Tudor, Crouch And Galwey, Were Successively Obliged To Return To The Ship.

Captain Tuckey, after struggling for some time against the increasing pressure of disease and exhaustion, as well as the accumulating difficulties of the expedition, saw the necessity of putting a stop to its further progress.

Mr. Smith at first expressed deep disappointment at this resolution, but soon became so ill that he could scarcely be conveyed to the vessel. On reaching it, a sad scene awaited the survivors; Crouch, Tudor and Galwey, were no more; they had successively sunk under the weight of disease. Mr. Smith soon shared their fate, and Captain Tuckey himself, on the 4th October, added one more to the number of deaths, without having suffered the usual attack of fever. He had been exhausted by constant depression and mental anxiety.

From this unfortunate expedition, however, some information was obtained respecting a part of Africa, not visited for several centuries. No trace indeed was seen of the great kingdoms, or of the cities and armies described by the Portuguese missionaries, so that though the interior may very probably be more populous than the banks of the river, there must in these pious narratives be much exaggeration; indeed it is not unworthy of remark, that all the accounts of the early missionaries, into whatever part of the world they undertook to intrude themselves, can only be looked upon as a tissue of falsehood, and hyperbolical misrepresentation.

The largest towns, or rather villages, did not contain above one hundred houses, with five hundred or six hundred inhabitants.

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