INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE GOVERNMENT. 325 
a limited but requisite number of white officers, to com- 
municate with the settlers there, to bring them and 
their property away, if they wished to abandon the 
model farm. One of the Commissioners was directed, 
in Lord Stanley's minute, to accompany the steamer, 
and decide on behalf of the proprietors of that 
establishment, whether it was to be continued or 
not ; and if circumstances were peculiarly favourable, 
especially as to health, &c., he was authorized to pro- 
ceed as far as Rabbah, in order to open a communica- 
tion with that city, but he was not on any account to 
explore the river beyond. 
After the resolution Captain Allen had with great 
difficulty come to, of again tempting the climate of the 
deadly Niger, — after the preparations he had completed, 
the plans he had formed, the length of time he had dwelt 
on them, and the hopes he had of being able, under 
God's providence, to carry them into execution — it was 
not without something like a sense of disappointment 
that he found in one instant all his projects entirely over- 
turned. On the other hand, he could not but feel that 
these wishes were in a manner factitious, being excited 
by long meditation on the subject, and by a desire to 
perform to the utmost tlie duty, which had unfortunately 
devolved on him. He had a severe struggle in his 
mind throughout the night as to whether he should him- 
self undertake the charge pointed out, or give Mr. Cook 
the alternative. In fine, he considered that Lord 
Stanley's minute was not imperative on him ; that the 
