Two days were spent in the preparations necessary for the march, which we commenced at five o’clock in the morning of the 13th of February. We halted that night at Gamby, and reached the capital the following morning at half after eight. Almamy, who, with some of his train, came out to meet us, wished us to enter the town and remain there, as he said, till huts could be prepared for us; but, as I would not listen to his proposal under any pretence whatever, he proceeded with me to select a site for our camp convenient to water. A little eminence, the summit of which was shaded by a large tamarind tree, and within a few yards of some wells, west of the town, from which it was distant about two musket shots, offered more advantages than any other spot around Boolibany. We therefore, having unloaded the animals, and arranged the baggage under the tree, commenced, on the following morning, to surround our post with a strong fence of stakes and thorny bushes, which, with our huts and the addition of a new well about fifteen feet deep, we completed in a few days; during which his majesty paid me some visits, and made us a present of a bullock, asking, however, in return, a piece of baft to make a dress which was double its value. We had not been long here when Alley Lowe, the man I had sent from Samba Contaye with the dollars and other articles to Mr. Dochard, returned, not having been able to pass Kasson, where he was robbed, and from where he with difficulty escaped with his life. Dheangina, the man who accompanied him, was taken ill with the Guinea worm at a very early part of their march, in which state he remained so long unable to move, that Alley Lowe endeavoured to prosecute the journey alone, but in which he unfortunately failed. He had neither seen nor heard any thing of Bakoro or the man I sent with him; I was therefore in hopes they had been able to pass; but alas! those hopes soon vanished, and I had the mortification of seeing them return in a short time equally unsuccessful. Their case however was not that of Alley Lowe, who would have got on if the possibility of his doing so had existed. They had idled so much of their time at the towns and villages they passed on the road, that their stock of articles for the purchase of provisions was soon exhausted, and they were reduced to the necessity of selling one of their horses to procure subsistence. Ismena, too, had been ill some time; but Bakoro, who was well and might have gone on without him, had he felt the least inclination to do so, squandered both his time and money until the means of proceeding were completely exhausted.