342 DESCRIPTION OF A SLAVE-HUNT she wrapped her infant, and thus safely carried it to Lobeid, and in compassion for her weak state I lent her my ass to ride. I am unequal to the task of narrating all the horrors I witnessed during the few days I attached myself to the convoy ; no words are sufficiently expressive to describe the sufferings of the slaves, and no tongue can tell the painful sensations of a man of feeling who witnesses these atrocities. I did all in my power, with entreaties and presents, to make the troops, and the irregular natives forming the escort, more compassionate, and thus many a man was induced to take a child who could not move its jaded feet along the burning sand upon his back, or to relieve a mother exhausted by its weight, and carry it during the whole of the day. Unfortunately, however, I was not able to put a stop to all acts of cruelty, and was forced on one occasion to see an unfeeling soldier fell a man to the ground with the buttend of his musket because unable to keep pace with the rest : his feet, in fact, refused their office : he had been wounded in that part during the siege, the wound had inflamed, and the pain had quite overpowered him. I lost all command of my feelings on witnessing this brutal act, drew my sword, and should have cut down the inhuman barbarian, if my servant had not seized my arm and wrested my sword and pistols from my hand ; nor did he return my arms to me before he saw that my passion had cooled. On the eighth day the expedition