190 



ACROSS AFRICA. 



[Chap 



March, 

 18V4. 



but our fires prevented their venturing into the camp. Judg- 

 ing from the number of their foot-marks, we must have pitched 

 upon a favorite landing-place, whence their tracks led straight 

 up a steep hill which one would have thought it impossible for 

 such unwieldy beasts to scale. 



Besides the disturbance caused by river-horses, there was 

 quite a plague of frogs incessautly croaking the live-long night. 

 The noise of some resembled that made by calkers or riveters, 

 while others, larger or neai-er, sounded more like smiths for- 

 ging, and a few made a croak like a ratchet-drill ; so that, with 

 a little imagination, it was not difiicult to fancy one's self in a 

 ship-building yard. 



OA.MI" ON SPIT. 



We passed the village of Fonda's brother the following morn- 

 ing, and upon a heavy squall coming up behind, ran inside a 

 small sandy spit with half a dozen huts on it. The inhabitants 

 bolted, with their goods and chattels, when they saw us coming; 

 for although a very heavy palisade was built across the spit as a 

 protection on the land side, it was perfectly open to the water. 



After the squall, a steady, soaking rain set in, and we lay up 

 for the night. Some of the men went to a neighboring village 

 in search of food, and found there the people who had been 

 friglitened at our approach, believing that we were Arabs' slaves 

 employed to hunt for slaves. Food M'as not obtained here, nor, 

 indeed, for some days afterward ; and the stock of corn laid in 



