64 
JOURNEY FROM KATUNGA TO BOUSSA, 
crocodiles in the river during the time that it is full. The carriers, 
with the baggage, came up very slowly, and the heaviest loads were 
mostly carried by old women ; and I could not help noticing the 
cold-blooded indifference of the young men, who would not give 
the poor old creatures the least assistance : however, I made them 
carry the heaviest loads, to the great joy of the old ladies. During 
the time I was waiting for the carriers to come up, a piece of cloth 
was stolen from one of the women. The bearers flew to arms in- 
stantly, the arrows laid on the strings, and the bows bent. I ex- 
pected nothing but a battle ; but fortunately the thief was dis- 
covered to be one of the villagers, who had pretended to be asleep, 
and drunk, all the time we were here ; he bad stowed the cloth 
under the thatch of the house, and I never saw a woman more 
overjoyed in my life than the poor honest creature was, when she 
recovered her cloth ; she came and kneeled down to thank me, as 
she said it was by my influence the cloth was returned. On the 
tops of the huts, which are of the real Bornou coozie form, the first 
I have seen since I came to Africa this time, were stuck a number 
of crocodiles’ eggs, which are considered as a protection against that 
animal. All the baggage having now arrived, I left the village of 
Boru, with its shady trees and mud temple, at a very quick pace, 
over a flat country apparently not far from the river Quorra, thickly 
wooded with fine tall trees, and inhabited by large antelopes, nu- 
merous traces of which I saw. In the evening halted in the wood, 
close to a small stream of water. 
The next morning, on leaving our encampment, a messenger 
from the chief of Kiama arrived ; he had been sent to see if I was 
on the road, and to return with speed and inform his master. Our 
road was through thick woods ; the soil a red clay, mixed with 
gravel. At 10 A. M. halted at the town of Oblah, which has been 
walled, and of considerable size, but now only a few huts remain, 
the rest having been burned by Yarro. Here my servant Richard 
