Niger

"I At that moment a band of Moors entered the
JL hut. They had tracked Mungo from Sam-
paka, coming to convey him, by Ali’s orders, to
Benowm.
It seems that for once Mungo’s mask of coolness
shivered from his face, caught as he was in his
dream of the Niger. He stared, suddenly no more
than a boy, at them in such surprise and terror that
the Moors, moved perhaps by his youth and alone-
ness, told him he had nothing to fear. All that Ali
wanted was to show him to his wife Fatima. That
lady had heard of Christians (as ladies in Europe
had heard of the unicorn, and apparently with much
the same feelings), and wished to look upon such a
peculiar animal. Looked on, he would undoubtedly
be released and dismissed with a present.
The black slave from Jarra slipped away from the
hut and disappeared. Mungo never saw him again.
He knew the Moors too well. Seeing that resistance
would be useless, Mungo collected both his goods
and his self-possession, and allowed himself to be
guarded back along the track he had traversed a
day before.
On the road they overtook a woman and two boys
who had been robbed by another party of Moors.
Neither white Christian nor black pagan could look
for much mercy from the Moor at this time of the
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