Niger

to the care of a village through which the caravan
was passing.
Three days later he came to Medina and halted
there hardly at all, paying his customs dues in
haste, and marching out the now silent bodyguard
through staring crowds of blacks. His brother-in-
law Alexander seconded him in everything. Mungo
came to depend on him at the rear of the caravan,
as he himself headed the van. Martyn had already
proved useless : it seems probable, looking back
from this distance in time and space, that Martyn
was out of his mind. He had probably suffered
from sunstroke.
From Badoo on the 29th of May Mungo
despatched two letters to England, one to Ailie and
one to Sir Joseph Banks. Both letters contain lies,
telling of the complete health and happiness of the
expedition. This, when already the soldiers dragged
their feet and shivered in recurrent fevers ! But
Mungo closed his eyes to these facts as he did to the
wet season they now approached. To Ailie he
wrote c we are half through our journey without
the smallest accident or unpleasant circumstance \
. . . . Three days before his caravan had been
assailed and scattered by a swarm of bees. Six of
the asses had been lost. A fire had broken out in
the camp as a result of the confusion and a large
portion of the baggage had been destroyed
But though he might commit such facts to his
diary, he committed to Ailie a picture of carefree
success :
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