Sunday, 19th.—At daybreak I had every thing ready for starting, but the manœuvring of old Abubecker kept me until 7.30 A.M.; and even then I had to give three yards of blue cloth and several strings of beads before I could get the baggage off. After starting, our road was through a thickly wooded country of fine tall trees, with little underwood, the country rising into gentle hill and dale, and the path very winding. At 10 we fell in with the Houssa caravans. They occupied a long line of march: bullocks, asses, horses, women, and men, to the amount of a thousand, all in a line, after one another, forming a very curious sight; a motley groupe, from the nearly naked girls and men carrying loads, to the ridiculously and gaudily dressed Gonja traders, riding on horseback, some of these animals being lame, and going with a halt, and all in very bad condition. The poor girls, their slaves, are compelled to travel with a heavy load on their heads, yet are as cheerful and good-natured as if they were at home grinding corn in their own native country. The road lay over a level plain covered with trees; the soil a red clay, with gravel and ore, among rocks of clay ironstone, appearing, from the softer parts, to have been washed or worn away, as if it had undergone the action of fire. We halted near to a small rainy-season stream, in which were pools of water. Here and there saw numerous traces of the large antelopes, buffaloes, and elephants. The latter, they say, the natives do not kill, because they can get plenty of other meat, and they can prevail on no one to buy the tusks. They destroy wild animals with poisoned arrows, one of which they pretend to say will kill an elephant in about an hour. They eat the flesh of the animal slain with these arrows, but cut out and throw away the piece around the poisoned wound. Yarro’s messenger has promised to show me the tree from which they get the poison when we arrive at Wawa: they tell a number of extravagant stories about its power and effects, which are too ridiculous to believe.