It will readily be supposed that during this time I gave no little thought to my future prospects. At first I had been glad enough to be carried away so rapidly from the dangerous neighbourhood of the mine and the search parties of the fetish-men; but now I began to consider whether I had so greatly improved my position--whether, if I had not actually jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, I had not at least jumped out of the fire into the frying pan. For if it was impossible for an African to escape from slavery, it might prove also impossible to me, in which case the prospect was not encouraging; and I brought all my wits to bear, as well as Aminé’s chatter would allow me, on the problem of how to get away from the caravan before I was finally sold to some private owner. I was, however, unable to think of any scheme that had the faintest shadow of feasibility. By day we were all continuously under the eyes of the slave dealers, and at night, although I was not cruelly bound, yet my hands and feet were too securely fastened to allow of my breaking my bonds. On the third day of our march we passed a little distance from the great mart of Kantámpo, and I then observed that our conductors, no doubt for excellent reasons of their own, were avoiding the main caravan road, and travelling by a little-frequented by-path. On the evening of the fifth day we encamped on the bank of a large and noble-looking river fully as wide as the Thames at Richmond, which one of the slaves recognised as the Firráo, or Volta; and early next morning our leaders commenced preparations for crossing. First an advance guard of Hausas was sent over in the huge, flat-bottomed canoe that formed the ferry boat; then the rope (which consisted of lengths of a few fathoms each, knotted together) was untied, and the slaves divided up into gangs of ten, each gang being sent across separately in charge of a guard; and when all the slaves had been carried to the farther bank, the leaders of the caravan followed with the horse. The greater part of the morning was consumed by the crossing of the river, and by the time we got on the road it was within an hour of noon. To make up for the delay, the caravan pushed on at greater speed than ordinary, so that when we at last halted for the night, we were more tired than we usually were, although we had covered less ground, having travelled not more than twelve or thirteen miles. This part of the country appeared to be as thinly populated as that south of the great river, for in the day’s march we passed but a single village--a queer little collection of circular huts with high, thatched roofs like candle extinguishers.