DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH 
but assured them, that, with eight men, who still 
remained, he would use his utmost efforts to as- 
cend the Gambia. The Company, without a mo- 
ment's delay, fitted out a new vessel of 50 tons, 
with a suitable cargo. The very first accounts re- 
ceived of it, however, were of the most unfavour- 
able nature. It had arrived at a most inauspicious 
season, without any skill or attention to guard a- 
gainst its effects ; and the consequence was, that, 
in a very short time, nearly the whole crew fell vic- 
tims to the climate. The letters of Thompson, how- 
ever, still expressing the same confidence and de- 
termination as ever, the Company immediately fit- 
ted out a new expedition, on a larger scale. It con- 
sisted of two vessels, one of 200, and another of 50 
tons, which were placed under the command of Cap- 
tain Richard Jobson, who proved himself to be a man 
of resolution and capacity. He set sail on the 5th 
October 1620, a period which afforded the pro- 
mise of his reaching Africa at a favourable period 
of the year. After touching at the Canaries, he 
arrived in February at the mouth of the Gambia. 
The first intelligence which there reached him, was 
the death of Thompson. A deep mystery hangs 
over the fate of this first martyr in the cause of 
African discovery. It appears, that he had push* 
ed up as far as Tenda, much beyond what any Eur 
ropean had before reached. His object was to have 
an interview there with a personage of the name of 
