200 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION 
Several small and wretched villages, half under water, 
and a large town at the foot of a mountain, which 
looked ready to overwhelm it, the name of which the 
travellers could not learn, were passed in succession. 
They met a great number of canoes built like those on 
the Bonny and Calabar Rivers. The crews stared in 
astonishment at the white men, whom they dared not 
address. The low marshy banks of the Niger were now 
gradually exchanged for loftier, richer, and more fertile 
districts. 
On the 25th October, the English found themselves 
opposite the mouth of a large river. It was the Tchadda 
or Binue. After a narrow escape from being swallowed 
up in a whirlpool and crushed against the rocks, Lander, 
having found a suitable spot, showing signs of habita¬ 
tion, determined to land. That this place had been 
visited a little time previously was proved by two 
burnt-out fires with some broken calabashes, fragments 
of earthenware vessels, cocoa-nut shells, staves of 
powder-barrels, &c., which the travellers picked up with 
some emotion, for they proved that the natives had 
had dealings with Europeans. Some women ran away 
out of a village which three of Lander’s men entered 
with a view to get the materials for a fire. The ex¬ 
hausted explorers were resting on mats when they were 
suddenly surrounded by a crowd of half-naked men 
armed with guns, bows and arrows, cutlasses, iron barbs, 
and spears. The coolness and presence of mind of the 
brothers alone averted a struggle, the issue of which 
could not be dubious. “ As we approached,” says Lander, 
“ we made all the signs and motions we could with our 
arms, to deter the chief and his people from firing on us. 
His quiver was dangling at his side, his bow was bent, 
and an arrow which was pointed at our breasts already 
trembled on the string, when we were within a few 
yards of his person. This was a highly critical moment, 
the next might be our last. But the hand of Provi¬ 
dence averted the blow ; for just as the chief was about 
to pull the fatal cord, a man that was nearest him rushed 
forward, and stayed his arm. At that instant we stood 
