xliv INTRODUCTION. 
he observes, ‘‘ were permitted to go on shore on liberty, 
where the day was passed in running about the coun- 
try from one yillage to another, and during the night 
‘lying in huts or the open air; and though the dews were 
scarcely sensible at this season, the fall of the ther- 
mometer was very considerable, say 15° or 20° below that 
of the day. Spirituous liquors were not to be obtained, 
but excesses of another kind were freely indulged in, to 
which they were atall times prompted by the native blacks, 
who were always ready to give up their sisters, daughters, 
or even their wives, for the hope only of getting in return 
a small quantity of spirits.” Perhaps too, the river water 
may have had its baneful effects, mixed as it is with 
foreign matter arising from the perpetual decomposition 
of animal and vegetable substances, by the dead carcases 
of alligators, hippopotami, lizards, &c. and by the decay- 
ed mangroves which for fifty miles occupy the alluvial 
banks of the river, and which, after their disappearance, are 
covered with the Cyperus papyrus of the height of twelve 
feet. Beyond these the Congo was moored, where the river 
was Closed in by lofty hills, and over these woody shores the 
sea breezes had to pass. Mr. Me Kerrow seems to think, 
however, that fatigue and exposure to the sun, together with 
considerable atmospherical vicissitudes, were the principal 
exciting causes of the disease which attacked the marching 
party, and probably those also left in the lower part of 
the river. Yet Captain Tuckey, so far from complaining 
of the heat of the sun, observes, as before mentioned, that 
they scarcely ever got a sight of it; and in a private letter 
dated from Yellala, the 20th August, after an excursion 
of several days, he writes, ** the climate is so good and the 
