_ 203 _ there, and where that night we had a shortage of water, and kept the watch as before. On the following day, an hour before sunrise, we left there for there was no grazing there for the camels either, between the same mountains and river, making many changes of direction on the way because of them, and many points of the compass, but mainly towards the north; and at nightfall we camped in a broad plain at the foot of a great mountain, where we slept that night, with very bad water and the same watch with our muskets. In spite of all this, the thieves did not fail to steal a sack of indigo, and another of low- quality dyed cotton cloths, which are brought to these parts from India. I was always of the opinion that the camel drivers were aware of the theft, and gave occasion to it, as they made the caravan camp in a place so full of thieves, with one group of merchants at the musket shot from the next, each one of the loads they were transporting, dividing the caravan into seven or eight parts. It was useless for the merchants to complain that it was always the custom of caravans to camp all together in a circle; and, as my companions and I were nearest the mountain and in the most dangerous place, with about
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