lo8 REAR-ADMIRAL F. W. BEECHEY'S ADDRESS. [May 2G, 185G. 



was made, but a change in the Cabinet caused delay ; and in the 

 mean time the arrival of Dr. Barth on the banks of the Upper 

 Chadda, directed attention to that branch of the Niger, and turned 

 the proposed course of the Expedition towards it. The plan re- 

 ceived the warmest encouragement from Lord Clarendon, but the 

 favourable season being past, it was necessar}'- to defer proceedings 

 till the ensuing year. These circumstances were also laid before 

 the Society in the Presidential Address for 1853. In 1854 the 

 Expedition started, and- it was intended that the veteran African 

 explorer, our late member, Mr. Consul Bee croft, then residing at 

 Fernando Po, should take the command ; but his lamented decease 

 having occurred a few days before the arrival of the party from 

 England, the command devolved upon Dr. Baikie, with whom Mr. 

 May, of her Majesty's ship ' Crane,' was associated as surveyor, 

 through the kindness of Captain Miller, r.n., f.r.g.s., then chief 

 of^cer on the station. 



I have felt it to be due to the persevering efforts of this Society 

 in promoting this Expedition, and to the individuals whose names 

 are so honourably connected with it, to insert in some detail these 

 facts connected with its origin ; of which, I am sure, Dr. Baikie 

 will acknowledge the justice and propriety. 



The spirit of adventure is again revived : Dr. Baikie, the suc- 

 cessful explorer of the Chadda, has offered his services to con- 

 duct an expedition up the Niger, and, leaving a trading party at 

 Kabba, to pursue his route thence by land to Sokatu, the residence 

 of the Sultan, whose influence is said to bp so great, that could it 

 only be obtained, an impulse would be given to commerce, and 

 slavery would be annihilated. 



A communication from Governor O'Connor, describing a visit to 

 the Island of Bulama, in the Bisagos gi'oup, and a voyage up the river 

 Casamance, informs us of the present condition of those places, and 

 the state of the settlements there. 



Captain Skene, r.n., of the ' Philomel,' is about to return from the 

 West Coast, where he has ascended the Bonny, the Congo, and the 

 river of Lagos, and from whose journals we may expect some in- 

 teresting infonnation. 



We learn tliat Commander Lynch, of the United States Navy, has 

 examined a large part of the coast of Liberia, and several of its 

 rivers, as a preliminary to an exploration of the interior. Sickness, 

 however, obliged him to discontinue his labours.* 



* Of the death of Dr. Schonlein, at Cape Palmas, mention has already been 



