The
Goods Are Embarked For Jenne, And Bartered For Gold, Slaves, And
Provisions.
The city is surrounded with plains of moving sand.
"The
horizon is of a pale red. All is gloomy in nature. The deepest silence
reigns - not the song of a single bird is heard."
On the 4th May, M. Caillie departed from Tombuctoo, and in a few days
arrived at Aroan, a town containing 3000 inhabitants, on the route to
which neither herb nor shrub was seen; and their only fuel was the dung
of camels. On the 19th May he prepared to cross the desert, along with a
large caravan. Scarcely a drop of water could be found, and many of the
wells were dried up. "Before us appeared a horizon without bounds, in
which our eyes distinguished only an immense plain of burning sand,
enveloped by a sky on fire. At this spectacle the camels raised long
cries, and the slaves mournfully lifted up their eyes to heaven." They
suffered much from thirst during this dreary march, and their strength
was almost exhausted before they reached the springs of Telig. After many
days harassing toil, they came to the frontiers of Morocco, and M.
Caillie, having crossed the Atlas, contrived to make his way to Tangier.
CHAPTER XXXV.
_Lander's Journey_.
In the preceding chapter the reader must have admired the fortitude and
resolution manifested by Lander, when, after the death of Clapperton, he
had to travel to the coast alone. His attempt to reach the Niger shewed
that his disposition was ardent and enterprising, and that, but for
untoward circumstances, he would have effected his object.
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