32 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
and that if we should succeed at all, it would 
probably be at a period when the advanced state 
of the season must render our doing so ex- 
tremely difficult, if not wholly impracticable. 
Our situation was daily becoming more alarm- 
ing ; provisions were not only scarce, but al- 
most impossible to be procured even in small 
quantities, and at exorbitant prices ; and sick- 
ness increased rapidly since the rains set in. 
Captain Campbell, Lieutenant Stokoe, and Mr. 
Kummerwere added to the list since the 12th ; 
the two latter continued to decline until the 
SGth, when, seeing no chance of their imme- 
diate recovery, they were prevailed on to return 
to the coast. Mr. Kummer left us on that 
day, and Lieutenant Stokoe on the 28th. The 
mode adopted for their conveyance (for they 
were unable to ride ) was cradles, or long bas- 
kets of cane, at each end of which was a loop, 
or long handle, for the purpose of receiving a 
pole, that served the same use as the pole of pa- 
lanquins, and supported a curtain to defend 
them from the rays of the sun. Two men could 
easily carry one of these with a person of ordi- 
nary size in it, but, in order that no delay 
should arise from want of carriers for them- 
selves or their baggage, five accompanied each. 
On the 2d of May, Lamina, accompanied by 
one of the chiefs, named Abou Hararata, and 
