Richard Lander

Richard Lemon Lander

Richard Lemon Lander (born February 8, 1804 in Truro , Cornwall , † February 6, 1834 on Fernando Póo ) was an English explorer of Africa .

He was born in Cornwall, where his father ran an inn called Fighting Cocks . The pub's customers were often seafarers and sailors, whose adventurous tales were probably the reason why Lander went to London at the age of nine to find work as servants for the explorers of the day. He was so successful in this that, at the age of only eleven, he could look back on a long journey around the West Indies .

Lander began his real research work as a servant to the Scottish explorer Hugh Clapperton , whom he accompanied on a trip to West Africa on behalf of John Barrow in 1825 . The aim of the expedition was to explore the course of the Niger , but failed due to numerous illnesses and deaths. Clapperton himself died on April 13, 1827 near Sokoto , Nigeria , and Lander was the only survivor. In July 1828 he returned to England after an arduous journey home.

In the following two years Lander published two works: Journal of Richard Lander from Kano to the Sea Coast and Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa, with the Subsequent Adventures of the Author . In 1830 Lander set out for West Africa again - this time accompanied by his younger brother John . On March 22, 1830, they landed in Badagry , Nigeria , and followed the Niger from Bussa to the Gulf of Guinea , then - following the river - traveled 160 kilometers inland and finally explored the Benue and the Niger Delta . The course of the Niger was finally discovered and the millennia-old myths that had formed about the crescent shape of the river put an end to it. In 1831 the travelers returned to England, where Lander published his Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger . The two brothers were invited to an audience at Windsor Castle by the British King William IV, and a large memorial column was erected in their honor in Truro.

As early as 1832, Lander made another trip to West Africa. This expedition was organized by Macgregor Laird and a number of Liverpool merchants who hoped to make big profits from trading on the Niger and wanted to set up a trading post at the mouth of the Benue. However, the project was made more difficult by the fact that numerous fellow travelers fell ill with fever and died. The group failed to reach Busso and eventually became embroiled in fighting with African tribes, with Richard Lander sustaining a gunshot wound to the thigh . He still managed to reach the coast, but eventually succumbed to his injuries on the island of Fernando Póo (now Bioko ).