114 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
another still more serious. One night as he lay fast 
asleep, the negroes waked him by the exclamation of 
" out, out !" and, as he was unable to move, they 
laid hold of him, for the purpose of dragging him 
away. The father imploring to know the motive 
of such usage, they could only cry " the ants, the 
" ants." In fact, on looking downwards, he per- 
ceived his legs covered with those insects, who were 
making rapid progress towards his trunk ; and 
before he had passed the threshold, the floor was 
overlaid with them to the depth of half a foot. 
The missionary was deposited in the garden, till a 
quantity of straw, being collected and set on fire, 
either consumed or drove away these formidable 
invaders. Carli then returned to bed ; but the 
ants had left such a stench, as the most diligent 
use of the monkey was scarcely sufficient to coun- 
teract. He was assured, however, that, but for this 
abrupt removal, he would infallibly have been eat- 
en up ; and that cows were often found in the 
morning with nothing left but the bones, all the 
rest having been consumed by those insects. " God 
" be praised," says he, therefore, " that my body 
" was not devoured by them alive." * 
* The ants by which our traveller was so grievously annoy- 
ed, are undoubtedly the insect properly called Termites, which 
abound prodigiously over all Western Africa. Golberry says, 
they might be called its scourge, if their extraordinary power 
