TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 141 state of the Europeans, we might have been comparatively happy.

Mr. Pilkington arrived from Boolibany on the 29th, and although he was much better than when we left him, he was still in so weak a state as to be unable to take any exercise, and consequently was incapable of affording me society in my excursions through the country. Mr.

Nelson, too, continued to decline, and on the 6th of August, he was reduced to a complete inanimate skeleton ; in this state he remained until the 9th, when he breathed his last, without a struggle. His remains were buried close by the side of Mr. Burton's, under the shade of two large tamarind trees, about four hundred yards west of the camp.

My feelings on this occasion (whether from a weak state of body in consequence of some attacks of fever which I had lately experienced, or from other motives, I cannot pretend to say) were so much affected, that I could with difficulty witness the last sad offices to the remains of one of my companions, who, without disparagement to the others, was by no means the least worthy or useful member of the expedition. The consequence of this was, I had a severe relapse, which confined me to my bed for three weeks ; at the end of which time 1 could scarcely stand upright.