INTRODUCTION. 
3 
I proceed to Dakar^ a village in the peninsula of Cape Verd^ 
whither the unfortunate persons saved from the wreck of La 
Meduse were conveyed by La Loire. After a stay of some 
months at this dreary spot^ when the English had restored 
the colony to the French, I set out for St. Louis. 
At the moment of my arrival, the English government was 
preparing an expedition, under the direction of Major Peddie, 
for exploring the interior of Africa : when ready, it proceed- 
ed to Kakondy, a village situated on the Rio Nunez. The 
major died on his arrival there. Captain Campbell, who 
assumed the command of the expedition, set out with his 
numerous caravan to cross the high mountains of Fouta- Dial- 
Ion : in a few days he lost part of his beasts of burden and 
several men 5 he nevertheless determined to pursue his 
journey, but no sooner had he entered the territories of the 
almamy^ of Fouta-Diallon than the expedition was detained 
by order of that sovereign. It was obliged to pay a heavy 
contribution to the almamy for permission to return by the 
way it had come, to recross rivers which it had passed with 
great difficulty, and to endure such persecutions that, to put 
an end to them and to render his march less embarrassing, the 
commander caused the dry goods to be burned, the muskets 
to be broken, and the gunpowder to be thrown into the 
river. On this disastrous return Captain Campbell and 
several of his officers ended their lives at the same place 
where Major Peddie died : they were interred at the same 
spot with him, at the foot of an orange tree, at the factory 
of Mr. Bethmann, an English merchant. 
The rest of the troops of Captain Campbell's expedition 
sailed for Sierra Leone. 
Some time afterwards, a new expedition was formed, 
and the command of it given to Major Gray. The En- 
glish spared neither trouble nor expense to render it still 
more imposing and more numerous than the first. To 
* A title given to several African sovereigns. 
