AFRICA. 203 
fliortefl: road. The barkings, the cries, the 
tranfportsof this galloping crowd refembled a 
troop of bacchanals rather than a company of 
famiftied travellers. I fhared the joy of every 
individual. A thoufand confufed fentiments 
agitated me at once, and my eyes were filled 
with involuntary tears. Few men upon 
earth have luffered pains equal to mine : but 
then, few have experienced fuch exquifite plea- 
fure. 
My firft ftep, when I arrived at the water, 
was to leap into it, that I might cool and re- 
frelh my limbs, while I<was quenching my 
thini. Thus I fatisfied two urgent Vv^ants at 
once ; and my people and all my animals did 
the fame. 
The river exhibited a majeftic fcene. Its 
breadth, in the narrovvcft parts of its ftream, 
was equal to that of the Seine at its entrance 
into Paris : yet, to judge of its ufual height from 
a beach of two hundred paces which it now 
left dry, it muft have been lowered confider- 
ably in confequence of the drought. Many 
rocks, too, were perceptible above the furface of 
the water, which no doubt were covered when 
the river w^as at its height. 
Its 
