INTERIOR OF AFRICx\. 3^1 
This afforded me such an opportunity of returning (though by a 
circuitous route) to my native country, as I thought was not to 
be neglected, I therefore immediately engaged my passage in 
this vessel for America ; and having taken leave of Dr. Laidley, 
to whose kindness I was so largely indebted, and my other 
friends on the river, I embarked at Kaye on the 17th day of 
June. 
Our passage down the river was tedious and fatiguing; and 
the weather was so hot, moist, and unhealthy, that before our 
arrival at Goree, four of the seamen, the surgeon, and three of 
the slaves had died of fevers. At Goree we were detained for 
want of provisions, until the beginning of October. 
The number of slaves received on board this vessel, both on, 
the Gambia, and at Goree, was one hundred and thirty; of 
»whom about twenty-five had been, I suppose, of free condition 
in Africa ; as most of those, being Bushreens, could write a little 
Arabic. Nine of them had become captives in the religious war 
between Abdulkader and Damel, mentioned in the latter part 
of the preceding Chapter. Two of the others had seen me 
as I passed through Bondou, and many of them had heard of 
me in the interior countries. My conversation with them, in 
their native language, gave them great comfort ; and as the 
surgeon was dead, I consented to act in a medical capacity in his 
room for the remainder of the voyage. They had in truth need 
of every consolation in my power to bestow ; not that I observed 
any wanton acts of cruelty practised either by the master, or 
the seamen, towards the,m ; but the mode of confining and secur- 
ing Negroes in the American slave ships, (owing chiefly to the 
3 A 
