Except the two mountains
before spoken of to the southward, between which the river runs,
there are none in the immediate neighbourhood of Timbuctoo, but at a
little distance there are some small ones.
They had travelled eastward about ten days, at the rate of about
fifteen or eighteen miles a day, when they saw the river for the last
time; it then appeared rather narrower than at Timbuctoo. They then
loaded the camels with water, and striking off in a northerly
direction, travelled twelve or thirteen days at about the same pace.
At the end of this time they arrived at a place called Tudenny, or
Taudenny, a large village inhabited by Moors and negroes, in which
there are four wells of very excellent water. In this place there are
large ponds or beds of salt, which both the Moors and negroes come in
great numbers to purchase; in the neighbourhood the ground is
cultivated in the same manner as at Timbuctoo. From the number of
Moors, many, if not all of whom, were residents, it appeared that the
restriction respecting them, which was in force at Timbuctoo, did not
extend to Tudenny.
The Moors here are perfectly black, the only personal distinction
between them and the negroes being, that the Moors had long black
hair, and had no scars on their faces. The negroes are in general
marked in the same manner as those of Timbuctoo. Here the party
stayed fourteen days to give the ransomed Moors, whose long
confinement had made them weak, time to recruit their strength; and
having sold one of the camels for two sacks of dates and a small ass,
and loaded the four remaining camels with water, the dates and the
flour, they set out to cross the desert, taking a north-west
direction.
They commenced their journey from Tudenny about four o'clock in the
morning, and having travelled the first day about twenty miles, they
unloaded the camels, and laid down by the side of them to sleep.
The next day they entered the desert, over which they continued to
travel in the same direction nine and twenty days, without meeting a
single human being. The whole way was a sandy plain like the sea,
without either tree, shrub or grass. After travelling in this manner
about fourteen days, at the rate of sixteen or eighteen miles a day,
the people began to grow very weak; their stock of water began to run
short, and their provisions were nearly exhausted. The ass died of
fatigue, and its carcass was immediately cut up and laden on the
camel, where it dried in the sun, and served for food, and had it not
been for this supply, some of the party must have died of hunger.
Being asked if ass's flesh was good eating, Adams replied, "It was as
good to my taste then, as a goose would be now."
In six days afterwards, during which their pace was slackened to not
more than twelve miles a day, they arrived at a place, where it was
expected water would be found; but to their great disappointment,
owing to the dryness of the season, the hollow place, of about thirty
yards in circumference, was found quite dry.
