Iviil INTRODUCTION. 



much the more complete ; hut his zeal to accomplish the 

 object of the expedition had completely exhausted him, 

 and brouoht on the return of a disorder to which he had 

 lonof been subject ; still he held out to the last ; and there 

 is very little doubt, that if the accident which happened 

 to his baggage canoe had not put an end to every possi- 

 bility of his proceeding much farther up the river, that he 

 would have gone on till he had sunk under sickness and 

 fatigue, and left his remains in the interior of the country. 

 On the 17th September he reached the Congo sloop, 

 and the following day, for the sake of better accommo- 

 dation, was sent down to the Dorothy transport, at the 

 Tall Trees. He arrived in a state of extreme exhaustion, 

 brouglit on by fatigue, exposure to the weather, and 

 privations. He had no fever nor pain in any part of the 

 body ; the pulse was small and irritable ; the skin at times 

 dry, at others clammy, but never exceeding the tempera- 

 ture of health. On the 28th he thought himself better, and 

 wholly free from pain, but shewed great irritability, which 

 was kept up by his anxiety concerning the affairs of the 

 expedition. On the 30th the debility, irritability, and de- 

 pression of spirits became extreme, and he now expressed 

 his conviction, that all attempts to restore the energy of 

 his system would prove ineffectual. From this time to the 

 4th, when he expired, his strength gradually failed him, 

 but during the whole of his illness, he had neither pain 

 nor fever ; and he may be said to have died of com- 

 plete exhaustion, rather than of disease. He had deceived 

 himself, it seems, by the confidence which he felt in 

 the strength of his constitution. The surgeon states that, 

 since leaving England, he never enjoyed good health, the 



