We Crossed Woods Never Crossed,
I Believe, By Any Before:
The darkness of the night and the
thickness of the shade spread a kind of horror round us; our
Gloomy
journey was still more incommoded by the brambles and thorns, which
tore our hands; amidst all these difficulties I applied myself to
the Almighty, praying him to preserve us from those dangers which we
endeavoured to avoid, and to deliver us from those to which our
flight exposed us. Thus we travelled all night, till eight next
morning, without taking either rest or food; then, imagining
ourselves secure, we made us some cakes of barley-meal and water,
which we thought a feast.
We had a dispute with our guides, who though they had bargained to
conduct us for an ounce of gold, yet when they saw us so entangled
in the intricacies of the wood that we could not possibly get out
without their direction, demanded seven ounces of gold, a mule, and
a little tent which we had; after a long dispute we were forced to
come to their terms. We continued to travel all night, and to hide
ourselves in the woods all day: and here it was that we met the
three hundred elephants I spoke of before. We made long marches,
travelling without any halt from four in the afternoon to eight in
the morning.
Arriving at a valley where travellers seldom escape being plundered,
we were obliged to double our pace, and were so happy as to pass it
without meeting with any misfortune, except that we heard a bird
sing on our left hand - a certain presage among these people of some
great calamity at hand.
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