892 
Quladi are far more fertile than those 
of Tivnectou, and they furnish the 
greatest part of the provisions which 
are consumed in the latter place. 
The inhabitants chiefly cultivate mil- 
let and rice ; and abundant pasturage 
permits them to rear numerous herds 
of goats andcamels. During his resi- 
dence in Soudan, Sidy Mohammed 
remarked that the flesh of these ani- 
mals, and that of the ostriches, which 
the inhabitants hunt daily, are very 
nearly the only kinds of animal food 
consumed in the country. ‘These va- 
rious meats, when boiled, are served 
out in morsels with rice, which is a 
nourishment as habitual to the ne- 
groes as the couscoussou is to the Moors. 
“A contagion having broke out, 
and made great ravages at Timectou 
during the residence of the merchant 
of Rabat in that city, he determined 
to leave it as soon as possible. When 
he departed the inhabitants were daily 
interring a great number of dead: 
those who were attacked with the 
disease soon fell sacrifices to it, after 
experiencing the firstsymptoms. This 
contagion appeared to have been 
caused by a great drought, from which 
the inhabitants imagined they could 
protect themselves, by always carry- 
ing rods, besmeared with rosin at the 
end; these they held under their 
noses, according to the custom of the 
inhabitants of Morocco. 
-“The return of Sidy Mohammed to 
Quadnoun was equally accompanied 
with dangers. ‘The caravan of which 
he formed a part experienced great 
losses, and many of the negroes which 
he had purchased himself perished 
with fatigue in the middle of the de- 
sert. Nevertheless, (said Hamar to 
me, gaily, on terminating this relation, ) 
the result of his journey has been so 
advantageous to him, that, were you 
not a slave and a Christian, I should 
endeavour to prevail upon you to at- 
tempt it yourself, and to set out with 
Ali, a friend of mine, who intends in 
a few days to cross the desert, in order 
to seek for negroes in Soudan.” 
The preceding accountof Timectou 
would alone be interesting, from the 
sincerity with which it was delivered. 
The devotion which he then showed 
‘towards me, and the real desire which 
he evinced. of accompanying me to 
Europe, made me believe that he 
spoke with frankness. But, what me- 
rits here the attention of the reader is 
Original Account of Timectou. 
[June I, 
the improbability of the journey of the 
American sailor, Robert Adams, to 
Timectou. If not, how came it that 
Hamar, who, during the six years that 
he remained at Quadnoun, and who 
often spoke to us of the residence of 
Christian slayes in that city before 
and after his arrival; how came it,I 
say, that he never mentioned an eyent 
which might have been recalled to his 
mind merely by the pleasantry which 
he used in wishing me to undertake a 
journey which he judged impossible? 
Another observation of the same 
kind, and which will haye more weight 
because 1 can speak more. positively, 
relates to a pretended journey of Sicy 
Hamet to Timectou, mentioned in the 
relation of Capt. Riley. It is certain, 
and I believe I shall be able to proye 
it, that every thing which Sidy Hamet 
is made to relate respecting Timectou, 
in that work, is not the result of his 
own observations, but that he has only 
spoken of Soudan from hearsay, and 
without ever having been in. that 
country. I state this fact, because 
the identity of the narrator of Capt. 
Riley with Sidy Hamet, our former 
master, appears to aflord no doubt, 
notwithstanding the treatment which 
we experienced from that Arabian 
chief, whom Capt. Riley praises, 
whilst we had only to complain of 
him. Without seeking to find out the 
motives for this difference of conduct, 
I shall merely say that the Sidy Hamet 
on whom our fate depended had, as 
well as the one of Capt. Riley, a bro- 
ther called Seid. I shall add further, 
and Hamar daily repeated it to us, 
that within a certain number of years 
nearly all the Christians subjected to 
slavery in the desert, where Sidy Ha- 
met has so great a power, had been 
sold to him by the Arabs, and that he 
had even brought some himself several 
times to Mogadore. I also obtained 
the following fact from the mouth of 
Sidy Hamet, who declared it to me, 
without however his making known 
the cause which prevented him, that 
for some time he no longer dared, any 
more than Beirouc, to undertake a jour- 
ney into the empire of Morocco. Now 
this same Sidy Hamet, who conducted 
Capt. Riley and other slaves before 
him to Mogadore, told me, in answer 
to a question which I put to him on 
this subject, that he had never been to 
Timectou. 
Te 
