32 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

ing a well within a few yards of our bivouac ; but this we were not allowed to touch before seven o*clock in the evening, and, having paid dearly for the indulgence, we found also, on returning from the well to tie up the asses for the night, that two of them had been stolen. Macca promised to have them restored, but we never saw them afterwards.

It appeared to me that our guides were at the bottom of all this hindrance from water and objections to the path, in which the inhabitants of all the towns we passed through joined them, (but particularly those of Dindoody, where we spent tlie whole ofthe 30th in palaver with them), I conceived it better to make them a large present to induce their acting in compliance with our wishes, to which they consented, binding themselves by an oath on the Koran, to which, although little regard had been paid by Almamy, I trusted, however, that they would remain faithful.

We therefore again set forward to the ne., and, in about two hours, reached a small village called Loogoonoody, where we found that the oaths of our guides were of as little avail as that of their sovereign and his ministers, for we were again obliged to pay for water before the inhabitants would allow us to approach their wells.

* Article 9, Appendix.