210 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
the Quorra and AlburJca, which, under the command of 
Messrs. Laird, Oldfield, and Richard Lander, ascended 
the Niger as far as Bocqua. The results of this com¬ 
mercial expedition were deplorable. Not only was there 
absolutely no trade to be carried on with the natives, 
but the crews of the vessels were decimated by fever. 
Finally, Richard Lander who had so often gone up and 
down the river, was mortally wounded by the natives, 
on the 27th January, 1834, and died on the morning of 
5th February, at Fernando Po. 
To complete our account of the exploration of Africa 
during the period under review, we have still to speak 
of the various surveys of the valley of the Nile, the 
most important of which were those by Cailliaud, Rus- 
segger, and Ruppell. 
Frederic Cailliaud was born at Nantes in 1787, and 
arrived in Egypt in 1815, having previously visited 
Holland, Italy, Sicily, part of Greece, and European or 
Asiatic Turkey, where he traded in precious stones. His 
knowledge of geology and mineralogy won for him a 
cordial reception from Mehemet Ali, who immediately 
on his arrival commissioned him to explore the course 
of the Nile and the desert. 
This first trip resulted in the discovery of emerald 
mines at Labarah, mentioned by Arab authors, which 
had been abandoned for.centuries. In the excavations 
in the mountain Cailliaud found the lamps, crowbars, 
ropes, and tools used in working these mines by men in 
the employ of Ptolemy. Near the quarries the traveller 
discovered the ruins of a little town, which was probably 
inhabited by the ancient miners. To prove the reality 
of his valuable discovery he took back ten pounds’ 
weight of emeralds to Mehemet Ali. 
Another result of this journey was the discovery by 
the French explorer of the old road from Coptos to 
Berenice for the trade of India. 
From September, 1819, to the end of 1832, Cailliaud, 
accompanied by a former midshipman named Letorzec, 
was occupied in exploring all the known oases east of 
Eygpt, and in tracing the Nile to 10° N. lat. On his 
