uperstitious notions, although his companions
took every opportunity of turning his expectations into ridicule, but
he found a very plausible excuse for the impotency of his divining
rod in the discovery, that its qualities had all been dried up by the
heat of the climate, and that, under every circumstance, it was not
an instrument adapted to the country in which it was to be carried
into use. On one occasion, however, the virtue of the divining rod
appeared suddenly to have returned, for his eyes were gladdened with
the sight of a large mass of apparent gold; the delusion, however,
soon vanished, for, on examination, it was found to be nothing more
than common spar. According to his report, the metal is never met
with in low fertile and wooded spots, but always in naked and barren
hills, embedded in a reddish earth. At one place, after a labour of
twenty days, he succeeded in extracting twelve pounds, and, at
length, he asserts that he arrived at the mouth of the mine itself,
and saw gold in such abundance, as surprised him with joy and
admiration. It does not appear, however, that he returned from his
expedition considerably improved in his fortune by the discovery of
this mine, nor does he give any notice of the real position of it, by
which we are led to conjecture, that the discovery of the mine was
one of those fabrications, which the travellers of those times were
apt to indulge in, for the purpose of gratifying their own vanity,
and exciting the envy of their fellow countrymen.

The spirit of African discovery began to revive in England about the
year 1720. At that time, the Duke of Chandos was governor of the
African company, and being concerned at the declining state of their
affairs, suggested the idea of retrieving them, by opening a path
into the golden regions, which were still reported to exist in the
central part of Africa. The company were not long in finding a person
competent to undertake the expedition, and, on the particular
recommendation of the duke, the appointment was given to Capt.
Bartholomew Stibbs. Being furnished with the requisite means for
sailing up the Gambia, Stibbs sailed in September, 1723, and, on the
7th of October, he arrived at James' Island, the English settlement,
situate about thirty miles from the mouth of the river, whence he
despatched a messenger to Mr. Willy, the governor, who happened at
that time to be visiting the factory at Joar, more than a hundred
miles distant, a