Thierno Bayla, the chief who had sent the party to Seindoo, came to Looboogol on the 9th, attended by a large body of horse and foot. He paid us a visit in the course of the day, and demanded to be made acquainted with our intentions in entering the country. I told him that having been deceived and plundered by Almamy and the princes of Bondoo, I had decided on returning to the coast through Foota; but, as there was no reigning Almamy in that country, I did not think it safe to enter it without permission from the chiefs, to whom I had despatched messengers, whose return I intended awaiting at Gowde Bofê. He objected to our going there, and expressed a wish that we should accompany him to his own town, which lay about twenty-five miles in the opposite direction to that we wished to pursue. On our refusal he went off to the village, and, having directed that none of the inhabitants should dare to supply us with a drop of water, stationed several small parties at short distances round our camp, to enforce the strictest compliance with this order, and to watch our movements. A tornado with heavy rain, which would at any other time or under any other circumstances have been an unpleasant visitor, was now the thing most to be wished for, as it would have served the double office of supplying us with water, and of driving from their posts those parties, who, not supposing we would (or rather knowing we never did) travel during the rain, would still have abandoned their posts, and have gone to the village, in which case (having prepared every thing to enable us to move in a moment), we would have loaded the animals, and taken the direct road to Baquelle, which we computed to be distant about forty miles. Judge then our disappointment when a tornado, which bore every appearance of an approaching deluge of rain, blew off without a drop. It was about six P.M. when our situation became extremely unpleasant, not to say alarming. The animals had no water since the 7th, and the men who had but a scanty supply on the 8th, had none at all on that day, the 9th, and how to procure it without proceeding to extremities alone remained to be decided upon. I had too many invalids and weak animals to authorize my forcing my way to Baquelle with such incumbrances and in absolute want of water; and to destroy either the whole or even a proportion of my baggage and animals, was an act which I conceived should be my last resource.