Chap. LXXXV. 
REAL START. 
409 
dollars from the 1000 dollars brought by the caravan, 
and which I was anxious to leave behind for the use of 
Mr. Vogel. Altogether I was extremely unfortunate 
with my camels, and lost a third one before I had pro- 
ceeded many miles from the town, so that I was 
obliged to throw away several things with which my 
people had overladen my animals. 
Our move from Ddwerghii in the afternoon of 
the 10th was very inauspicious; and while a heavy 
thunder-storm was raging, enveloping everything in 
impenetrable darkness, only occasionally illumined 
by the flashes of lightning, I lost my people, and had 
great difficulty in joining them again. Having 
then moved on by very short marches as far 
as Nghuriituwa, through a finely wooded valley 
called Henderi Gdlliram, we pitched our tents on 
the 14th of May near the town of Y6, where, to 
my utmost disappointment, we had to stay the five 
following days, during which the interesting cha- 
racter of the komadugu, which at present did not 
contain a drop of water, with its border of vegeta- 
tion, afforded me but insufiicient entertainment. 
It would, however, have been curious for any Euro- 
pean, who had adhered to the theory of the great 
eastern branch of the Niger flowing along this bed 
from the Tsad, to see us encamped in the dry bottom 
of this valley. At all events, oppressed as I had 
been all the time by the apprehension that some- 
thing might still occur to frustrate my departure, 
I deemed it one of the happiest moments of my life. 
