HUMAN BEINGS AT LAST 
613 
May 8th. I started before daybreak, still keeping to the 
left bank, which ran towards the south-south-west. Strange 
I did not meet anybody ! Perhaps the caravan-road lay 
deeper in the forest, so that I might easily pass people 
without seeing them. I thought 1 had better go and look ; 
so I crossed through the forest, going due west. It was 
only about half a mile wide, and on the other side of it I 
came upon that terrible ocean of yellow sand, which I 
knew so well, and now fled from with horror. Another 
hour later, the sand-dunes, which stretched from north- 
north-west to south-south-east, came down in several places 
close to the brink of the river. Along the edge of the 
desert there were poplars growing singly and at wide inter- 
vals apart. Overcome by the heat, I threw myself down 
under the shade of one of them to rest. On my way to 
that point I had passed no less than eight small pools ; in 
most of them however the water had a faint saltish taste. 
After resting a couple of hours, I continued my solitary 
journey towards the south. If there was a caravan-road 
alongside the river, it was manifest it did not follow the left 
bank, for nobody would travel through the sand-dunes 
unless they were compelled to do so. I must cross over 
and see what promise there was in the forest on the right 
bank. At this place the river-bed was about a mile and a 
quarter wide. But I found no caravan-track in the forest 
on the right bank either. I therefore went back to the 
river-bed, and travelled close beside the bank and the edge 
of the forest. About 350 yards further on there were two 
small islands in the river, covered with bushes and poplars ; 
and between the southern island and the river-bank I per- 
ceived, shortly before sunset, the fresh footmarks of two 
barefooted men, who had gone that way, but in the opposite 
direction, that is towards the north, driving four donkeys 
before them. 
Footprints of human beings! A remarkable, an en- 
couraging sight 1 I was not absolutely alone, then, in that 
inhospitable region. The footprints were so fresh that 
every detail of the men’s feet was plainly marked in the 
sand. At the most they could not be more than a day old. 
