[50] Just as we are going to send this sheet to the press, we learn from the newspapers, that this expedition has failed; that it was not able to proceed above fifty leagues into the interior, and that it returned to Sierra Leone, after having lost several officers, and among them Captain Campbell, who had taken the command after the death of Major Peddy. Thus the good fall and the Thersites live, and are often even honoured. Captain Campbell was one of our benefactors, may his manes be sensible to our regret, and may his family and country permit us to mingle with their just affliction, this weak tribute of respect, by which we endeavour as far as lies in our power to discharge the sacred debt of gratitude! Among the losses which this expedition has experienced, it is feared that we must reckon that of our excellent companion, the Naturalist Kummer; nevertheless, as no positive information of his death has yet been received of his fate, his numerous friends, in the midst of their fears, still cherish some hopes: May they not be disappointed. The accounts which inform us of this event, attribute the ill success of the expedition, to the obstacles opposed to it by the natives of the interior, but enter into no details. We learn from geographers, that up the Rio Grande there lives the warlike nation of the Souucsous, whom some call the _Fonllahs_ of Guinea. The name of their capital is Teembo. They are Mahometans, and make war on the idolatrous tribes who surround them, to sell their prisoners. A remarkable institution, called the _Pouarh_, seems to have a great resemblance with the ancient _secret Tribunal_ of Germany. The _Pouarh_ is composed of members who are not admitted among the initiated till they have undergone the most horrible probations. The association exercises the power of life and death; every body shuns him, whose head it has proscribed. It may be that it was by this species of government, which seems not to want power, that the English expedition was stopped. [51] This remark on the conduct of one of our companions whom we had known, under more favourable circumstances, had cost us some pain in the first edition: therefore, we did not expressly name the person meant. When we now name Mr. Griffon, we conceive ourselves to be fulfilling a duty, which his present sentiments impose on us. A man of honor, especially, when in the state of weakness, and of mental and bodily infirmity to which we were reduced, might be misled for a moment; but when he repairs this involuntary error, with the generosity which dictated the following letter, we repeat it, there is no longer any crime in having thus erred, and it is justice, and a very pleasing duty for us to do homage to the frankness, to the loyalty of Mr. Griffon, and to congratulate ourselves, on having found again the heart of the companion of our misfortunes, such as we had known him, and with all his rights to our esteem.