4»50 THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 
bach, as a person qualified by talents, constitu- 
tion, and courage, for the arduous task of explor- 
ing this continent. The encouragements held out 
by the Association not appearing to him satisfac- 
tory, he raised £,^50 by private subscription. 
He endeavoured to arm himself against future 
hardships by very extraordinary means, such as 
living on bread and water, eating flies and spiders, 
sleeping under hedges in frost and snow, &c. He 
lost some time in accompanying Mrs Bathurst to 
the continent ; but, in 1811, proceeded to Moga- 
dore, with the view of joining the caravan from 
Morocco to Tombuctoo. At Mogadore, he car- 
ried on the study of Arabic, and made frequent 
excursions into the country, with a view to the 
pursuits of botany and entomology. He shewed 
the most enthusiastic zeal in the cause of African 
discovery ; and, being tinctured with fatalism, 
was repeatedly heard to declare his conviction, 
that he was the person destined by Providence to 
effect the completion of it. In this confidence, 
he disregarded all those prudential measures which 
are absolutely necessary in dealing with the na- 
tives of Northern Africa. He unfortunately be- 
came acquainted with a renegado, who described 
himself as a native of Yorkshire, but born of Ger- 
man parents, and who, having been at Mecca, as- 
sumed the title of " El-Hadje." Though warn- 
ed of the imprudence of reposing confidence in 
