44 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
able to proceed on a second attempt, and equip- 
ping them, occupied so much time that it was 
not before the 14th of December, 1817, that we 
sailed, on board the colonial brig Discovery, 
from Sierra Leone for the Gambia. 
We had been but a week at sea, when we for- 
tunately found that the casks, which contained 
the water for our use, and that of eleven 
horses, were in so leaky a state that a few days 
more would have left us without a drop. This 
obliged us to put into the Isles des Loss, where, 
with the assistance of a Mr. Lee, then resident 
there, we soon remedied the evil, and again put 
to sea. 
A strong north-west wind, and a heavy sea, 
opposed our progress for several days, and, as if 
all things combined to retard us in the very first 
stage of our proceedings, the brig sprung a leak, 
and nearly carried away her mainmast in a squall. 
In this state, with constant work at the pumps, 
we were kept out until the 13th of January, 
when we reached Cape St. Mary's, with only 
one day's half allowance of water on board. Our 
horses (one of which died) were reduced to the 
very last stage of want, having subsisted, for se- 
veral days, on a little rice and biscuit dust, with a 
very small quantity of water. 
On landing at Bathurst, St. Mary's, I found 
Mr. Dochard had arrived there from the islands, 
