212 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
several of his men_, who were eoming to our assistance. Our canoes 
were required to bring them across the next morning. 
September IQth . — A cold and disagreeable day^ frequent showers. 
My wife^ feeling a little better, begged that we might leave this 
miserable spot the day following. For the first time since our 
arrival she left the tent, supported by me, to visit the grave of poor 
Mussaad. 
September 17th . — My wife still earnestly desiring to resume our 
journey; though contrary to the advice of Dr. Murie, I consented, 
and, at nine a.m., tents were down, and preparations made for 
embarking. We had five canoes and the gutta-percha punt. 
The canoes were laden with the tents, the small amount of per- 
sonal baggage, and the few remaining provisions, and, in addition 
to the negro working the canoe, each craft carried two servants. 
They pushed off first, drifting with the current, the water being too 
deep for the pole to be of use except as a paddle. Myself and wife 
followed in the punt, in which I had placed sextants, books, &c., and 
a few rifles ; I pulled across the deep clear water, with a pair of 
sculls, to a little creek in the Herbage, the point to be attained, 
which terminated in a narrow canal. Here the sculls were no 
longer available, so, unshipping them, I made fast our tow-line to a 
canoe, poled by a negro prisoner, who had been one of the foremost 
to capsize our men. In his boat was my vrife^s little servant Halima, 
and a soldier who, with gun in hand, watched narrowly the negro, 
in case he attempted to upset us. Giving Mrs. Petherick a knife 
to cut the tow-line, which would free the punt if the canoe should 
be capsized, myself with gun cocked, I was prepared to punish 
treachery. The negro propelled with a long cane, and to it was 
attached a forked piece of wood spliced to the pole by a ferule of 
