TRAVELS 
TO THE 
SOURCES OF THE SENEGAL 
AND 
GAMBIA. 
CHAPTER I. 
Arrival in Africa.- — Journey to the Escales, or Stations where the 
Traffic in Gum is carried on. — The Desert. — The Moors. 
I WAS on board the Medusa frigate in 1816, when she was 
wrecked to the south of Cape Blaneo, on the west coast of 
Africa, and was one of those, who betook themselves to a boat, 
and gained the shore without accident. The fatigues which I 
underwent in reaching the banks of the Senegal, and the wild 
aspect of the country, could not destroy the ardent desire 
which I had felt from my infancy to traverse the interior 
of Africa. I could not believe that the sterility which marked 
the space I had traversed, prevailed in those regions where 
Leo Africanus had placed cities of considerable magnitude : 
the discoveries of Mungo Park had convinced me of the 
B 
