TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
141 
state of the Europeans, we might have been 
comparatively happy. 
Mr. Pilkington arrived from Boolibany on 
the 29th, and although he was much better than 
when we left him, he was still in so weak a state 
as to be unable to take any exercise, and con- 
sequently was incapable of affording me society 
in my excursions through the country. Mr. 
Nelson, too, continued to decline, and on the 
6th of August, he was reduced to a complete 
inanimate skeleton ; in this state he remained 
until the 9th, when he breathed his last, with- 
out a struggle. His remains were buried close 
by the side of Mr. Burton's, under the shade of 
two large tamarind trees, about four hundred 
yards west of the camp. 
My feelings on this occasion (whether from 
a weak state of body in consequence of some 
attacks of fever which I had lately experienced, 
or from other motives, I cannot pretend to say) 
were so much affected, that I could with difficulty 
witness the last sad offices to the remains of one 
of my companions, who, without disparagement 
to the others, was by no means the least worthy 
or useful member of the expedition. The conse- 
quence of this was, I had a severe relapse, 
which confined me to my bed for three weeks ; 
at the end of which time 1 could scarcely stand 
upright. 
