Having A Supply Of Garden Seeds, I Arranged A Few Beds,
Which I Sowed With Onions, Cabbages, And Radishes.
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; fowl were scarce; corn was plentiful; vegetables were unknown;
not even pumpkins were grown by the Latookas.
Fortunately there was an abundance of small game 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.
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