ibed.

Here lies The Residue of The Honourable Sea Captain, GEORGE ANDREW
HIORT, Born in Denmark, the 6th of September, 1746, Married January
8th, 1766, to the virtuous Lady Mary Catherine Schive, who, extremely
sorrowful, with two good-natured Daughters, deplores the too early
Death of this now eternally-blessed Person.

Died on the Coast of Guinea, the 15th October, 1783. His Body reposes
here, waiting for a glorious Resurrection, whilst his Soul is in the
hands of GOD, where no pain can reach.

In this place we discovered a tombstone of the date of 1680, but
unfortunately the inscription was illegible.

We made an excursion to the island of Tasso before dinner, and returned
to Bance Island where we passed the night. On approaching Tasso, we saw
a large alligator, which Mr. McCormack fired at, but apparently without
any effect. It is a well-known fact that the scales of these creatures
will turn a bullet. They abound in the river, and are very fearless
and ravenous. Some of the men belonging to the timber rafts, who
incautiously trusted themselves in the water, have been on several
occasions seized by the alligators and carried off, sometimes escaping
with the loss of a leg or an arm; at other times, when the people on
the rafts happened to sit at the sides, with their feet hanging over,
the alligators have been known to seize them by their legs and drag
them into the water. They have been taken of the enormous length of 18
feet.

_Wednesday, Sept. 26th_.--The night being very fine, we got up at
half-past two, and left Bance Island to return to Sierra Leone, where
we arrived in less than four hours, pulling the whole way, having a
very fine boat belonging to Mr. McCormack, with a crew of able bodied
blacks.

Mr. McCormack related to me the following circumstance which occurred
to him in a vessel trading along the Gold Coast, and by which he was
placed in a situation of great peril. In the middle of the night he
heard a sudden cry of "Fire," and at the same moment a volume of flame
issued from the fore-hatchway; in a few seconds after another burst
forth from the main hatchway; so that before he had time to collect his
thoughts as to what ought to be done, the whole of the middle of the
vessel was in a blaze. The crew were thrown into consternation, and
speedily crowded the deck in a state of confusion, bordering on frenzy.
The despair of their situation was increased by a knowledge of the
fact,