ABSTRACT
LEAVING the banks of that branch of the Quorra called Menai at 10.30 in the morning of the 2d of April, I travelled on the Wawa road as far as the Cambrie villages mentioned on my way to Boussa. Here we turned off south-south-west 1/2 west., sometimes near the banks of the river; the road winding, woody, and rocky, and cut up into deep ravines, in which there were pools of water, and near which were the traces of numerous wild beasts, but few were seen, and those were of the large species of antelope. At 2 P.M. halted at one of the rocky ravines to water the horses. I heard the Quorra roaring as if there was a waterfall close at hand. I ascended the high rocky bank of the ravine, and the rocky ridge which here formed the banks of the river, where I saw the stream rushing around two low rocky and wooded islands and among several islets and rocks, when taking a sudden short bend to the westward, the waters dashed with great violence against the foot of the rock on which I sat, and which might form a precipice of about fifty feet high above the river. Just below the islands, and nearly half way across, the river had a fall at this time of from three to four feet; the rest of the channel was studded with rocks, some of which were above water. It occurred to me that even if Park and Martin had passed Boussa in safety,108 they would have been in imminent danger of perishing here, most likely unheard of and unseen. When I attempted to get up and mount my horse, after finishing a rough sketch of the scene, I was taken with a giddiness, and lost the use of my limbs and sight. They carried me under the shade of a tree, where I broke into a profuse perspiration; and at 3.30 being much relieved, I mounted and rode half an hour, when I halted at a village of the Cambrie, called Songa, the inhabitants of which gave me the best hut in the village: but bad was the best; it was infested with rats, scorpions, and centipedes, and the furniture consisted of old nets, rotten wood, and broken gourds: I therefore left it, and remained on a mat in the open air all night. The head man of the village gave me a sheep and some yams, and at my request sent one of his young men to the ferry, to see if my baggage and servants had arrived. I gave the sheep and yams to the two messengers and their attendants. The young Cambrie man returned about midnight with an answer from the taya, saying that Richard would be up with the baggage at the ferry in the morning.
