CHAPTER II KKOM KAVES TO TIMUUKTU On October lo, 1895, wc finally left Kayes. Our packages had been piled up the eveninjj befiirc in three raihvay wagons, and our party now took their places in the carriages. Haudry, Bluzet, and Sauzereau our . engineer, who were to go up in the Davoust, remained, and the rest of my staff were the following : the second master pilot. Samba Amadi, generally called Digui, a man of colossal height and herculean strength, but more remarkable still for his zeal, his fidelity, and his nautical skill ; the native interpreter Suleyman Gundiamu, who had been to Timbuktu with Caron as one of his coolies ; the Arabic translator, Abdulaye Dem, a cunning and intelligent little Toucouleur, more cultivated than most of the negro marabouts; and twenty coolies, or native sailors.