mouth as the Congo; but he was forced to return, and died at Boussa, without having determined the remaining course of the Niger.
Great was their surprise at finding that town on the mainland, and not, as Clapperton had said, on an island in the Niger. They entered Boussa by the western gate, and were almost immediately introduced to the presence of the king and of the midiki or queen, who told them that they had both that very morning shed tears over the fate of Clapperton.
The governor soon became alarmed, declaring that, as the lady had a thousand slaves and enormous wealth, she would very likely drive him from the country, and, should the traveller accept her hand, raise him to the throne of Waiva. In the hopes of ending the matter, Clapperton set off for the Niger, leaving his baggage to follow him to the ferry of Comie, while he went round by Boussa.
The Niger affords a channel of communication with the most fertile, most industrious, and most improved regions of interior Africa. Its navigation is very easy and safe, unless at intervals between Boussa and Youri, and between Patashie and Lever, and even there it becomes practicable during the malca or flood, produced by the periodical rains.
Bleak, rugged rocks rose abruptly from the centre of the stream, causing strong ripples and eddies on its surface. It is said that, a few miles above Boussa, the river is divided into three branches by two small, fertile islands, and that it flows from hence in one continued stream to Funda. The Niger here, in its widest part, is not more than a stone's-throw across at present.
The accuracy of his account of the spot where the melancholy catastrophe took place is acknowledged by Captain Clapperton, who, in 1826, visited Boussa.
Kiama, Wawa, Niki, and Boussa are provinces composing the kingdom of Borgoo, all subject, in a certain sense, to the sovereign of Boussa; but the different cities plunder and make war on each other, without the slightest regard to the supreme authority.
On Clapperton waiting on the sultan of Boussa, he was as usual very kindly received; his first inquiry was concerning some white men, who were lost in the river, some twenty years ago, near this place. The sultan appeared rather uneasy at these inquiries, and it was observed that he stammered in his speech.
Some unpleasant suspicions floating on the mind of Clapperton, he took the first opportunity of returning to the subject, and on again inquiring about the papers of his unfortunate countryman, the sultan said, that the late iman, a Fellata, had had possession of all the books and papers, and that he had fled from Boussa some time since.
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