142 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

On my recovery, I employed myself in learning the Foolah language, and making frequent excursions to the adjacent towns, as the weather, which was then not quite so wet, permitted.

Our supply of provisions, such as they were, continued abundant ; and having completed a strong fence round the camp, we were, in some degree, defended both from the encroachments of the wild beasts, which nightly serenaded us, and the not less troublesome daily visits of the inhabitants of the town ; whom, previous to the fence being made, we found impossible to keep out of our huts, and from which, on their departure, some one thing or other was always missing.

The fever and dysentery still continued to do their work of destruction. Private Watzer died on the 19th ; Fallen on the S2d ; and Corporal Howell on the 25th of August, and many more vere fast declining. To divert, as much as possible, the minds of the men from reflecting on the scenes of death around them, I had recourse to amusements and employments of all kinds. Hunting the game in which the country abounded, afforded an ample range for those, who were able to partake of it, to employ their time to advantage. Wild hogs, antelopes, guinea fowls, and partridges, were constantly brought in. During one of our excursions we met, and sue-