"P. S. Have the goodness to remember me most kindly to my friend Major
Rennell."
To the Earl Camden, One of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, &c. &c. &c.
On board of H. M. Schooner Joliba, at anchor off Sansanding, November 17, 1805.
"MY LORD,
"I have herewith sent you an account of each day's proceedings since we left Kayee. Many of the incidents related are in themselves extremely trifling; but are intended to recall to my recollection (if it pleases God to restore me again to my dear native land) other particulars illustrative of the manners and customs of the natives, which would have swelled this bulky communication to a most unreasonable size.
"Your Lordship will recollect that I always spoke of the rainy season with horror, as being extremely fatal to Europeans; and our journey from the Gambia to the Niger will furnish a melancholy proof of it.
"We had no contest whatever with the natives, nor was any one of us killed by wild animals or any other accidents; and yet I am sorry to say that of forty-four Europeans who left the Gambia in perfect health, five only are at present alive, viz. three soldiers (one deranged in his mind) Lieutenant Martyn, and myself.
"From this account I am afraid that your Lordship will be apt to consider matters as in a very hopeless state; but I assure you I am far from desponding. With the assistance of one of the soldiers I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably good schooner, on board of which I this day hoisted the British flag, and shall set sail to the east with the fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger or perish in the attempt. I have heard nothing that I can depend on respecting the remote course of this mighty stream; but I am more and more inclined to think that it can end no where but in the sea.
"My dear friend Mr. Anderson and likewise Mr. Scott are both dead; but though all the Europeans who are with me should die, and though I were myself half dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at last die on the Niger.
"If I succeed in the object of my journey, I expect to be in England in the month of May or June by way of the West Indies.