LANDER, RICHARD LEMON and JOHN (1807-1839), English explorers of the Niger, were natives of Cornwall, sons of an innkeeper at Truro. At the age of I I Richard went to the West Indies in the service of a merchant. Returning to England after an absence of three years he served various travellers. He was Clapperton's devoted servant and companion on his second expedition to west Africa and on Clapperton's death near Sokoto in April 1827 Richard Lander, after visiting Kano and other parts of the Hausa states, returned to the Guinea coast through Yoruba bringing with him Clapperton's journal. To this on its publication (1829) was added The Journal of Richard Lander from Kano to the Coast, and in the next year Lander pub lished Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa . . . with the subsequent Adventures of the Author. The British government then decided to send him out to determine the course of the lower Niger. He was accompanied by his brother John. The brothers landed at Badagry on the Guinea coast on March 22, 1830, and travelled to Bussa on the right bank of the Niger. Thence they ascended the river for about 100 miles. Going back to Bussa the travellers began, on Sept. 20, the descent of the river, not knowing whither it would lead them.
They journeyed in canoes accompanied by a few negroes, their only scientific instrument a common compass. They discovered the Benue river. At the beginning of the delta they were cap tured by the Ibos, from whom they were ransomed by "King Boy" of Brass Town ; by him they were taken to the Nun mouth of the river, whence a passage was obtained to Fernando Po, reached on Dec. I. The Landers were thus able to lay down with approximate correctness the lower course of the Niger—a matter till then as much in dispute as was the question of the Nile sources. The story of the expedition is told in Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger (3 vols., 1832). Richard went to Africa again as leader of an expedition organized by Macgregor Laird and other Liverpool merchants, and while going up the river in a canoe was attacked by the natives on Jan. 20, 1834, and wounded. He was removed to Fernando Po, where he died on Feb. 6. John Lander died in London on Nov. 16, 1839.
See, besides the books mentioned, the Narrative of the Niger expedi tion of 1832-34, published in 1837 by M. Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield.