Maggs Bros.

Sent to the Niger with orders to penetrate as far as possible and make treaties with the local rulers to outlaw the Slave Trade, the expedition met with considerable hardship from first entering the river. For the most part they remained healthy for the first month until reaching Iddah after which many of here crew were struck down with fever until matters were so grave that even the determined Capt. Trotter was forced to order Capt Allen retreat to the coast while he pushed on in the hopes of reaching a healthier climate upstream. But fever continued too ravage the crew and by the 8th August any further progress was clearly impossible. The expedition was considered a disastrous failure though Commander Allen cites the three treaties signed with the most influential potentates on the river to have constituted partial success.