Cornish Worthies: Sketches of Some Eminent Cornish Men and Families, Volume 2 (of 2)Tregellas, Walter H. (Walter Hawken)
History
Cornish Worthies: Sketches of Some Eminent Cornish Men and Families, Volume 2 (of 2)
Tregellas, Walter H. (Walter Hawken)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Biography
of the whole population, who accompanied the funeral.
An account of this voyage, which Lander had promised should be his
_last_--though he did not anticipate its _fatal_ termination--was
published by Messrs. Laird and Oldfield, the only surviving officers
of the expedition, in 1835; but I have been obliged to obtain the
foregoing account of the attack at Ingiamma, and the death of Richard
Lander, from other sources. Messrs. Laird and Oldfield's work is
illustrated by another, containing eleven views and maps by Commander
W. Allen, R.N., published by Murray in 1840.
Though the subject of these notes seems to have been in every sense
the life and soul of the expedition, yet, as the French writer Lanoye
tartly pointed out, at the time of his writing poor Lander's grave in
the cemetery of Fernando Po was undistinguished by any monument; nor
do I know whether or not this omission has even yet been rectified.
'A solitary palm tree,' says Baikie,[100] 'marks the spot where this
heroic traveller and most intrepid pioneer of civilization fell;' but
the village itself from which the attack was delivered has, I believe,
been moved about a quarter of a mile farther up the river.
The Royal Geographical Society, however, has not been unmindful of
Lander's claim to a place in the front rank of discoverers, and have
fixed in the Chapel Royal, Savoy, a stained glass memorial window, the
subjects of which are the Transfiguration and the Last Supper, with the
following inscription:
'In memory of Richard Lemon Lander, the discoverer of the source of
the Niger, and the first Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical
Society.[101] He was born at Truro, in 1804, and died in the Island of
Fernando Po in 1834, from wounds inflicted by the natives. This window
is inserted by her Majesty's permission by some of his relations and
friends, and by some of the Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society.'
This was in substitution for the tablet erected in 1834, and destroyed
by the fire of 7th July, 1864.
His native place has not forgotten his fame, as the Doric column
at Truro surmounted by his statue testifies. The plate on the
foundation-stone bore this inscription: 'To honour the enterprise and
sufferings of the brothers Richard and John Lander, natives of this
town, and to commemorate the early fate of Richard, who perished on the
Quorra, Ætat. 30.' And his name has been given to two places on the
Niger. That he did not himself forget his Cornish home is clear from
his having named an island on the river '_Truro_ Island,' and one of
the high hills on its banks, '_Cornwall_ Mountain.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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