Niger

transport animals and provisions as he thought
needful. It was a short two weeks’ sail in normal
weather, but even at the outset the second expedi¬
tion was faced with ill-luck. The Bay of Biscay was
at its worst ; it drove back the Crescent again and
again into the shelters of the French coast. Febru¬
ary dragged past, a month of pelting rain and
lashing tides, in Mungo’s ears the whistle of cordage
and in his face the salt of blown spray while
he tramped the quivering deck in quivering
impatience. Towards the beginning of March the
winds began to abate, and the Crescent slipped
south in a week of calm. On the 8th of March they
reached St. lago of Cape Verde.
Mungo and Alexander went ashore with George
Scott and the three began to buy asses. The more
of them he saw the better Mungo liked the beasts :
he and his two friends ranged the town in search
of hardy and spirited donkeys. In two weeks they
had purchased forty-four, and a large supply of
corn and hay. The captain of the Crescent drew the
line at more, seeing the likelihood of his vessel
foundering in the Atlantic under the weight of an
overshipment of donkeys. They sailed for Goree
on the 21 st.
Early on the 25th of March the coast of Africa
came blue and gold up out of the forward horizon
on Mungo’s gaze—that coast he had seen sink
behind him eight years before as the slave-ship
Charlestown groaned her way westwards. Alexander
and Scott came to his side and watched that thin
276