Daniel Headrick, “Malaria, Quinine, and the Penetration of Africa”

Yet quinine prophylaxis was not immediately adopted. It took a spectacular demonstration to achieve this end. In 1854, Macgregor Laird, never cured of his fascination with Africa, proposed still another expedition to that continent. Under contract with the Admiralty, he had a ship called the Pleiad specially built. She was a 220-ton iron propeller-steamer rigged as a schooner, designed to pull two or three barges behind her on her way up the Niger. As was usually the case, she was armed with a 12-pounder pivot gun, four smaller swivel cannons, rifles, and muskets. The crew consisted of twelve Europeans and fifty-four Africans.