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. BY RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER. IN THREE VOLUMES. ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS.; 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, Albemarle-Street, 1833. Second edition. Leather-bound. Good Plus. 3 volumes. 12mo. 6 1/4 in. x 4 1/4 in. Three-quarter bound over blue stone marbled boards. Mild wear to extremities. Recent leather touchup repair to top left of each volume's front board, and extremities. Rebacked with original spine Attractive red Morocco spine labels, ruled in gilt with gilt lettering "Family Library" and "Journal of the Niger." Double ruled gilt compartments with gilt scrollwork and floral motif on spine. Matching blue stone marbled pastedowns and free endpapers. Gilt-top edge. Bindings tight but sound.

Vol 1: [4], lxiv, [2] 272. Includes half-title, frontispiece portrait of Richard Lander, 2 maps ("The Quorra, Sengal, and Gambia Rivers" and foldout map "The Course of the Quorra, The Joliba or Niger". In text illustrations pp. 227 and 228. Mispagination 173 as 17; Vol 2: [1] vii, [1], 321, [1]. No half-title. Includes frontispiece portrait of John Lander, 3 plates ("The Fetish at Patashie," "Mouffie Canoe," and "Mount Kesey") and in text illustrations pp. 87, 91, 93. Vol 3: [1], vii, [1], 354. Includes half-title, 2 plates ("Eboe Canoe" and "Banks of the Quorral," and in text illustrations pp. 3, 4, 106. 2 maps and 5 plates total. Internal pages very clean. Richard Lander (1804-1834) accompanied Clapperton on an expedition to Western Africa in 1825. Clapperton died in 1827 in present-day Nigeria, leaving Lander as the only surviving European member of the expedition. He proceeded southeast and then returned to Britain in 1828. Lander set out on another expedition to West Africa in 1830, accompanied by his brother John. After exploring the River Niger, they explored the River Benue and the Niger Delta. In 1832, Lander returned to Africa as leader of an expedition to found a trading settlement at the junction of the Niger and Benue rivers. Many died from fever and Lander was fatally wounded by a musket ball in his thigh. The Lander brothers were hailed by contemporaries for discovering that the Niger flowed into the Atlantic, "since it opened up the whole of central Africa to commerce and ultimately settlement." (ODNB).