186 DISCOVERIES OF THE El^GLISH, 
in King Charles II/s time, had acquired great 
wealth by his trade on the Gambia, but who care- 
fully concealed his name, from the dread that he 
might be sent out by government upon another 
expedition. Captain Stibbs, in his journal, al- 
ludes to the author under the name of Vermuy- 
DEN, and appears evidently to have possessed a 
more copious narrative than the one which has 
reached us, since he mentions several names of 
places not there to be found. The author begins 
by enumerating the articles with which a boat, en- 
gaged in such an expedition, ought to be laden. 
He recommends a hundred pounds of mercury, 
instead of twenty, which he himself had taken ; 
also a large provision of lead, borax, and sand, 
with several wedges. ' To this he added three bar- 
rels of beef, ten gammons of bacon, salt both for 
use and trade ; biscuit, rice, gunpowder ; strong 
waters, and a deal of such like stuff." These 
supplies, however, though they conduced greatly 
to the bodily comfort of the expedition, were 
found to have laden the boat to such a degree, 
as proved a serious obstacle when they came to 
ascend the flats. 
Having thus amply provided himself, our author 
begins abruptly by describing the situation of the 
principal mine. You come first, he says, to a 
broad collection of waters, not much inferior to 
Winander Meer, in Lancashire. There, after 
