Abstract
SEVERAL years ago complaints were made about the conduct of various British subjects in the territories placed under the Royal Niger Company. The British Government accordingly sent Major Claude Macdonald to inquire into the matter. He was accompanied by Captain Mockler-Ferryman, who in the present volume gives a full account of the proceedings of the Mission. During the entire journey, which extended over more than 3000 miles, nothing “of a blood-curdling nature” occurred, so that any one who is attracted to books of travel mainly by the chance of finding them full of sensational narratives, need not trouble himself with Captain Mockler-Ferryman's pages. On the other hand, those who like to read about remote regions and their native inhabitants, will find in this book much to interest them. The author is an accurate observer, and notes in a clear and unpretending style the facts by which his attention has been most strongly attracted. His descriptions of the native tribes of the Niger country, so far as he himself observed them, are particularly good, and will not only please the general reader, but be of service to ethnologists and anthropologists. A capital chapter on music and musical instruments, prepared from materials collected by the members of the mission, is contributed by Captain C. R. Day, and the value of the volume as a whole is much increased by a map and illustrations.
Up the Niger.
By Captain A. F. Mockler-Ferryman (London: George Philip and Son, 1892.)
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Up the Niger. Nature 46, 512 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/046512b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/046512b0