194 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



to go any further, we made a fire to dry our cloaks, which 

 were literally soaked with perspiration. A little water 

 brought us by the wives of these bushmen, for they had no 

 hut, was our supper, and the broken granite stones our 

 bed. The water was a strong chalybeate. The night was 

 however fine, though cold, so that our bivouac, for want of 

 our coats, which, on the expectation of being back the same 

 evening, we had not brought, was not over comfortable ; 

 and at five o'clock in the morning of the 29th I quitted it to 

 take a view of the river. One of the bushmen informed vis, 

 that after a short reacli to the eastward it again ran to the 

 south, and then turned back to the north, pointing out the 

 hills and a banza, named Yonga, round which it turned ; 

 and according to his account, after two days journey in a 

 canoe higher up, another Sangalla occurred, worse than the 

 first. We also learnt that the banza, which we intended 

 to have gone to the evening before, had been deserted 

 for some time ; the people, it seems, had robbed some 

 slave merchants returning from Embomma with their 

 goods, and fearing the consequences, had all taken to the 

 bush. After a small portion of roasted manioc and a 

 draught of water for breakfast, we proceeded on our return 

 to Inga ; and, having climbed a tremendous hill Avhich 

 hangs over the river, we came to three or four huts, where 



