TRAVELS IN AFRICA. QOQ Imve gone there without the means necessary to induce him and his chiefs to forward my views would have been fruitless work.

Another reason, too, prevented me taking this step without waiting Mr. Partarrieau's return, namely, the impossibility of leaving Bondoo without paying to Almamy the articles promised his predecessor, and which, even with the assistance of the French officers at Galam, I could not have accomplished.

To add to these difficulties, one of a still more unpleasant nature, and attended with circumstances which clearly evinced a change in Almamy's intentions towards us, occurred early in February.

One evening, on my return from Baquelle, where I had gone to procure some beads from the French merchants for the purchase of provisions, I found at the camp a messenger from Almamy to request my immediate attendance at Boolibany, where he had some business of such importance to communicate that he could not entrust it with any of his people.

What this might have been I could not readily imagine, but from some words that escaped from the messenger, I was inclined to think it was some information he had received concerning Mr. Dochard, and which appeared the more likely, as at that very time a large coffle of trap