JOINED BY MR. OLDFIELD. 263 



cholera was exciting so much alarm and commit- 

 ting such ravages, and had almost feared to hope 

 that my friends had escaped. How gratefully 

 then did I return thanks to the Giver of all 

 good, that none of those that were near and dear 

 to me had fallen ! 



After visiting his friend Mr. Allen, Mr. Lan- 

 der came on board with Mr. Oilfield. He was 

 looking much worse than when I last saw him, 

 and had evidently suffered much in the boats 

 from exposure to the weather. He had been 

 thirty-two days on his passage from the Nun, in 

 the brig's long boat, which he had thatched over 

 abaft, and had brought up with him a Mr. Dean 

 to command the Alburkah, and one white man 

 as a sailor. Mr. Oldfield told me that the mor- 

 tality in the brig had been very slight in com- 

 parison with other vessels that had entered the 

 river, and he attributed the circumstance to my 

 having anchored her open to the sea-breeze. I 

 learnt from him that an American expedition 

 had arrived in the river, consisting of a brig and 

 two small schooners. The supercargo of the 

 brig having been unfortunately killed by the 

 bursting of his gun, the vessels had been obliged 

 to return without accomplishing their object, and 



