36 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

The sick, who were left at the Panjetta, joined us in safety, and, in order to avoid starvation at Kakundy, and to obtain that relief and rest of which we were all so much in want, we sailed immediately for Sierra Leone, where we did not arrive until our provisions were nearly exhausted, and then, with the loss of two men and nearly all our remaining animals.

On landing at Free Town, his Excellency Sir Charles McCarthy omitted nothing that could tend in any way to relieve our wants and sufferings, and it is with particular satisfaction that I take this opportunity of offering my gratefid acknowledgments for his marked kindness and attention to myself.

Lieutenant Stokoe, on whom the command then devolved, as soon as he had recovered from the effects of his late illness and fatigues, although in the depth of the rainy season, set out by the Port Logo path, with the intention of going to Teembo, in order to enter into arrangements, if possible, with Almamy, and obtain from him hostages for the free and unmolested passage of the expedition through his country to the Niger. In this, however, he failed, and returned to the colony, to wait until the ensuing dry season would admit of his endeavouring to penetrate by some other route j but he, like his