CHAP. LVII.

MUSICAL PRESENTS.

185

escort; and it was very essential to me to hasten my proceedings, as the following day brought the first evident proof of the approach of the rainy season.

Having made a present to the ghaladíma also, I thought it better, in order to make up for the deficiency of the musical box, to satisfy the musical taste of the sultan by making him a present of one of the harmonica which the Chevalier Bunsen, in consideration of the great effect which the Rev. Mr. Knoblecher had produced, with the aid of such an instrument, upon the inhabitants of the shores of the Nile, had procured for me; but I succeeded afterwards in repairing, in some measure, the musical box, which caused the good-natured chief inexpressible delight, so that he lost no time in writing for me a commendatory letter to his nephew Khalílu the chief of Gando. But I was extremely anxious to get away from this place, as I was sorely pestered by begging parties, the inhabitants of Wurnó and Sókoto being the most troublesome beggars in the world, and besides them there being also many strangers in the town, especially the Kélgeres, who had brought the salt.

I was sitting, one day, in the entrance-hall of my house, in the company of some of these sons of the desert, when Góme, the brother of the sultan 'Abd el Káder, from A'gades, who had lately been dethroned in order to make way for a new chief, A'hmed e' Rufáy, called upon me, and, with a very important and mysterious air, requested me to give him a private audience. After I had dismissed my other visitors,

he began by reminding me of the kind manner in which his brother had received me, and finished by urgently begging me to use my influence in order to restore Abd el Káder to his former dignity. I had great difficulty in convincing him that I had very little influence with the emír el Múmenín, and that I was afraid my intercession would have little or no effect, although, as well by way of private acknowledgment for the kindness of my host in that place, where I began to acquire more confidence in the success of my proceedings, as from a persuasion of the influence which a great service rendered by me to this man would have upon my future prospects, I should have desired nothing better than to be the means of reinstating him in his former position.

Among the people who sought my acquaintance there was also Khalílu dan Hassan, one of the presumptive heirs to the royal power-Hassan being a younger brother of Bello-a young man of gentlemanly manners, but not of a very generous disposition, as he plainly evinced on my home journey the following year, when he wanted to oblige me to send him, after my safe return home, a pair of pistols in exchange for a black shirt scarcely worth 5000 shells, or two dollars.

All this time, I had employed my leisure hours in reading a manuscript work which had given me the first insight into the history of the western portion of these Féllani dominions. It had been composed by 'Abd Alláhi, the brother of 'Othman the Reformer, to

CHAP. LVII. WORKS OF 'ABD ALLAʼHI AND BELLO. 187

whom the western portion of the conquered region was awarded as his share. But although this work, the title of which is "Tezén el aúrekát," contained, besides a great deal of theological matter, some important historical data, it did not satisfy my curiosity; and I had been endeavouring in vain to obtain the work of Bello, entitled "Infák el misúrí fi fat-há el Tekrúri," which had been earnestly recommended to me by my friend the fáki 'Abd el Káder in Kátsena; but I did not succeed in getting it into my hands till a few days before I left this place, when I found that the greater part of its contents, which had any geographical or historical importance, were identical with those documents brought back by Captain Clapperton, on his first journey, and which have been partly translated by Mr. Salame, in the appendix to the account of those travels.

Meanwhile the country became more unsafe; and on the 5th of May the cattle of the village of Saláme were driven off by the people of Chéberi, to the great loss of my friend 'Abd el Káder dan Taffa, who had considerable property there; but strongly reminded of the effects of the rainy season, by a heavy shower which fell on the 6th, driving me out of my cool shed, I urged my departure, and in the afternoon of the 8th took leave of Aliyu with a cheerful spirit, it being evident to me, not only that he entertained not the slightest mistrust of my future proceedings, but on the contrary even took considerable interest in me, as he found that it was my earnest desire to become well

acquainted with the country and the people, and that I was anxious to establish friendly relations with the most distinguished and learned among them. But he gave me repeatedly to understand that he wished me not to go to Hamdalláhi, to present my compliments to their countrymen and coreligionists there and their chief or his successor, we having just received a few days previously the news of the death of Shekho A'hmedu, while he had not the slightest objection to my going to Timbúktu, and paying a visit to the sheikh el Bakáy, who had spent some time in Sókoto and was on friendly terms with the family of Fódiye.

CHAP. LVIII.

STATE OF INSECURITY ALONG THE MOST FREQUENTED HIGHROAD. GANDO.

At length I was able to pursue my journey, Sunday, which now, as soon as I had passed Sokoto, May 8th. was to lead me into almost unknown regions, never trodden by European foot.

I was escorted out of the town, in grand style, by the ghaladíma with six horsemen, and then pursued my former track to Sókoto, the character of which was but little changed, on account of the vegetation having only just begun to be vivified and restored by the first showers of the rainy season. The little stream which skirts the foot of the hill on which the town of Sokoto is situated, and where we had watered our horses on our former excursion, now began gradually to increase, although as yet it exhibited but few signs of that considerable volume which I found here on my home journey the next year.

I was lodged in my old quarters, in the house of the ghaladíma, and was treated by my old friends Módibo 'Alí and Said with great hospitality. Although most anxious, on account of the season, to continue my journey with the shortest possible delay,