136 MR. lander's second excursion. 



tack my spirits for the first time gave way : for- 

 tunately the fit only lasted a few hours, and was 

 subdued with fifty drops of laudanum which the 

 Doctor had given me to induce sleep, the want of 

 which for several nights had harassed and weaken- 

 ed my mind considerably. Poor Hector's mind, 

 I was sorry to see, was completely gone, being 

 as weak as his body. 



Mr. Lander came down from the Alburkah 

 on the 210th, which vessel he had left at the 

 junction of the Shary and Niger. He stated 

 that the navigation was very intricate, but that 

 in the true channel there was abundance of 

 water. The inhabitants of all the towns that 

 he had passed were delighted, by his account, 

 at the prospect of trading with white people, 

 and the country he described as being even 

 more beautiful than that where we then were. 

 On the 21st we got mider weigh and passed 

 Bocqua, the old chief sending us a boat-load 

 of wood, and entered the gorge of the Kong 

 Mountains. The river here is confined in a 

 bed of about seven hundred yards wide, the 

 Kong Mountains rising to the height of from 

 two to three thousand feet on each side. On 

 the western bank there is a mountain which 



