MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
153 
tbeir heads if they quitted us. Mt. TedHe, myself, a soldier, and 
the Ashantee next in authority under the captain, outwalked the 
rest of the party, and found ourselves out of their hearing when it 
grew dark. We lost some time in trying to make torches to keep 
off the beasts, and to direct us in the right track, for we were 
walking through a continued bog, and had long before lost our 
shoes. A violent tornado ushered in the night, we could not hear 
each other holla, and were soon separated ; luckily I found I had 
one person left with me (the Ashantee) who, after I had groped 
him out, tying his cloth tight round his middle, gave me the other 
end, and thus plunged along, pulling me after him, through bogs 
and rivers, exactly like an owl tied to a duck in a pond. The 
thunder, the darkness, and the howlings of the wild beasts were 
awful, but the loud and continuing crash of a large tree, which fell 
very near us during the storm, was even more so to my ear. The 
Ashantee had dragged me along, or rather through, in this manner 
until I judged it to be midnight, when, quite exhausted, with the 
remnants of my clothes scarcely hanging together, I let go his 
clothj and falling on the ground, was asleep before I could call out 
to him. I was awoke by this faithful guide, who had felt me out, 
and seated me on the trunk of a tree, with my head resting on his 
shoulder ; he gave me to understand I must die if I sat there, and 
we pursued the duck and owl method once more. In an hour 
we forded the last river, which had swollen considerably above my 
chin, and spread to a great width. This last labour I considered 
final, and my drowsiness became so fascinating, that it seemed to 
beguile me of every painful thought and apprehension, and the 
yielding to it was an exquisite, though momentary pleasure. I 
presume I must have slept above an hour, lifted by this humane 
man from the bank of the river to a drier corner of the forest, 
more impervious to the torrents of rain ; when, being awoke, I was 
