i^S2 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
ing a well within a few yards of our bivouac ; but 
this we were not allowed to touch before seven 
o'clock in the evening, and, having paid dearly 
for the indulgence, we found also, on return- 
ing from the well to tie up the asses for the night, 
that two of them had been stolen. Macca pro- 
mised to have them restored, but we never saw 
them afterwards. 
It appeared to me that our guides were at 
the bottom of all this hindrance from water and 
objections to the path, in which the inhabitants 
of all the towns we passed through joined them, 
(but particularly those of Dindoody, where we 
spent the whole of the 30th in palaver with them), 
1 conceived it better to make them a large pre- 
sent ^ to induce their acting in compliance with 
our wishes, to which they consented, binding 
themselves by an oath on the Koran, to which, 
although little regard had been paid by Alma- 
my, I trusted, however, that they would remain 
faithful. 
We therefore again set forward to the ne., and, 
in about two hours, reached a small village call- 
ed Loogoonoody, where we found that the oaths 
of our guides were of as little avail as that of 
their sovereign and his ministers, for we were 
again obliged to pay for water before the inha- 
bitants would allow us to approach their wells. 
* Article 9^ Appendix, 
