134 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

prehension that such might be his own fate in a few days.

As it was necessary that the officer we intended sending to Sego should be accompanied by a guide and messenger from Almamy, I had, previous to leaving Boolibany on the 20th, obtained a promise from him that he would come to Samba Contaye in a few days, and bring with him a person fitted for that service. He did not, however, m.ake his appearance until the 21st, when I was informed that he had arrived at Wooro Samba, a small village, or rather farm, belonging to one of his own relations, about a mile south of our camp. There I went to see him, when he immediately named a person to accompany Mr. Dochard * to Sego, and said that it would be my business to clothe and subsist him during the journey, which of course I made no difficulty in consenting to.

On the following day, the guide came to our camp, and having said much about the unpleasantness of such a long journey, the dangers and privations to be encountered, &c., told me that he wished some stated reward to be held out to him on his return, in default of which he would not go. Although I was much astonished * In addition to its being his own wish to proceed on this service, he was the only officer then capable of so hazardous an undertaking.