238 TIMEHRI. 
well. But most of the black men had proved themselves R 
so entirely helpless, under circumstances certainly entirely B Fe: 
new to them, and had bewailed themselves sounceasingly 
as, in more ways than one, to try my endurance tothe 
utmost. Moreover, the drought, which had so long pre- — aN 
vailed, had so dried up the rivers—making the passing up ot 
of the boats a matter of really great difficulty—that the a { 
strength of all had been much tried. And, by the time 4 
we reached the furthest point on the savannah to which it 
seemed possible to drag the boats, almost every one Of 
us, red, white, and black, alike, was so pulled down with 4 
fever and dysentery that affairs looked very gloomy. ne 
A few days’ rest—the effeéts of which would probably 
have been better had we not been reduced to getting our 
supply of drinking water—and even that was heavy with 
felspathic clay and white as milk—from holes scraped in — 
the parched savannah, wherever a few rushes seemed to — 
;ndicate former moisture—pulled us together to a certain ‘ 
extent. But it seemed hopeless to expeét the black men, 
or even my two white companions, neither of whom had 
had practice in travel of that sort, to undertake the long — 
walk across the unknown country which then lay beforeme. 4 
I therefore had to make up my mind to send them back, ~ 
with the greater number of my own Redskins, and 
keeping only three of the latter, to trust to these and to 4 
my own resources to carry out the remaining and more 
arduous part of the journey. y 
I will here make confession that never in my life have 
I felt more miserable than when, the morning after I had _ 
come to this resolution, those who had come with me so — 
far beyond the range of civilization got into the boats and | 
left me with my three remaining red companions, sitting, 
