ii2 TRAVELS IN 
fenting the country as extraordinary, the more 
\vas I inflamed with a defire of vifiting it. I 
faw there, in my mind's eye^ new objeds of 
natural hiftory, difcoveries of importance to 
commerce ; and I fuppofed that it would fur- 
nlfli me with details proper to awaken curio- 
fity, and the more fmgular as no one before 
me had ever had an opportunity of becom- 
ing acquainted with them. 
With regard to the frightful accounts that 
had been given me, 1 faw nothing in thenl 
but exaggerated tales, which, paffing fuccef- 
fiveiy through the mouths of my dijfFerent in- 
terpreters, w^ere enlarged in proportion to tht 
fear of each. And after all, as the Houzou- 
anas advanced as far as the horde to plunder 
it, I might as well go to them, as fuffer them 
to comxC to me : there was no more danger in 
the one cafe than in the other. 
I confefs, however, that what I had heard 
refpeding the nature of the foil did not appear 
to be entirely void of foundation. In the 
courfe of my journey to the habitation of the 
Sandal-bearers, when I turned towards the 
wood I found the ground fo thickly covered 
with a greyilh duft, that it concealed not only 
th6 
