WE LEAVE WAYO. 
301 
The usual delay and disappointment was experienced in the 
hiring of porters to accompany us to Gondokoro^ so many of these 
people have been allured thither by fair promises of other traders_, 
never to return^ having been sold by their unprincipled hirers into 
slavery. To our dismay,, Petherick heard that it was the intention 
of Khurshid Aga^s agent to follow in our wake with his captured 
negroes,, women and children ; many of the former we had caught 
glimpses of, with that terrible fork of wood half circling the 
throat. 
At last, on February \2th, we were once more en route, not, 
however, leaving Wayo until five p.m. Like most first starts, it was 
a short one, as soon after sunset we encamped in a cattle-kraal on 
the east bank of the Bibio ; this was crossed at a ford estimated 
at upwards of a hundred feet wide. The flowing water was in width 
some forty feet, the depth insignificantly shallow. 
February \^th . — A wretched night had been passed ; all retired 
grumbling to snatch repose. The finely-made wafer-like bread 
and other food had inadvertently been left behind; but ere our 
start this day, at 7.30 a.m., was effected, an apology for breakfast 
was forthcoming. 
The country was flat and uninteresting ; the villages the same. 
Some glistening quartz pebbles attracted my attention, but our 
attendants did not care to encumber themselves with specimens. 
A few lofty trees were conspicuous in a thin wood; availing our- 
selves of the shade, we rested forty minutes. A slight ascent soon 
commenced, and when the summit was reached an extensive view 
of the country was presented; we lingered to enjoy the prospect, 
our people leaving us in the rear. Two sugar-loaf hills in the 
