TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 297 sitting upright ; but he was so exhausted that to keep him on the horse, it was necessary to have him supported by a man on each side. Never did I witness (nor indeed did I think it possible that a human being could endure) such tortures as were inflicted on this man. When he first refused to go on, they had recourse to a mode of compulsion which I have been told is common on those occasions, but of too disgusting a nature to be described. I did not see the old woman, nor could I ascertain, what had become of her.

We moved forward at three o'clock on the morning of the 21st, and travelled east, through woods until half after seven, when we reached the foot of a high range of rocky mountains, running north and south, said by the Kaartans to be a continuance of those which break the course of the Senegal at Feloo, forming the falls of that name. Their western sides are steep, much broken, and very difficult of access ; and their tops where we crossed them, a flat table land thinly covered with stunted wood, and in many places forming a surface of solid flat rock, bearing a brown metallic polish, so smooth that the animals were constantly slipping. The descent on the eastern side was scarcely perceptible, and as we advanced, the soil began to bear a more fertile, and less rocky appearance. At half