40 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



the beginning of the year 1825 the 'Wanderings' form a continua- 

 tion of these Memoirs. But as a few interesting occurrences took 

 place in the interval betwixt these dates, I will pen them down in 

 the following pages. During my expedition for the wourali poison, 

 in the summer of 1812, General Carmichael had written to Lord 

 Bathurst, to say that I was in the forests ; and that if he wanted a 

 person to conduct an exploring enterprise, he thought that I might 

 be safely recommended to his Lordship's notice. I had returned 

 from the interior broken down with sickness, brought on by being 

 reduced to eat unwholesome food, and by being exposed day and 

 night to the inclemency of the rainy season. The doctors having 

 ordered me to England without loss of time, I took my passage on 

 board the Fame of Liverpool, Captain Williams. During my stay in 

 Stabroek, previous to the vessel's leaving port, the General gave me 

 the colonial despatches to be delivered to Lord Bathurst, and at the 

 same time he presented me with a warm letter of introduction to 

 his Lordship. We had a splendid ball on the eve of our departure. 

 In the ball-room General Carmichael took the opportunity of intro- 

 ducing me to Captain Peake of the Peacock sloop-of-war, appointed 

 to be our convoy to Barbadoes. On the following morning, when 

 we had got up our anchor, Captain Peake came alongside of the 

 Fame, and invited me to stay with him on board the Peacock until 

 we should reach Barbadoes ; adding, that when he had got all the 

 fleet fairly under weigh, he would not fail to send his boat for me. 

 This, unfortunately, was our last interview. By eleven o'clock 

 it blew a gale of wind ; and as the Fame made a poor hand of it 

 when close-hauled, we drifted bodily to leeward, lost sight of the 

 fleet in the evening, and at last barely managed to fetch Grenada, 

 in lieu of making Barbadoes. In the meantime, Captain Peake, 

 having brought his fleet to an anchor in Carlisle Bay, returned to 

 the coast of Guiana, where he fell in with an American man-of-war. 

 She was his superior in men and guns, but not in valour ; for our 

 brave captain fought her to the last, and he was cut in two by a 

 cannon ball just at the time that his own vessel went down. He 

 was held in great esteem by the colonists ; and I have heard that 

 they raised a monument to his memory in the church at Stabroek. 

 " The voyage to Europe did not recruit my health. When I had 



