Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/98

78 place all our instruments and baggage, about two o'clock in the afternoon, near half way up this terrible mountain of Taranta.

were five asses, two of which belonged to Yasine, and these were fully as difficult to bring up the mountain as any of our burdens. Most of their loading, the property of Yasine, we carried up the length of my instruments; and it was proposed, as a thing that one man could do, to make the unladen light asses follow, as they had been well taken care of, were vigorous and young, and had not suffered by the short journies we had made on plain ground. They no sooner, however, found themselves at liberty, and that a man was compelling them with a stick to ascend the mountain, than they began to bray, to kick, and to bite each other; and, as it were with one consent, not only ran down the part of the hill we had ascended, but, with the same jovial cries as before, (smelling, I suppose, some of their companions) they continued on at a brisk trot; and, as we supposed, would never stop till they came to Tubbo, and the huts of the Hazorta.

our little caravan, and especially the masters of these animals, saw from above, in despair, all our eagerness to pass Taranta defeated by the secession of the most obstinate of the brute creation. But there was no mending this by reflection; at the same time, we were so tired as to make it impossible for the principals to give any assistance. Bread was to be baked, and supper to be made ready, after this fatiguing journey.