CHAPTER VIII.
SOME OF DICK SAND'S NOTES.
Though the storm of the day before had ceased, the weather was still very unsettled.

It was, besides, the period of the "masika," the second period of the rainy season, under this zone of the African heaven.

The nights in particular would be rainy during one, two, or three weeks, which could only increase the misery of the caravan.
It set out that day in cloudy weather, and, after quitting the banks of the Coanza, made its way almost directly to the east.

Fifty soldiers marched at the head, a hundred on each of the two sides of the convoy, the rest as a rear-guard.

It would be difficult for the prisoners to flee, even if they had not been chained.