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we were upon the point of killing another, when we saw before us a country that promised better, having high trees and a large river in the middle of it.

This encouraged us, and we quickened our march for the river side, though with empty stomachs, and very faint and weak; but, before we came to this river, we had the good hap to meet with some young deer, a thing we had long wished for. In a word, having shot three of them, we came to a full stop, to fill our bellies, and never gave the flesh time to cool before we eat it; nay, it was much we could stay to kill it, and had not eaten it alive, for we were, in short, almost famished.

Through all that inhospitable country, we saw continually lions, tigers, leopards, civet cats, and abundance of kinds of creatures that we did not understand; we saw no elephants, but every now and then we met with an elephant's tooth lying on the ground, and some of them lying, as it were, half buried by the length of time that they had lain there.

When we came to the shore of this river, we found it ran northerly still, as all the rest had done, but with this difference, that as the course of the other rivers were N. by E. or N.N.E. the course of this lay N.N.W.

CHAPTER VIII.

WE REACH INHABITED LAND-THE NATIVES INNOCENT AND FRIENDLY-WE ENTER UPON A SECOND DESERT-THE SPRINGS AS SALT AS BRINE-OUR SURGEON DISCOVERS A MODE OF RENDERING THE WATER FRESH-PROCEEDINGS ON OUR MARCH-OUR TROOP BEGIN TO GROW SICKLY, AND ONE NEGRO DIES-FURTHER ADVENTURES-WE DISCOVER A WHITE MAN, PERFECTLY NAKED, IN THE NEGRO COUNTRY, WHO PROVES TO BE AN ENGLISHMAN.

ON the further bank of this river we saw some sign of inhabitants, but met with none for the first day; but the next day we came into an inhabited country, the people all negroes, and stark naked, without shame, both men and

women.

We made signs of friendship to them, and very frank, civil, and friendly sort of people.

found them a They came to

H

our negroes without any suspicion, nor did they give us any reason to suspect them of any villany, as the others had done; we made signs to them that we were hungry, and immediately some naked women ran and fetched us great quantities of roots, and of things like pumpkins, which we made no scruple to eat; and our artificer showed them some of his trinkets that he had made, some of iron, some of silver, but none of gold: they had so much judgment as to choose those of silver before the iron; but when we showed them some gold, we found they did not value it so much as either of the other.

For some of these things they brought us more provisions, and three living creatures as big as calves, but not of that kind; neither did we ever see any of them before; their flesh was very good; and after that they brought us twelve more, and some smaller creatures, like hares; all which were very welcome to us, who were indeed at a very great loss for provisions.

We grew very intimate with these people, and indeed they were the civilest and most friendly people that we met with at all, and mightily pleased with us; and, which was very particular, they were much easier to be made to understand our meaning than any we had met with before.

At last, we began to inquire our way, pointing to the west: they made us understand easily that we could not go that way, but they pointed to us, that we might go northwest, so that we presently understood that there was another lake in our way, which proved to be true; for in two days more we saw it plain, and it held us till we past the equinoctial line, lying all the way on our left hand, though at a great distance.

Travelling thus northward, our gunner seemed very anxious about our proceedings; for he assured us, and made me sensible of it by the maps which he had been teaching me out of, that when we came into the latitude of six degrees, or thereabouts, north of the line, the land trenched away to the west, to such a length, that we should not come at the sea under a march of above fifteen hundred miles further westward than the country we desired to go to. I asked him if there were no navigable rivers that we might meet with, which, running into the west ocean, might perhaps carry us down their stream, and then, if it were fifteen hundred miles, or

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twice fifteen hundred miles, we might do well enough, if we could but get provisions.

Here he showed me the maps again, and that there appeared no river whose stream was of such a length as to do any kindness, till we came perhaps within two or three hundred miles of the shore, except the Rio Grand, as they call it, which lay further northward from us, at least seven hundred miles; and that then he knew not what kind of country it might carry us through; for he said it was his opinion, that the heats on the north of the line, even in the same latitude, were violent, and the country more desolate, barren, and barbarous than those of the south; and that, when we came among the negroes in the north part of Africa, next the sea, especially those who had seen and trafficked with the Europeans, such as Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, &c., they had most of them been so ill used at some time or other, that they would certainly put all the spite they could upon us in mere revenge.

Upon these considerations, he advised us, that, as soon as we had passed this lake, we should proceed W.S.W., that is to say, a little inclining to the south, and that in time we should meet with the great river Congo, from whence the coast is called Congo, being a little north of Angola, where we intended at first to go.

I asked him, if ever he had been on the coast of Congo? He said, yes, he had, but was never on shore there. Then I asked him, how we should get from thence to the coast where the European ships came, seeing, if the land trenched away west for fifteen hundred miles, we must have all that shore to traverse, before we could double the west point of it?

He told me, it was ten to one but we should hear of some European ships to take us in, for that they often visited the coast of Congo and Angola, in trade with the negroes; and that if we could not, yet, if we could but find provisions, we should make our way as well along the sea-shore as along the river, till we came to the gold coast, which, he said, was not above four or five hundred miles north of Congo, besides the turning of the coast west about three hundred more; that shore being in the latitude of 6 or 7 degrees, and that there the English, or Dutch, or French, had settlements or factories, perhaps all of them.

I confess I had more mind, all the while he argued, to have gone northward, and shipped ourselves in the Rio Grand, or, as the traders call it, the river Negro, or Niger, for I knew that at last it would bring us down to the Cape de Verd, where we were sure of relief; whereas at the coast we were going to now we had a prodigious way still to go, either by sea or land, and no certainty which way to get provisions but by force; but for the present I held my tongue, because it was my tutor's opinion.

But when, according to his desire, we came to turn southward, having passed beyond the second great lake, our men began all to be uneasy, and said we were now out of our way for certain, for that we were going farther from home, and that we were indeed far enough off already.

But we had not marched above twelve days more, eight whereof was taken up in rounding the lake, and four more south-west, in order to make for the river Congo, but we were put to another full stop, by entering a country so desolate, so frightful, and so wild, that we knew not what to think or do; for, besides that it appeared as a terrible and boundless desert, having neither woods, trees, rivers, nor inhabitants, so even the place where we were was desolate of inhabitants, nor had we any way to gather in a stock of provisions for the passing of this desert, as we did before at our entering the first, unless we had marched back four days to the place where we turned the head of the lake.

Well, notwithstanding this, we ventured; for, to men that had passed such wild places as we had done, nothing could seem too desperate to undertake: we ventured, I say, and the rather because we saw very high mountains in our way at a great distance, and we imagined wherever there were mountains there would be springs and rivers; where rivers there would be trees and grass; where trees and grass there would be cattle and where cattle some kind of inhabitants.

At last, in consequence of this speculative philosophy, we entered this waste, having a great heap of roots and plants for our bread, such as the Indians gave us, a very little flesh, or salt, and but a little water.

We travelled two days towards those hills, and still they seemed as far off as they did at first, and it was the fifth day before we got to them; indeed, we travelled softly, for it was excessively hot, and we were much about the very equi

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noctial line-we hardly knew whether to the south or the north of it.

As we had concluded, that where there were hills there would be springs, so it happened; but we were not only surprised, but really frightened, to find the first spring we came to, and which looked admirably clear and beautiful, to be salt as brine. It was a terrible disappointment to us, and put us under melancholy apprehensions at first; but the gunner, who was of a spirit never discouraged, told us we should not be disturbed at that, but be very thankful, for salt was a bait we stood in as much need of as anything, and there was no question but we should find fresh water as well as salt; and here our surgeon stept in to encourage us, and told us that, if we did not know, he would show us a way how to make that salt water fresh, which indeed made us all more cheerful, though we wondered what he meant.

Meantime our men, without bidding, had been seeking about for other springs, and found several; but still they were all salt; from whence we concluded, that there was a salt rock or mineral stone in those mountains, and perhaps they might be all of such a substance; but still I wondered by what witchcraft it was that our artist, the surgeon, would make this salt water turn fresh; and I longed to see the experiment, which was indeed a very odd one; but he went to work with as much assurance as if he had tried it on the very spot before.

He took two of our large mats, and sewed them together; and they made a kind of a bag four feet broad, three feet and a half high, and about a foot and a half thick when it was full.

He caused us to fill this bag with dry sand, and tread it down as close as we could, not to burst the mats. When thus the bag was full within a foot, he sought some other earth, and filled up the rest with it, and still trod all in as hard as he could. When he had done, he made a hole in the upper earth, about as broad as the crown of a large hat, or something bigger, but not so deep, and bade a negro fill it with water, and still, as it shrunk away, to fill it again, and keep it full. The bag he had placed at first across two pieces of wood, about a foot from the ground; and under it he ordered some of our skins to be spread, that would hold water. In about an hour, and not sooner, the water began