Chap. LIII. PECUNIARY CIRCUMSTANCES. 3 
ferent chiefs, and partly even of powerful princes; 
and as soon as I should have left Zinder behind me, 
I could not expect to find fresh supplies, the sum 
of money which I had received on my return from 
Bagirmi being almost all spent in paying the debts 
which we had incurred when left without means. A 
sum of 400 dollars, besides a box containing choice 
English ironware, had been some time before con- 
signed to a Tebii of the name of A'hmed Haj 'All 
Billama : but instead of proceeding at once with the 
caravan with which he had left Fezzan, as he ought 
to have done, he staid behind in his native town 
Bilma to celebrate a marriage. The caravan, with 
about twenty horses and a hundred camels, arrived, 
on the 10th of November, without bringing me any- 
thing, except the proof of such reckless conduct ; and 
as I could not afford to lose any more time in waiting 
for this parcel, I left orders that it should be for- 
warded to Zinder as soon as it should arrive. But 
never received it. 
Nearly three fourths of the money in cash which 
we had received being required to pay off our debts, 
we had been obliged to give away a great portion 
even of the articles of merchandise, or presents, 
in order to reward friends who for so long a period 
had displayed their hospitality towards us, and ren- 
dered us services almost without the slightest re- 
compense ; so that, on the whole, it was only under 
the most pressing circumstances I could think of un- 
dertaking a journey to the west with the means then 
B 2 
