INTRODUCTION. 
13 
to several princes of his family/ who accompanied us with 
a numerous escort of soldiers^ horse and foot. Night having 
come on, a large fire was lighted, and, that we might no 
longer be embarrassed by the baggage which retarded our 
progress, orders were issued that every one should throw 
into it all he possessed, excepting such articles of clothing 
as were absolutely necessary. This useful sacrifice was 
made before the faces of the Foulahs, who in vain en- 
treated us to desist. In our just indignation against them 
we would rather have suffered death- than have allowed them 
to save so much as a handkerchief from the flames. 
At day-break the next morning we entered Fouta-Toro 
preceded by a very bad reputation. The people of Bondou 
had so effectually recommended us to their neighbours, that 
wherever we went we met with only hostile looks and inimi- 
cal dispositions ; neither were we any where suffered to 
supply ourselves with water till the price of it had been 
fixed : the reader will perhaps scarcely believe that fre- 
quently it cost us six francs per bottle. If we ever deviated 
from the track prescribed by our convention with the al- 
mamy of Bondou, the natives immediately secured all the 
wells, and we were obliged to return to the route agreed upon 
lest we should perish with thirst. At another time, on the 
contrary, the people of a village would have forced us to 
quit the road we were pursuing for another which would 
have taken us to a distance from the Senegal. I know not 
how we should have been able to withstand this fresh vio- 
lence, since we were to have been allowed access to the wells 
only upon the dreadful condition of pursuing this latter route; 
as we were all reduced to extremity and our strength ex- 
hausted, two wretched blunderbusses would not have suf- 
ficed for laying siege to the wells. Fortunately, M. Par- 
tarrieu found means to gain a chief, who procured us two 
gkinfuls of water : they cost us nearly ten francs a bottle ; 
