28 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Having exhausted the most interesting and instruc- 

 tive localities within the confines of the once fair and 

 free Hellas, he journeyed on by the Adriatic to 

 Venice, still "throned upon her hundred isles;" 

 and from Vienna, through Germany, Switzerland, 

 and France, to London, and thence to his native 

 land. 



Dr. Kane reached the United States in August, 

 1846. Being still connected with the navy as 

 assistant surgeon, and being desirous, as usual, of 

 engaging in active service, he was shortly afterward 

 despatched to the coast of Africa, in the frigate 

 "United States," under the orders of Commodore 

 Reed. The object of this expedition was to aid in the 

 suppression of the slave-trade ; and during his resi- 

 dence near the kingdom of Dahomey, one of the great 

 African marts of that bloody and inhuman traffic, 

 Dr. Kane had an opportunity of exploring a portion 

 of the interior of that benighted kingdom. He was 

 here violently attacked by the coast fever. The 

 disease made formidable ravages upon his delicate 

 constitution; and he was so greatly reduced that 

 he was sent home in a Liberian transport-ship, as 

 the only possible means of averting certain and im 

 pending death. 



