a present of some canoes, with people to pilot them up the river.  A few days before their arrival at Eboe, the steamers sent their boats ashore to cut wood.  They were fired upon by the inhabitants of a village, and obliged to return.  The next morning a large number of men were sent armed, these were immediately fired upon by the natives.  The Quorra then sent a signal rocket into the town, and continued firing her long gun at intervals for an hour and a half.  The natives still continuing to fire, the crews of both the steamers landed and drove them out of the town or village, and then burned it to the ground.  Three of the natives were found killed, and one was dying, one or two of the English were slightly wounded.  The news of this engagement reached Eboe before the steamer, and Mr. Lander is of opinion, it will have a salutary effect on the natives up the river, and be the means of preventing any further resistance.  Nine men are said to have died before they left the Nun, and two or three afterwards.  There was also an American merchant brig, the Agenoria, lying in the Nun.  She had been fitted out by a company of merchants of New Providence to explore the Niger.  She had with her two small schooners, which were to proceed up the river, while she remained at the entrance.  Nearly all the white men belonging to these vessels had died, and the remainder appeared in the most wretched state, and they had abandoned all intention of attempting to proceed up the river with the schooners, it being considered impossible to do so with any sailing vessel.  The brig intended to procure a cargo of palm oil, and proceed to the United States.  The Agenoria was fitted out secretly by the company, and had cleared out for a whaling voyage.

No doubt whatever exists, and the sequel fully confirms the opinion, that the conduct observed by the crews of the steamers in attacking and destroying the town of the natives was highly impolitic and uncalled for.  It is true the natives had commenced the attack, and we have only to refer to the accounts transmitted to us, of various travellers on penetrating into the country of a savage people, and especially a people of the depraved nature of the Africans, with whom Lander had to deal, that they are generally the first to resort to force, not so much with the hope of victory, as with the desire of plunder.  In the generality of cases, however, it is to be found that the hostility on the part of the natives was more easy to be quelled by a show of forbearance and an inclination to enter into terms of amity with them, than by an open desire to meet force by force.  Lander was by no means ignorant of the African character, he came not amongst them as a perfect stranger, and in all his former transactions with the natives, he had invariably found that he ultimately obtained their good will by a show of forbearance and lenity, more than by a determined spirit of resistance and reprisal.  In no instance was this principle more completely verified than in