So lightly do the people here think of the
danger attending the undertaking, that I have been under the necessity of
refusing several military and naval officers who volunteered to accompany
me. We shall sail for Gambia on Friday or Saturday, I am happy to learn
that Karfa, my old friend, is at present at Jonkakonda; and I am in hopes
we shall be able to hire him to go with us.
"We have as yet been extremely fortunate, and have got our business, both
at St. Jago and this place, finished with great success; and I have
hopes, almost to certainty, that Providence will so dispose the tempers
and passions of the inhabitants of this quarter of the world, that we
shall be enabled to _slide through_ much more smoothly than you expect.
"I need not tell you how often I think about you; your own feelings will
enable you to judge of that. The hopes of spending the remainder of my
life with my wife and children, will make everything seem easy; and you
may be sure I will not rashly risk my life, when I know that your
happiness, and the welfare of my young ones, depend so much upon it.
