STIBBS'S EXPEDITION. 
191 
in such establishments, the profits fell considera- 
bly short of the expenditure, conceived the hope 
of retrieving its affairs, by the discovery of new 
and lucrative branches of commerce. With this 
view. Captain Bartholomew Stibbs was despatch- 
ed, with orders to navigate the Gambia as high as 
possible, and to investigate if gold was really to 
be found there in such abundance as had been 
often reported. Stibbs arrived at James Fort on 
the 7th October 1723 ; he found that Mr Glynn, 
whom he expected to find governor, had been 
dead for six months, and was succeeded by ano- 
ther of the name of Willy. To him our traveller 
immediately wrote, requesting that he would use 
all possible diligence in hiring canoes suited to 
the navigation of the river. Mr Willy replied 
very coolly, that there were no canoes to be had ; 
and Stibbs was in despair on learning that he was 
giving himself no concern about the affair, and, 
instead of exerting himself to hire canoes, was 
even rejecting those that offered. He wrote, 
therefore, an urgent and somewhat indignant let- 
ter, which, he hoped, " would rouse him from his 
" lethargy, and give him more generous notions 
** of the expedition.'* He was much surprised 
when, three days after, the Company's pinnace 
brought down the dead body of Mr Willy. The 
climate appears to have brought upon him a men- 
tal disorder, which terminated in death. Nearly 
25 
