162 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



and books of payment, so Gosling considered they had been 

 punished enough and only made an example of the third. 



Continuing his road, he reached a small town called 

 Kupto, walled in and double-dyked, with a plank bridge over 

 to the gate. This had been a march of seventeen miles 

 through a difficult bush country and with a deep river to 

 cross. On the way he had seen much spoor of giraffe and roan 

 antelope. He stopped at Kupto and got carriers for the next 

 day's march. He found these pagan carriers excellent ; they 

 were cheerful and willing, travelled very quickly, and, when 

 warned, never touched the crops through which they passed. 



A little way on, he crossed the river Banzi, wading up 

 to the neck ; then passed through two villages, both quite 

 deserted. At the last, which was named Duell, he halted for 

 water ; as no living being could be found, he took a drink from 

 a water-pot that was handy, and on leaving put some tobacco 

 in the calabash that acted as a cover. Soon after he heard 

 the grateful " Wah ! " from an old woman who had evi- 

 dently been secreted in the crops. The country for a long 

 way became dull bush and tall grass over 7 ft. high. Later 

 he passed the ruins of Nassa, leaving the ruins of Burmi 600 

 yards on his left, and arrived in Ashaka mid-day on August 

 24, four days after my brother and Talbot had left there, so 

 that the concentration of the expedition had been timed 

 pretty accurately. Jose was still there collecting food in the 

 neighbouring country. Meanwhile, four oxen and thirteen 

 donkeys had come in from my brother, so the sections of 

 one of the boats and forty -three loads were sent on to Gujba 

 Goshng following on the 30th, not sorry to leave Ashaka and 

 its cripples, flies, and dogs. 



