[95] There is a portrait of Richard Lander in the possession of the Royal Geographical Society, painted by W. Brockedon, F.R.S., and it was engraved by C. Turner, A.R.A. [96] The Niger, so Herodotus heard, flowed from the west _eastward_--ἀπὼ ἑσπέρης πρὸς ἥλιον ἀνατέλλοντα [Greek: apô hesperês pros hêlion anatellonta]. Pliny first uses the word Niger or Nigris. He seems to have thought that the _Niger_ and Nile were somehow united; and Claudian seems to have fallen into the same mistake: 'Gèr notissimus amnis Æthiopum, simili mentitus gurgite Nilum.' The French have a notion that the Senegal and the Niger may be connected by a cutting, by which means Timbuctoo might be conveniently approached, and trade opened up with the interior of Africa. [97] On account of his short stature he was generally called by the natives in Africa 'Nasarah Curramee,' or Little Christian. [98] Cowries are small shells, the medium of exchange with the natives: their present value is about one shilling per thousand. [99] The 2nd of February is the date given by S. Tissington as that which was on the monument erected to Lander's memory in the Savoy Chapel by his widow and child. [100] Baikie's 'Niger,' 1854. [101] Namely, in 1832. _THE REV. HENRY MARTYN, B.D._, THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY AND ORIENTAL SCHOLAR. [Illustration: (beginning of chapter vignette.)] _THE REV. HENRY MARTYN, B.D._, THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY AND ORIENTAL SCHOLAR. 'Atque opere in medio defixa reliquit aratra.' 'Hopes have precarious life; They are oft blighted, withered, snapped sheer oft In vigorous youth and turned to rottenness; _But faithfulness can feed on suffering, And know no disappointment_.' _Spanish Gypsy._ Anyone who would write the life of Henry Martyn, must feel that he is about to tread upon holy ground. For, however clearly we may see, on perusing his 'Journals and Letters,'[102] that his introspection was morbidly minute, his temper naturally irritable, and his religious views generally of the gloomiest as well as of an almost impracticable character, yet his ardent zeal, his saint-like devotion, his self-denial, and his deep humility, afford such an example of earnest piety as is rarely to be met with in the annals of the Church, since the days of the Apostles themselves. His very faults were but 'the shadows of his virtues,' and of Henry Martyn it might truly be said that to him--without religion-- 'The pillared firmament was rottenness, And earth's base built on stubble.' How much of this was due to that frequent correlation which, as Mr. Galton points out, frequently exists between an unusually devout disposition and a weak constitution, it would of course be hard to say.