Excerpt from The West Coast of Africa as Seen From the Deck of a Man-of-War Some apology may perhaps be needed for the publication of this little volume, at a time when other interests have somewhat withdrawn public attention from the affairs of the Gold Coast; but the vast, and almost unknown African continent, must no doubt always form a subject of interest for those who believe that in the development of its resources a wide field remains yet to be opened up. To them, these pages of a Sailor's Journal may perchance record some interesting facts, before unknown. It was not, however, as a field of Scientific research that the West Coast of Africa had a special interest for Captain Dyer. For on that coast, in the year 1851, he lost an elder brother - a Sub-Lieutenant (then called, a "Mate"), of H.M.S. Niger, under the command of Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Sir Leopold Heath. Captain Dyer's brother was killed whilst gallantly leading his boat's crew in an attack on Lagos. The two brothers were in the same ship, and on the death of the elder, the Admiralty promoted Hugh Dyer on account of his brother's service. In revisiting that region Captain Dyer felt that any account of it which he could give to his friends at home would have peculiar interest also for them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.