INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 357 
Wilderness. We parted with reciprocal expressions of regret and 
benediction. My good wishes and prayers were all I could 
bestow upon them ; and it afforded me some consolation to be 
told, that they were sensible I had no more to give. 
My anxiety to get forward admitting of no delay on the road, 
we reached Tendacunda in the evening, and were hospitably 
received at the house of an aged black female called Seniora 
Camilla, a person who had resided many years at the English 
factory, and spoke our language. I was known to her before 
I had left the Gambia, at the outset of my journey ; but my 
dress and figure were now so different from the usual appear- 
ance of an European, that she was very excusable in mistaking 
me for a Moor. When I told her my name and country, she 
surveyed me with great astonishment, and seemed unwilling 
to give credit to the testimony of her senses. She assured me 
that none of the traders on the Gambia, ever expected to see 
me again ; having been informed long ago, that the Moors of 
Ludamar had murdered me, as they had murdered Major 
Houghton. I inquired for my two attendants, Johnson and 
- Demba, and learnt, with great sorrow, that neither of them 
was returned. Karfa, who had never before heard people con- 
verse in English, listened to us with great attention. Every 
thing he saw seemed wonderful. The furniture of the house, the 
chairs, &c. and particularly beds with curtains, were objects of 
his great admiration ; and he asked me a thousand questions 
concerning the utility and necessity of different articles; to 
some of which I found it difficult to give satisfactory answers. 
On the- morning of the loth, Mr. Robert Ainsley, having 
