This paper analyzes a set of texts written during English expeditions in the region of the Niger River between first trip of Mungo Park (1795) and the 1841 official British expedition, looking for the similarities and differences in representations over time. The period in question encompassed transformations in the Atlantic context, including the end of the slave trade in England, and also assigns a change in the balance of forces on the coast and in the interior of West Africa. Thus, the paper aims to show how British ideas about slavery and the slave trade affect the dynamics of diplomatic representation and practices towards European societies near the course of the Niger River. Finally, the article also points to how the almost exclusively geographical concerns of the first trips gradually acquired the character of an interventionist inaugural address at the same time that the new material and technical conditions unbalanced the power relations in favor of England.
English; Niger; slavery; diplomacy