and ate a late breakfast, took a
final leave of the good General (who made me a present of a fine pointer),
repaired on board the frigate, whose captain was tormented with the blue
devils; he requested me to remain until the following day, when, as he had
chased them away by a few glasses of his favourite beverage--good stiff
grog--and there was no further hope of posting myself into the frigate, I
ordered the anchor to be tripped, and we soon made the sparkling,
transparent wave curl like an old maid's wig before us.

We were three tedious weeks before we reached Sierra Leone, owing to what
sailors term "Irish hurricanes"--when the wind is perpendicular, or, in
plain English, no wind at all. On landing, I met the Governor, Mr. Ludlow,
who had kindly come to welcome me, and begged that I would consider the
Fort my home. I made suitable acknowledgments, and accompanied him to his
house, which was convenient, tolerably cool, and comfortable. He showed me
a clean, cool room, which he was pleased to call my sleeping room. I found
him an amiable and good person, and was happy and proud of his
acquaintance. He told me he intended to make an excursion into the
interior, in order to discover the source of a water-fall, and invited me
to be one of the party, to which, as I was naturally fond of voyages of
discovery, I willingly consented.

The day after, at daybreak, we started, the Governor and myself in
palanquins with awnings and mosquito nets. We were thirty-five in party,
including twenty-four black pioneers, the captain of whom was an
intelligent white man. We cut a path through an immense large forest,
which boasted some noble-looking cotton, manchineel and iron trees, and a
red tree something resembling the bastard mahogany. Although we had
penetrated and ascended more than half-way up one of the Mountains of
Lions, we discovered nothing living but a variety of beautifully-plumaged
birds, which, unused to the intrusion of other bipeds, uttered most
discordant screams. After a fatiguing march, in which we were directed by
a pocket compass, we descried a small rivulet. We followed its course for
some time, and at length arrived at the base of a stupendous rock from
which it issued. We, by calculation, were distant at this time from the
town nineteen miles, nearly seven of which we had cut through the forest.
We all took refreshment and drank His Majesty's health, first in wine and
then in a crystal draught from the spring.