INTERIOR OF AFRICA. I47 
the water into the trough, and told me to drink from thence. 
Though this trough was none of the largest, and three cows 
were already drinking in it, I resolved to come in for my share ; 
and kneeling down, thrust my head between two of the cows, 
and drank with great pleasure, until the water was nearly ex- 
hausted ; and the cows began to contend with each other for 
the last mouthful. 
In adventures of this nature, I passed the sultry month of 
May, during which no material change took place in my situa- 
tion. Ali still considered me as a lawful prisoner; and Fatima, 
though she allowed me a larger quantity of victuals than I had 
been accustomed to receive at Benowm, had as yet said nothing 
on the subject of my release. In the meantime, the frequent 
changes of the wind, the gathering clouds, and distant lightning, 
with other appearances of approaching rain, indicated that the 
wet season was at hand ; when the Moors annually evacuate the 
country of the Negroes, and return to the skirts of the Great 
Desert. This made me consider that my fate was drawing 
towards a crisis, and I resolved to wait for the event without any 
seeming uneasiness : but circumstances occurred which produced 
a change in my favour, more suddenly than I had foreseen, 
or had reason to expect. The case was this : the fugitive Kaar- 
tans, who had taken refuge in Ludamar, as I have related in 
Chapter VIII. finding that the Moors were about to leave them, 
and dreading the resentment of their own sovereign, whom 
they had so basely deserted, offered to treat with Ali, for two 
hundred Moorish horsemen, to co-operate with them in an 
effort to expel Daisy from Gedingooma ; for until Daisy should 
Us 
