So far back as 1808 Dr Reichardt of Weimar had suggested that the Niger reached the Atlantic in the Gulf of Guinea through the Oil rivers. Later, James McQueen, who as a West Indian planter had cross-examined many slaves on the subject of the Niger, not only showed that this river obviously entered the sea in the Bight of Benin, but predicted that this great stream would some day become a highway of British commerce. Somewhat grudgingly, the Government agreed to send Lander and his brother back to Africa, poorly endowed with funds. Not discouraged, however, the Landers arrived at Badagri in March, 1830, and reached the Niger at Busa after an overland journey of three months. Meeting with no opposition from the natives, they paddled down stream for two months in canoes. At length they reached the delta, but there unfortunately fell into the power of a large fleet of Ibo war canoes. By the Ibos they were likely to have been killed but for the remonstrances of some Muhammadan teachers, who, oddly enough, were found with this fleet. Moreover, a native trader of Brass, an Ijō settlement near the coast of the delta, happened to be visiting the Ibo chief, and agreed to ransom the Lander brothers on condition of receiving from them a ‘bill’ agreeing to repay to the ‘king’ of Brass the value of the goods which his son had furnished for their redemption. They reached the sea at the mouth of the Brass river, one of the outlets of the Niger, but not the main stream. An English merchant ship being anchored there, the Landers went delightedly on board, thinking the end of their troubles had come. They asked the captain to honour their bill, the amount of which the Government would repay him. To their amazement he refused, and altogether behaved in such a disgraceful manner that it is a pity his name has not been preserved for infamy. However, they managed on this ship to get a passage across to Fernando Pô, where they landed. The vessel by which they travelled, and the master of which treated them so badly, was afterwards captured by a pirate and never heard of again. It may be mentioned here that Richard Lander ultimately repaid the chief’s son of Brass the whole amount of the goods which he had spent in redeeming the two explorers from the Ibo king’s clutches.