FROM FAFA TO SAY 257 " Not so much as a hole in her, Baudry ! " I cried.

" No, I don't think there is," he replied, " but we had a narrow escape." We overhauled her, and there was not a leak anywhere. In fact, Baudry declared that her planks were really more watertight than ever.

Then my Tuareg, who had not gone away after all, but whom I had completely forgotten, spoke to me again : ''EfthiJ" he said, which means simply "look!" but his great wild black eyes shone with pleasure from out of his veil as if some piece of good luck had happened to himself.

Now are these Tuaregs brutes ? are they men who can only be swayed by interested motives? What nonsense to say they are !

Where did the interested motives come in here } Would it not have been better for him if our boats had all been sucked down in the rapids? We ourselves and all our goods would then have been his lawful prey.

May Providence only grant that I never find any of my fellow-countrymen worse than the Tuaregs.

You may be sure the brave fellow got his parcel of goods and many other things as well. With his long swinging step he went off to his people again, shouting to us by way of adieu, " Ikfak iallah el Kheir " (" may God give thee all good things ! ") This was, however, but the first of the Labezenga rapids, and that the easiest. We had scarcely gone a hundred yards further when we came to a regular cataract some two feet high, barring our passage. On one side rose lofty heights, on the left the stream was broken into several arms by islands. In fact, there did not seem to be any opening on either side, and we were all but in despair of getting through this time.

Baudry spent the whole afternoon with our guide from Karu, seeking a practicable pass, but everywhere the scene