﻿148 NARRATIVE OT A ROUTE 



the tanks, wells, and refervoirs, had moftly dried up, 

 which rendered the heat and length of our journey this 

 day the more diftrefling. The extreme thirft of my 

 people and cattle foon exhaufled the little water we 

 found in the well, and the river being five miles dif- 

 tant, and feparated from us by a ridge of hills, was 

 confequently out of our reacli. Luckily the guides 

 whom we had brought from Ewunpilly^ and who had 

 frequently travelled this road, informed us, that about 

 the diftance of a mile, there were a few Goand huts, 

 the inhabitants of which were fupplied with water from 

 a fpring. We fet out immediately in fearch of it, and, 

 to our great joy, found it was not dried up ; and, on 

 digging a little in the fand, abundance of water flowed 

 out. 



Marching at this fcafon, in the heat of the day, 

 oppreffed us exceedingly ; but the unfettled ftate of 

 the country, and the probable riflv of being attacked, 

 rendered it unavoidable. Although the road was a 

 beaten one, and tolerably clear of brufli-wood, yet the 

 foreft on each fide being exceflively thick, might, if 

 we had moved in the dark, have enabled an enemy to 

 come upon us unawares : whereas, by travelling in 

 the day, and taking our ground in a clear fpot, we 

 were always in a fituation to defend ourfelves with ad- 

 vantage. The women and children who had accom- 

 panied the fepoys^ and who, at the commencement of 

 our journey, had been accuftomed to ride, were now, 

 from the reduced ftate of the cattle, compelled to 

 walk. They appeared, however, to be fully impreffed 

 with the ncceliity of the cafe; and although they would 

 have fullered lefs by travelling in the cool of the 

 night, yet they mull have created confiderable con- 

 fuHoii, in cafe of an attack at that time; exclufive of 

 which confiderations, the day-light was effentially ne- 

 ccU'ary to my geographical purfuits. 



May 



