Chap. XVI. NEW aSHANGO PORTERS.' 325 



July I took the distances between the Moon and 

 JujDiter ; on the 4th, the weather became cloudy, 

 and I failed in taking the observations I had hoped 

 to have obtained. When the moon, the ])lanet 

 Saturn, and the star Spica were sufficiently low in 

 the heavens to be taken with the artificial horizon, 

 tbe sky was too cloudy to permit of the observation. 



Juhj 5th. We were delayed three more days in 

 Niembouai through the illness of Ngoma, one of my 

 Commi boys. I paid the new Ashango porters on 

 the 2nd, and had some difficulty in getting them 

 away after the two days' delay without giving them 

 more.* With them departed Mokounga. 



W^e started at ten a.m., led by Magouga, an in- 

 fluential man of Niembouai, whose guest I had been 

 during my stay here. The path gradually descended 

 into the valley of the Ouano, a river Avhich falls into 

 the Odiganga. I found on reaching its banks, about 

 three miles east of Niembouai, that we had descended 

 more than 600 feet, the altitude being 1285 feet. 



* The names of my Ashango porters were as follows : — 



Besides these we had eight porters to carry the loads of my Commi men 

 and a varying number followed to carry the provisions and kettles ; but I 

 omitted to take their names. We had also generally with us three or four 

 old fellows who followed us from village to village, expecting to feed well 

 on the road, and at 'the end of a few days to get something for speech- 

 making ; for they thought they helped me wonderfully in this way. 



