( 160 ). 



cooking utensil was a pot placed on three stones and heated by a 

 fire of green wood. The owner was very assiduous in helping us, 

 and heartily desired us to make free. He was reputed to be a man 

 of considerable property, which he had accumulated by selling corn 

 for the troops of mules which frequently stop here, and are gene- 

 rally better accomodated than his biped guests. We procured some- 

 thing in the form of a supper, and passed the night under the same 

 sort of shed as that which sheltered our cattle, and on bedding very 

 little superior in quality to theirs. 



The experience of this night completed the catalogue of incon- 

 veniences to which we had been exposed since the commencement 

 of our journey. I would advise every traveller Avho pursues the same 

 route, to provide himself with bed and blankets, a stock of tea, 

 sugar, candles, liquors, soap, and salt, two kettles and a drinking- 

 horn (for in few places will he meet with any of these articles), as 

 well as an umbrella, which can by no means be dispensed with. The 

 whole of this equipage is necessary for each person who travels to 

 make observations on the country, and will require at least two 

 baggage mules to carry it. 



We set out next morning at six, without breakfast, not being 

 able to procure either coffee or milk; and proceeding six miles 

 through a fine open country, arrived at a large village called Louza, 

 containing full two thousand inhabitants. It is well built, but as 

 I was informed, has much declined from its former consequence, 

 which it owed principally to the rich mines in its vicinity now al- 

 most exhausted. We procured a tolerable breakfast of coffee and 

 eggs at a vend ; and, while we partook of it, were much amused by 

 the numbers of inhabitants, who crowded the door in eager curio- 

 sity to see us, asking a variety of questions of a political nature, 

 and forming endless conjectures respecting the object of our journey. 



Leaving this village about eleven o'clock, we proceeded along a 

 range of mountains composed of argillaceous schistus, and passed a 

 hill covered with micaceous iron ore ; in one part of it there was a 



