William Allen took part in the Niger expedition of Richard Lander and Oldfield in 1832. He is best known as having commanded the Wilberforce in the elaborately equipped but disastrous expedition under Capt. Trotter to the same river in 1841-42.

In 1849 he published a "Plan for the immediate Extinction of the Salve Trade, for the Relief of the West India Colonies, and for the diffusion of Civilisation and Christianity in Africa by the co-operation of Mammon with Philanthropy". Allen was a Fellow of the Royal Society and some of his landscape paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1828-47.

"The descriptive notices have been chiefly extracted from his diary, which was in part published in the 'United service journal,' between the months of July 1839 and May 1840"--P. vi

Plates drawn from Allen's sketches, tinted lithographed by W.L. Walton, Thomas Picken, and Charles Haghe, and printed by Day & Haghe, lithographers

18 p., [11] leaves of plates ([1] folded) : ill., map ; 28 x 38 cm.

References:

Bobins 70; Abbey Travel 284.


1. Front Cover
10. Mountains & Market Canoes Near Bokweh
11. Huts at Jogguh
12. The Palaver
13. The Confluence of the Rivers Niger and Chadda
14. Mount Patteh from Bangadeh
15. The King Giving Judgement at the Gate of his Palace
16. The Interior of the Chief Malem's House
17. The Morning Call
18. Attah
19. Beaufort Island Looking Up the River
2. Title Page
20. Six Miles Below the Confluence Looking Up the River
21. Six Miles Below the Confluence Looking Down the River
22. Twenty Miles Down the Confluence
23. The Terry Mountains
24. The Rennell Mountains
25. Zagoshi Looking Up the River, the City of Rabba
26. Back Cover
3. A Part of the River Niger & Chadda. Surveyed in 1832-3
4. Views on the Nun Branch of the River Niger [I]
5. Views on the Nun Branch of the River Niger [II]
6. Views on the Nun Branch of the River Niger [III]
7. Views on the Nun Branch of the River Niger [IV]
8. Procession to Ibu
9. Cliffs at Attah