to quench my thirst, and at night collect branches and leaves to
prepare me a bed in the wilderness. We parted with reciprocal
expressions of regret and benediction. My good wishes and prayers
were all I could bestow upon them, and it afforded me some
consolation to be told that they were sensible I had no more to
give.

My anxiety to get forward admitting of no delay on the road, we
reached Tendacunda in the evening, and were hospitably received at
the house of an aged black female called Seniora Camilla, a person
who resided many years at the English factory and spoke our
language. I was known to her before I had left the Gambia at the
outset of my journey, but my dress and figure were now so different
from the usual appearance of a European that she was very excusable
in mistaking me for a Moor. When I told her my name and country she
surveyed me with great astonishment, and seemed unwilling to give
credit to the testimony of her senses. She assured me that none of
the traders on the Gambia ever expected to see me again, having been
informed long ago that the Moors of Ludamar had murdered me, as they
had murdered Major Houghton. I inquired for my two attendants,
Johnson and Demba, and learnt with great sorrow that neither of them
was returned. Karfa, who had never before heard people converse in
English, listened to us with great attention. Everything he saw
seemed wonderful. The furniture of the house, the chairs, &c., and
particularly beds with curtains, were objects of his great
admiration, and he asked me a thousand questions concerning the
utility and necessity of different articles, to some of which I
found it difficult to give satisfactory answers.

On the morning of the 10th Mr. Robert Ainsley, having learned that I