Ixxx 
ACCOUNT OF THE 
which would have swelled this bulky communication to a 
most unreasonable size. 
" Your Lordship will recollect that I always spoke of 
the rainy season with horror, as being extremely fatal to 
Europeans ; and our journey from the Gambia to the Niger 
will furnish a melancholy proof of it. 
" We had no contest whatever with the natives, nor was 
any one of us killed by wild animals or any other acci- 
dents ; and yet I am sorry to say that of forty-four Euro- 
peans who left the Gambia in perfect health, five only are 
at present alive, viz. three soldiers (one deranged in his 
mind) Lieutenant Martyn, and myself. 
From this account I am afraid that your Lordship will 
be apt to consider matters as in a very hopeless state ; but 
I assure you I am far from desponding. With the assist- 
ance of one of the soldiers I have changed a large canoe 
into a tolerably good schooner, on board of which I this 
day hoisted the British flag, and shall set sail to the east 
with the fixed resolution to discover the termination of the 
Niger or perish in the attempt. I have heard nothing that 
I can depend on respecting the remote course of this 
mighty stream ; but I am more and more inclined to think 
that it can end no where but in the sea. 
" My dear friend Mr. Anderson and likewise Mr. Scott 
are both dead ; b!it though all the Europeans who are 
with me should die, and though I were myself half 
dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed 
in the object of my journey, I would at last die on the 
Niger. 
" If I succeed in the object of my journey, I expect to 
