lived many years in New Zealand, where the name of the English sailor who became a Maori chief, is still remembered with gratitude among the descendants of the Maories of those days.
THE DISCOVERERS OF THE NIGER.
The story of the discovery of the course of the Niger, by Richard and John Lander, has, in many respects, no parallel in the history of exploration. Richard Lander, the faithful servant of Captain Hugh Clapperton, and the sole survivor of the unfortunate expedition of that most patient and enterprising of African travellers, returned to England in 1827, and soon afterwards volunteered his services in continuing those researches which had been so unhappily terminated by the death of Clapperton and his companions. The proposal of the enthusiastic Lander did not meet with any great amount of encouragement. He had, in fact, little but his familiarity with the country and his good constitution to recommend him. A Cornish boy, gifted with no extraordinary talent, he had not the advantage of high birth, or even of a good education. He was entirely destitute of that scientific training which had always been considered indispensable to an explorer setting out under the patronage of Government or of a learned society. He was unable to make astronomical observations, so necessary in determining the position of places, with the accuracy required for the construction of a map.
