78 
MEET THE ALBERT. 
into tlie Nun, when the ‘Etliiope’ and ‘Albert’ were 
perceived coming out. 
It was a lovely morning, and the scenery about the 
river looked very beautiful, affording a sad contrast 
to the dingy and deserted look of the ‘Albert.’ 
Many were of course the painful surmises as to the 
fate of those on hoard. On approaching, however, the 
melancholy truth was soon told. The fever had been 
doing its direst work ; several were dead, many dying, 
and, of all the officers, but two, Drs. McWilliam and 
Stanger, were able to move about. The former jDre- 
sented himself and waved his hand, and one emaciated 
figure was seen to be raised up for a second. This 
M'as Captain Trotter, who in his anxiety to look at the 
‘teoudan again, had been lifted out of his cot. 
A spectacle more full of painful contemplation, 
could scarcely have been witnessed. Slowly and por- 
tentously, like a plague-ship filled with its dead and 
dying, onwards she moved in charge of her generous 
pilot, Mr. Bcecroft. Who would have thought that little 
moie than two months previously she had entered that 
same river with an enterprising crew, full of life, and 
buoyant with bright hopes of accomplishing the 
objects on which all had so ardently entered? If any 
of the few who afterwards raised the voice of censure, 
or called in question the enduring courage of those 
employed on the Expedition, had been there, it can- 
not be believed but that such a picture would have 
repressed their unfeeling expressions; and while it 
