362 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXXXIIt. 
at first thought that it was undertaken by Captain 
M'Leod, of whose proposal to ascend the Niger I 
had accidentally gleaned some information through 
a number of the Galignani, and it was not until the 
13th November that I succeeded in meeting the person 
who had seen the expedition with his own eyes. This 
man informed me that the expedition consisted of one 
large boat, he did not know whether of iron or of 
wood, and two smaller ones, containing altogether 
seven gentlemen and seventy slaves, he of course 
taking the Kroomen for slaves. Moreover, I learned 
from him that the members of this expedition had not 
gone as far as Y61a, the capital of A^daraawa, as the 
governor of Hamdrruwa had warned them not to go 
up to that place with their steamer, on account of the 
narrow passage between the mountains. He also 
informed me, that they had commenced their home 
journey earlier than had been expected, and that he 
himself, having proceeded to Yakoba in order to pro- 
cure more ivory for them, had found them gone on 
his return. 
- The other circumstance which greatly occupied my 
mind at this time, was the state of afi'airs in Kiikawa. 
For in the beginning, on the first news of the revolu- 
tion in Bornu, and of the Sheikh 'Omar being dethroned 
and his vizier slain, I had given up my project of 
returning by Bornu, intending to try again the dif- 
cult road by A'lr. At a later season, however, when 
I heard on the road that 'Omdr was again installed, I 
cherished the hope that it might be possible to take 
