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order to ascertain whether he really had been where it was
reported, and in the hope that, either by his information or
his personal services, the man might be rendered useful to
the views of Government in the exploratory expedition then
on its way to Africa.
Through the intervention of the Gentleman who had
originally recognized the seaman, he was again found, and
immediately brought to the office of the African Committee.
The poor man, whose name was Robert Adams, was in very
ill plight both from hunger and nakedness. Scarcely recovered
from a fit of sickness, he had, in that condition,
begged his way from Holyhead to London, for the purpose
of obtaining through the American Consul, a passage to hig
native country; and he had already passed several nights
in the open streets amongst many other distressed seamen,
with whom the metropolis was at that period unfortunately
crowded.
No time was lost in questioning him respecting the
length of his residence in Africa, the circumstances which
led him thither, the places he had visited, and the means by
which he had escaped. His answers disclosed so extraordinary
a series of adventures and sufferings, as at first to
excite a suspicion that his story was an invention; and the
gentlemen by whom he was accompanied to the office, and
who were present at his first examination, were decidedly of
that opinion, when they considered how widely his account
of Tombuctoo differed from the notions generally entertained
of the magnificence of that city, and of the civilization
of its inhabitants. The Eiditor, however, received from
this short examination, and from the plain and unpretending
answers which the man returned to every question, a strong
impression in favour of his veracity. He accordingly took
notes of the leading facts of his statement, particularly of
the places he had visited, the distances according to his
computations, and the direction in which his several journeys
lay; and having relieved his immediate necessities, and
furnished him with a trifle for his future subsistence, he
desired the man to attend him again in the course, of a few
days.
It was nearly a week before Adams again made his
appearance: but upon his return, being immediately interrogated
upon all the leading points of his story, the
Editor had the gratification to find, upon comparing his 1
answers with the account which he had given on his first
examination, that they were in substance the same, and
repeated almost in the same terms. Thus strengthened in
his • previous opinion that the man’s veracity was to be
depended upon, the Editor resolved to take down in