IN CENTRA!. AFRICA. 359 
authenticate the results I have above deduced ; yet the 
history of the enterprize itself will, if possible, increase this 
effect. The inclination of Rene Caillie for travels of dis- 
covery early announced his vocation. From the moment 
of his second landing at Senegal, he employed himself in 
acquiring a familiarity with the language of the Moors.* He 
talked of nothing but penetrating into the interior of Africa, 
the object of all his thoughts ; his resources became exhaust- 
ed, yet he refused every other occupation, every other mis- 
sion. This fixed impression was regarded as a mania ; nothing 
could shake his purpose, not even the insults which his 
Moorish costume drew upon him from the negroes ; he was 
content to be considered by them as an idiot, and almost an 
object of derision. The want of sufficient support having obli- 
ged him to take another course, he set out for Sierra-Leone ; 
there he remained the period necessary for collecting some 
resources, and soon quitted it for Rio-Nunez : thence he 
announced to a friend at St. Louis (in April 1827) his de- 
parture for the interior. He was supposed to be lost, and 
nearly forgotten like so many other victims, when, at the 
expiration of eighteen months, he suddenly appeared at 
the further extremity of Africa, triumphant over every 
obstacle ; like an expert swimmer, who, having plunged 
into the bosom of a broad stream, after a long interval 
unexpectedly appears on the opposite bank, while his 
friends are already lamenting his loss as certain. 
* See above. Vol. I, the account of his first travels. 
