camels’ and goats’ milk; but of the latter they had abundance.
Sometimes they were treated with a few dates, which
were a great rarity; there being neither date-trees nor trees
of any other kind in the whole country round. But as the
flock of goats and sheep consisted of a great number (from
6ne hundred and fifty to two hundred), and as they were at
a distance from the town, Adams and his companion sometimes
ventured to kill a kid for their own eating; and to
prevent discovery of the fire used in cooking it, they dug a
cave, in which the fire was made, covering the ashes with
grass and sand.
At length Adams, after much reflection on the miserable
state in which he had been so long kept, and was likely to
pass the remainder of his life, determined to remonstrate
upon the subject. His master, whose name was Harriet
Laubed, frankly replied to him, that as he had not been
successful in procuring slaves, it was now his intention to
keep him, and not, as he had before led him to expect,
to take him to Suerra or Mogadore. Upon hearing this,
Adams resolved not to attend any longer to the duty of
watching the goats and sheep; and in consequence, the
next day, several of the young goats were found to have
been killed by the foxes.
This led to an inquiry, whether Adams or the boy was
in fault; when it appearing that the missing goats were a
part of Adams’s flock, his master proceeded to beat him
with a thick stick; which he resisted, and took away the
stick; upon which a dozen Moors, principally women,
attacked him, and gave him a severe beating.
As, notwithstanding what had occurred, Adams persisted
in his determination not to resume his task of tending the
goats and sheep, his master was advised to put him to
death; (is) but this he was not inclined to do, observing
to his advisers, that he should thereby sustain a loss, and
that if Adams would not work, it would be better to sell
him. In the mean time he remained idle in the tent for
about three days; when he was asked by his master’s wife, if
he would go to the distant well to fetch a couple of skins of
water, that being of a better quality ; to which he signified
his consent, and went off the next morning on a camel with
two skins to fetch the water.
On his arrival at the other well, instead of procuring
water, he determined to make his escape; and understanding
that the course to a place called Wadinoon, lay in
a direction to the northward of west,* he passed the well,
* This account of the relative bearings'of Woled D’leim and Wed Noon is
rather at variance with the details of Adams’s recollected course between those
two places; but it accords very nearly with what is assumed in the map, on
other grounds, to have been his real route.