76 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

We left Pakeba on the 1st of May, at six in the morning, and travelled ne. by e. until nine, when we reached Sandoo Madina. The path good, over a sandy soil, mixed with small iron-stone gravel, thinly covered with thorny underwood and dry grass. Two more horses were abandoned at Pakeba, as useless, and one left behind on the path. Our moor continued very unwell. In addition to fever, he had a very severe pulmonic attack, and on the whole so weak, that I almost despaired of his recovery. At three in the morning, previous to leaving Pakeba, we were alarmed by screams, apparently of some person in agony. We immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by some of the watch. There we found the wife of Yarra Comba, one of the native civilians from Sierra Leone, weltering in her blood, having received three very severe wounds on the head from her husband, who, exasperated at her refusing to desert with him (a step, he told her, he was about to take), and fearing, we supposed, that she would give the alarm, after thus brutally attempting to seal her lips, by taking her life, made his escape ; in accomplishing which he succeeded, being favoured by a dark night, and an intricately wooded country.

The wounds appeared to be all but fatal ; the exterior membrane of the brain, was visible in