84 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NH.E 



evening. But towards the end of our march, we were met 

 by two horsemen from Kowa, who had evidently been sent 

 out to see what was happening. They departed almost 

 directly, after having some excited talk with the Kanembus. 

 The latter appeared much upset and their headman came to 

 me and begged me to go on at once to the Baga, but would 

 give me no reason. However, it was not difficult to guess 

 the meaning of all that had passed and I at once perceived 

 that I was in danger of being waylaid before I could reach the 

 Baga by the Lowan's horsemen who would probably take the 

 oxen from me. To forestall this possibility I decided to make 

 a night march, calculating we might just manage to get 

 safely in before the Lowan could move. But before starting 

 it was necessary to give the men and oxen a rest for several 

 hours. At ten o'clock Fortune sent us a full moon that gave 

 a bright light for the difficult journey, and soon all the camp 

 were astir. Shouts and curses filled the air as the men, with 

 fingers working fast and frantically under the clouds of 

 mosquitoes, strapped the loads on to the backs of the oxen 

 which stamped and snorted, maddened by the plague of the 

 terrible insects that closed up their eyes and blackened their 

 noses. At length all was ready for the start and the diffi- 

 culties attendant on a night march began. The oxen, freed 

 from their tethers, made a sudden rush forward, and several 

 stampeded into the bush, knocking over their drivers and 

 throwing their loads. For half an hour all was confusion. 

 Then the column settled down to a steady pace and we 

 marched in silence in the moonlight past the sombre maria 

 headlands and the ghostly clumps of maio bush that lay 

 scattered over the plain. It was a long twelve miles to the 



