Niger

/J O At the end he could not bear any formal
^ farewell with Ailie and the children. He
went off to Edinburgh and wrote from there,
telling them he was leaving for London, and so for
the Gambia. He would not put to test again
Ailie’s understanding : at the last it might fail, or
his own resolution, as he wrote. There was a kind
of premonition in that writing.
But the mood cleared as he neared London and
vanished in London itself. The delay was short
enough. On the 28th of January he and Alexander
Anderson and George Scott travelled down to
Portsmouth, where the Crescent transport was
waiting to embark them. As well as Mungo’s two
friends, five artificers from the Portsmouth dock¬
yards, whose task it would be to build the boats
that were to sail the Niger, clambered aboard the
Crescent and found berths for the weary days of
voyaging that ensued. Mungo was in high spirits.
He sent a last letter to Ailie, telling her he was
convinced of a speedy success and return. Then
the Crescent unreefed her great sails and slowly
lurched out through the darkling waters of the
morning of the 30th of January, 1805.
Their destination was the Cape Verde islands
where Mungo had authorisation to purchase such
275