228 
TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
My presentiments, gleaned en route from tlie men, at length were con- 
firmed beyond a doubt, — that without cattle I could not move. What 
the intentions of Poncet and his agent at Ador were, to mislead me 
by representing the Phol as a bead-trafficking community, I could 
not imagine, as even the ordinary articles of consumption, such as 
moderate quantities of grain, honey, and tobacco, could only be ob- 
tained in exchange for a cow or calf. Had I chosen to seize cattle 
in order to pay the porters, I could have done so at Ador, and thus 
avoided all the inconveniences and heavy losses that had befallen us 
by following this almost impracticable and circuitous route. What 
was to be done? Indebted to the amount of some sixty head of 
cattle for the hire of the porters who had accompanied our men, 
whom we met on the lagoon ; Ibrahim, for an equivalent of goods 
or money, could not, or would not, supply me with any more cattle ; 
neither would the negroes of the adjoining villages dispose of any 
of their cattle for any consideration in our power to give them. 
My men^s demands for cattle to purchase their different require- 
ments, put off from day to day, rendered them troublesome and tur- 
bulent. They insisted — and that was true enough — that without 
cattle we could neither return nor proceed, and they would consent 
no longer to privations whilst in possession of the means to obtain 
the necessaries to sustain life; and, with or without my consent, 
they were prepared to join PoncePs men in a razzia. 
The storm I had dreaded now burst, and to this cattle razzia I 
was compelled to yield a reluctant assent. 
In lieu of the introduction of more valuable and civilizing mer- 
chandise, such as domestic implements or cloth for wearing apparel, 
as articles of barter, when the value of glass beads and copper orna- 
ments became depreciated, many of the traders disgraced themselves 
by descending to the level of the savages, and imitating them, in their 
