from the main entrance of the town, on the road to
the stream of water. In a few days it was completed,
and I constructed houses for my men, and two
good huts for ourselves. Having a supply of garden
seeds, I arranged a few beds, which I sowed with
onions, cabbages, and raddishes. My camp was eighty
yards long, and forty wide. My horses were picqueted
in two corners, while the donkeys and camels occupied
the opposite extremity. We now felt perfectly independent.
I had masses of supplies, and I resolved to work
round to the south-west whenever it might be
possible, and thus to recover the route that I had
originally proposed for my journey south. My present
difficulty was the want of an interpreter. The Turks
had several, and I hoped that on the return of Ibrahim
from Gondokoro I might induce him to lend me a Bari
lad for some consideration. For the present I was
obliged to Send to the Turks’ camp and borrow an
interpreter whenever I required one, which was both
troublesome and expensive.
Although I was willing to purchase all supplies with
either beads or copper bracelets,I found it was impossible
to procure meat. The natives refused to sell either cattle
Or goats. This-was most tantalizing, as not less than
10,000 head of cattle filed by my camp every morning
as they were driven from the town to pasturage. All
this amount of beef paraded before me, and did not
produce a steak. Milk was cheap and abundant;
fowls were scarce; corn was plentiful; vegetables
were unknown; not even pumpkins were grown by
the Latookas.
Fortunately there was an abundance of small game
DRAKE’S fiEAD.
in the shape of wild ducks, pigeons, doves; and a great
variety of birds such as herons, cranes, spoonbills, &c.
Travellers should always, take as large a supply of
shot \ as possible. I had four hundred weight, and
prodigious quantities of. powder and caps, thus I could
at all times kill sufficient game for ourselves and