Richard and John Lander. Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger. London: 1832. ...

Description

Richard and John Lander. Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger. With a Narrative of a Voyage down that River to its Termination. London: John Murray, 1832. First edition. Three volumes. Small octavo. lxiv, 272; [viii], 321, [3]; [viii], 354, [2] pages. Seven engraved plates and two maps (one of which is folding); in-text illustrations. Original publisher's cloth, stamped in black, part of The Family Library series, Nos. XXVIII-XXX. Edges rough-trimmed. Volumes housed together in custom cloth slipcase. Bindings toned, particularly at backstrips; some bumping at edges; spine ends pushed; a few spots of foxing, soiling. Slight toning, dust-soiling to edges of text blocks. Very occasional thumbing, foxing to interiors of text block. Ownership signatures to front board of first volume, front pastedown of second. By and large a clean, bright, sound copy. Near fine interior in a very good binding. With letter from Richard Landers tipped to front pastedown, introducing John Laird (brother of Macgregor Laird) to one "Capt. Beaufort R N" and requesting that he introduce Laird to Lieutenant William Allen. 

Richard and John Lander, brothers from Cornwall, "left England in January 1830 to explore the course and outlet of the River Niger. The journey... established that the river flowed into the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic coast, disproving theories... that it flowed into Lake Chad.... The discovery made by [the brothers] was a significant step in geographical discovery in Africa and also opened up the Niger, seen as the highway into central Africa, to trade, settlement, and ultimately to Nigeria's becoming a British protectorate"--DNB.