When the negroes left us, the Moors would have obliged me to return with them, hoping no doubt to extort from me a fresh present: but I was firm, and reminding Boubou-Fanfale of the engagement which he made when receiving my two gourdes, I persisted in going along with them. At two o’clock we resumed our journey. We halted two miles N.E. of Koundy, on a pretty hill covered with verdure. The soil consisted of a reddish sand, and the ground was quite open. The bullocks there found abundant pasturage, and they were suffered to graze till five o’clock, when we resumed our route, proceeding N.E. ¼ N. We travelled in the night: the bullocks were already extremely fatigued, and one of them lay down. The Moors, unable to make it rise by blows, had recourse to a method which I have frequently seen used since, and which is always successful: they bound a cord tight round the muzzle so as to prevent respiration and left the animal to itself. It struggled for a moment, and then jumped upon its legs: the cord was immediately removed, its load replaced, and it followed the others. After we had gone nine miles in the same direction, we halted at eleven at night. We were threatened with a storm: the firmament was on fire in the east quarter, and the thunder rolled incessantly. The Moors dug large holes, into which they put their goods to preserve them from the rain which seemed likely to be very heavy. The wind blew with violence from the east, and raised clouds of sand, which, falling again, annoyed us exceedingly. At length, the wind having ceased, the storm dispersed without rain. The weather having become calm, the Moors prepared our supper, which consisted of a little couscous, which we took without salt, my guides having forgotten to procure a supply at Podor; but, having eaten nothing all day, appetite compensated the want of seasoning. The soil was of the same nature as at our preceding halting place. September 2nd. At five in the morning we resumed our route proceeding N.E. Our road led through a delightful country. The ground, diversified by hills covered with verdure, presented, with its numerous valleys, rich in vegetation, a prospect of the most pleasing kind. Game is here very plentiful; the woods abound in wild boars and antelopes. I saw a wild cat, which on perceiving us, set up a loud cry, and then scampered away. The generally received opinion that ferocious beasts are numerous in the desert is erroneous; for, neither did I see any during my residence among the Braknas, nor did I ever hear of any accident indicating their presence. I have since remarked, during my journey to Timbuctoo, that these animals are not more numerous in the interior. It is the inhabited tracts, or those contiguous to the lakes and rivers, which are the haunts of lions and leopards; it is there that they attack cattle, and sometimes, but very rarely, men.