TREACHERY OF BOUBOU. 275 
June 1st. Boubou at length exposed his abominable 
character. Perceiving that the strength of my constitution 
had resisted both the malady and the poison, he forbade his 
wives to give me any food. My faithful Boukari was himself 
obliged to dress my food, to wash the little linen which I had 
still left, and to fetch water for me from a spring at a great 
distance. Boubou did not confine the effects of the hatred he 
had conceived against me to the above prohibition ; nothing 
could appease him, since he suspected that I had favoured the 
flight of one of his wives who was gone to Bondou, with the 
intention of seeking an asylum there from the vengeance of 
her rivals. He ran over the whole \'illage, threatening the 
inhabitants with his utmost displeasure if they furnished me 
with the least thing that I solicited of them, not excepting 
water. As he was capable of committing the greatest crimes, 
he struck such terror into the people, that I found myself 
likely to want the first necessaries of life. One woman only, 
named Coniba, bent with the weight of years, despised 
his threats and drove him from her hut, telling him, that she 
would supply me with every thing I wanted, If Providence 
had not sent us this guardian angel in our unhappy situation, 
Boukari and myself must have sunk exhausted by hunger, 
fatigue, and sickness. 
-'^he cruel Boubou, seeing his guilty designs frustra- 
ted by the humanity of this old woman, who every day 
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