44 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

able to proceed on a second attempt, and equipping them, occupied so much time that it was not before the 14th of December, 1817, that we sailed, on board the colonial brig Discovery, from Sierra Leone for the Gambia.

We had been but a week at sea, when we fortunately found that the casks, which contained the water for our use, and that of eleven horses, were in so leaky a state that a few days more would have left us without a drop. This obliged us to put into the Isles des Loss, where, with the assistance of a Mr. Lee, then resident there, we soon remedied the evil, and again put to sea.

A strong north-west wind, and a heavy sea, opposed our progress for several days, and, as if all things combined to retard us in the very first stage of our proceedings, the brig sprung a leak, and nearly carried away her mainmast in a squall.

In this state, with constant work at the pumps, we were kept out until the 13th of January, when we reached Cape St. Mary's, with only one day's half allowance of water on board. Our horses (one of which died) were reduced to the very last stage of want, having subsisted, for several days, on a little rice and biscuit dust, with a very small quantity of water.

On landing at Bathurst, St. Mary's, I found Mr. Dochardhad arrived there from the islands,