Lieutenant M‘Rae, hearing on his arrival of Major Peddie’s illness, and the little hope we entertained of his recovery, came forward with the most disinterested zeal, and told Captain Campbell that if his services were likely to be of any use to the expedition, he would readily accompany it; indeed he left Sierra Leone partly with that intention: and notwithstanding the great want of officers in that garrison at the time, and that he filled some very important situations, his Excellency, with that alacrity he had all along shewn to comply with whatever was calculated to forward the views of the expedition, most willingly agreed to his proceeding, should his services be required. After Major Peddie’s death, they were considered very acceptable, and he was immediately added to our number. He did not, however, long survive our lamented commander; he was attacked with fever, for the first time since his arrival on the coast, on the 13th of January, and died on the 21st, deeply regretted by us all. The convalescents, and in which condition were nearly all the Europeans, being in a very debilitated state, were moved forward, under the care of Mr. Nelson, to the borders of the Foota country, on the Tingalinta river, whence they might be easily sent back were they not sufficiently recovered by the time the whole might have moved forward. We left Robugga in the afternoon of the 1st of February, and after a most fatiguing march of four hours reached Harrimakona, a small slave village belonging to a Mandingo chief, named Kirra Mahomadoo, who lives near Kakundy. On the morning of the 2d, Lieutenant Stokoe was added to the sick list, and being unable to render any assistance, rode forward to the Tingalinta. We left Harrimakona at two, P.M. and got on tolerably well until we arrived at a difficult pass in a wood, where those in front disturbed a swarm of bees, which made so violent an attack on both men and animals, that all were thrown into confusion. On my being made acquainted with the cause, I considered it a very frivolous excuse for allowing the horses and asses to run about in all directions, throwing off their loads; and was reprimanding the men for their carelessness, when I was attacked by so dense a swarm of those insects, that I was obliged to retreat, and suffer the mortification of exhibiting myself in the same predicament with those I had just been reproving. It was sunset before the bees dispersed, or we could collect the animals, many of whom suffered severely, from the bees getting into their eyes, ears, and nostrils; one of our best horses died on the spot, and some of the asses were unable to rise from the ground. We reached the Changêballê stream at nine o’clock, but the darkness of the night, and the difficulty of the passage prevented our crossing.