CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE, 203 
At five P. M. passed a second brook, but the bearers tel- 
ling us there was another further on, we continued our march 
till six. Pitched the tent, and sent the bearers for water : 
but they returned with empty vessels, saying the brook was 
dried up ; and most provokingly seated themselves with the 
utmost indifference round the fire; and tho’ we had not 
a drop of water, they would not move until I put the above 
method in practice, when six of them went back to the brook 
we had left. 
Some showers of rain now fell. Inthe middle of the night 
we found ourselves attacked by a swarm of ants, which fairly 
beat us out of the tent, as we preferred the wet grass to the 
torment they occasioned. 
Sep. 5. Pratt being unable to proceed from his fever, I 
sent him back to Inga with two of the bearers ; and at eight 
A.M. set off with the rest ; the most horrible road, through 
narrow gullies not 18 inches wide and six feet deep, which 
had been formed by the rains excavating the rocks. 
On the summit of one of the hills we met a caravan 
of slave traders going to Embomma, consisting of 50 men 
(eight with muskets), the rest loaded with cassava and ground 
nuts, some of which they kindly gave us. One man and 
four boy slaves were from the Soonda country: all said they 
were taken in the bushes. One of the boys made the most 
