xliv INTRODUCTION. 



he observes, " were permitted to go on shore on hberty, 

 where the day was passed in running about the coun- 

 try from one village 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 Avere freely indulged in, to 

 which they were at all 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 tlie alluvial 

 banks of the river, antl which, after their disappearance, are 

 covered with the Cyperus pai)yrus 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. M^-- Kerrow seems to think, 

 howcA'er, that fatigue and exposure to the sun, together with 

 considerable atmospherical vicissitudes, were the principal 

 excitino causes of the disease which attacked the marchiujo; 

 party, and probably those also left in the lower part of 

 the river. Yet Captain Tuckcy, 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 



