PREFACE, 
In offering to the public the foliavving pages, it 
may be necessary to state the motives which 
operated to my acceptance of that important 
command, which it will be their business to 
disclose. Though not born in the camp, nor 
altogether educated in the field, I have beep 
eaiiy taught in that frankness which generally 
characterises the soldier, and, I trust, it will be 
found that, in all I describe, I have never devi- 
ated from strictly acting on that honourable and 
faithful basis. 
I had reached the shores of Africa, in my tour 
of service, well remembering on my passage the 
labours and researches of the informed and the 
brave who perished in the exalted struggle of 
benefiting their country and the benighted 
Africans ; while, at the same time, I could not 
help reflecting on the disappointing results which 
often attend the best directed human exertions. 
The brave and the scientific were gone ; their 
country consecrated their labours, though par- 
tially abortive ; and the enterprising mind felt 
no alarm in tracing their progress, v/hile a chance 
