98 
REPORTS FROM THE NIGER EXPEDITION. [Jan. 11, 1858, 
Extract of Dr. Baikie’s Despatch to the Earl of Clarendon. 
Dated December 12, 1857. 
“ I have much pleasure in recording the proceedings of my own 
party. In a few days I shall expect to see Mr. May on his return 
from Lagos, after having successfully opened and restored the route 
from this to the sea. Lieutenant Glover, with another party, has 
ascended the river from this spot by boat, and having gone some 
distance beyond that reached by the late Mr. Beecroft, and having 
passed the so-called ‘ Iron Gates,’ he at length reached a spot, at a 
Nufi town named Wuru, where, from the very rocky nature of 
the channel and the extreme force and rapidity of the current, all 
passage, either by boat or canoe, was impracticable. There he 
landed on the right bank, in the kingdom of Borgu, and proceeded 
by land by special invitation to the large town of Wawa, where 
were waiting messengers from the important town of Busa, to which 
place he will next direct his steps. I heard from him two days ago, 
reporting his progress and asking for further supplies, his letter 
being dated the 7th inst., a day’s journey from Wawa; and before 
his return, which will probably be towards the end of the month, I 
hope he will have done much towards exploring a rich and little 
known country, and in which he and his people have been most 
kindly received.” 
The President. — The Society will he happy to learn that the Admiralty 
have at once ordered out the Sunbeam, Mr. M. Laird’s new vessel, to proceed 
to the Niger and relieve the expedition. 
Dr. Me William, m.d. — I must express my admiration at the perseverance 
and industry with which Dr. Baikie has so far accomplished his mission. It 
is very much to be regretted that, after getting above Piabba, and escaping 
many difficulties, the vessel was lost. It evidently got upon one of those 
rocks where, about twenty miles farther up, the illustrious traveller Mungo 
Park lost his life. The former expedition by Dr. Baikie, and this expedition, 
redound very much to his honour, and I shall augur very favourably of any 
further effort he may make in the Sunbeam. I know Dr. Baikie well, and I 
have great confidence in his abilities, skill, and zeal. 
The only improvement is the more liberal administration of quinine, which 
may do much, both as regards the prevention and treatment of the African fever ; 
but the main secret in such an enterprise is, I imagine, to employ native 
agency as much as possible, to have a vessel with ample room, to avoid 
crowding Europeans together, and to pass as rapidly as practicable through the 
delta. In the expedition of Captain Trotter, of which I was principal medical 
officer, out of 132 blacks 11 only were attacked by fever, and none died. Those 
attacked had all for some years been in England — a fact tending to show that 
the immunity from endemic disease in warm countries which is enjoyed by 
the dark races is, to a certain extent, destroyed by a temporary residence in 
another climate. Of 108 negroes entered at Sierra Leone not one was 
attacked. 
