i§8 TRAVELS IN 
Prevloufly to my quitting the Cape, I 
prepared feveral letters for my family, in which 
1 informed them of my intended fecond expe-r 
^ition, and the means I had devifed for carry- 
ing it into effed. It was not poffible to tell 
them the prccife route I fhould follow, becaufc 
I was ignorant of it myfelf, as it would depend 
entirely upon local circumftances, which might 
happen to favour or thwart my wifhes, I 
in^rely faid, that my plan in general was tq 
crofs, from fouth to north, the whole conti- 
nent of Africa, and thea to return to Europe 
by the way of Egypt if the paflage of the Nile 
was open^ anc| if not, by the coafts of Barbary ; 
that this enterprlfe, from the heft calculations 
I coul4 make, >Arpuld require fix years 5 anci 
that as, during that period, no opportunity 
might offer for writing to th^m, they oiight 
not to be alarmed a,t my filence. 
Thefe letters I had refolved not to. fend till 
it fhould appear that no farther obftacles would 
ftand in the way of my journey. When fure 
of this, I immediately difpatched Swaneppel tq 
the Cape with them, requefting Colonel Gordor^ 
to forward them to their place of deftinatioq, 
by the firft neutral veffel that fhould fail. 
On his return, Swanepoel brought me one; 
frorri 
