GEORGE FREDERICK RUXTON Vll 



In pursuance of this hazardous scheme, Kuxton, with 

 a single companion, landed on the coast of Africa, a 

 little to the south of Ichaboe, and commenced his 

 journey of exploration. But it seemed as if both 

 nature and man had combined to baffle the execution 

 of his design. The course of their travel lay along a 

 desert of moving sand, where no water was to be found, 

 and little herbage, save a coarse tufted grass and 

 twigs of the resinous myrrh. The immediate place of 

 their destination was Angra Peguena, on the coast, 

 described as a frequented station, but which in reality 

 was deserted. One ship only was in the offing when 

 the travellers arrived, and to their inexpressible morti- 

 fication, they discovered that she was outward bound. 

 No trace was visible of the river or streams laid down 

 in the maps as falling into the sea at this point, and no 

 resource was left to the travellers save that of retracing 

 their steps a labour for which their strength was 

 hardly adequate. But for the opportune assistance of 

 a body of natives, who encountered them at the very 

 moment when they were sinking from fatigue and 

 thirst, Kuxton and his companion would have been 

 added to the long catalogue of those whose lives have 

 been sacrificed in the attempt to explore the interior of 

 that fatal country. 



The jealousy of the traders, and of the missionaries 

 settled on the African coast, who constantly withheld 



