Richard Lemon Lander

Richard Lemon Lander 1804-34, English explorer. He accompanied Clapperton to the Niger River in 1827 and brought back Clapperton's journal, which was published (1829) with an account of Lander's return to the coast. Accompanied by his brother John Lander (1807-39), he led an expedition (1830-31) to determine the course of the lower Niger and discovered that the river emptied into the Bight of Benin. The brothers published their combined journals (3 vol., 1832). Richard Lander died of wounds received on a trading expedition to the Niger (1832-34); an account of the trip was published by survivors, Macgregor Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield.

Lander, Richard Lemon (1804–34). Originally from Cornwall, Lander was a servant of Clapperton to whom he showed great loyalty on the expedition to what is now northern Nigeria. After Clapperton's death in 1827, he returned to London and was soon commissioned by the government to return to west Africa in 1830, this time penetrating from the Guinea Coast to Bussa on the Niger. Lander then followed the river down to its outlet on the coast, solving the age-old problem of the great river's course and termination. He died on a later expedition to west Africa.

Roy C. Bridges