240           TRAVELS IN AFRICA.     Chap. XXVIII.
 

                 CHAP. XXVIII.



                 ARRIVAL IN KtJKAWA.



  Wednesday, ^HIS WaS t0 ^e a m0S* momentOUS day of

  Apni 2nd.  my travels.  for j was i0 reach that place

 which was  the  first  distinct  object  of our  mission,

 and I was to come into contact with  those people on

 whose ill or good-will depended the whole success of

 our mission.

   Although encamped late at  night, we were again

 up at an early hour;  but in endeavouring to return

 to the track which we had  left the preceding night,

 we inadvertently crossed it, and so came  to  another

 village, with a very numerous  herd of cattle, where

 we became  aware  of our  error,  and then  had  to

 regain the main road.

   Two miles  afterwards  there  was  a very  great

 change in  the character  of  the country;  for  the

 sandjf  soil which had characterized  the district all

 along the kom&dugu now  gave way to clay, where

water is only  met with at considerable depth.  We

met a  troop of tugiirchi, who  informed us that none

of the villages  along our track at the present moment

had a supply of water, not even the considerable vil¬

lage Kangaruwa, but that at the never-failing well of