of the Niger, I told him, that was the
route, by which I was anxious that Africa might, if possible, be
explored. He said, he should think himself singularly fortunate to be
trusted with the adventure. I asked him when he would set out.
'To-morrow morning,' was his answer. I told him I was afraid that we
should not be able, in so short a time, to prepare his instructions, and
to procure for him the letters that were requisite; but that if the
committee should approve of his proposal, all expedition should be
used."

In a few weeks all was ready for his departure. The plan was, to proceed
up the Nile as far as Sennaar or the Babr-el-Abiad, and from thence to
strike across the African continent to the coast of the Atlantic.

His letters from Cairo are full of interest. Of the Nile itself he
speaks contemptuously, says it resembles the Connecticut in size, or may
be compared with the Thames.

After some delay, the day is fixed on which the caravan is to leave
Cairo. He writes to his friends and to the African Association in great
spirits; talks of cutting the continent across, and raises the
expectations of his employers to a high pitch;--the very next letters
from Cairo brought the melancholy intelligence of his death. It seems he
was seized with a bilious complaint, for which he administered a strong
solution of vitriolic acid, so powerful as to produce violent and
burning pains, that threatened to be fatal unless immediate relief could
be procured, which was attempted to be got by a powerful dose of tartar
emetic. His death happened about the end of December, 1788, in the
thirty-eighth year of his age.

Thus perished, in the vigour of manhood, the first victim, in modern
times, to African discovery. Too many, alas! have since shared the same
fate in pursuit of the same object; which, so far from deterring, seems
only to stimulate others, and produce fresh candidates for fame to tread
the same perilous path.--_Quarterly Review--Article "Ledyard's
Travels."_

[8] Sir James Hall of Douglass, Bart., the father of Captain
Basil Hall, R.N., and, till lately, President of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles."

SHAKSPEARE.

* * * * *

LARGE BONNETS.

(_For the Mirror_.)

The immense large bonnets which decorate the ladies of the present day
are truly "_over the b