Chap. LV. 
ARRIVAL BEFORE KA'TSENA. 
95 
pursued our march without interruption for nearly 
twelve hours, when we encamped about five miles 
beyond the melancholy site of Dankama, very nearly 
on the same spot where I had halted two years before. 
We were all greatly fatigued ; and a soi-disant sherif 
from Morocco, but originally, as it seemed, belonging 
to the Tajakant, who had attached himself to my 
caravan in Zmder in order to reach Timbuktu in my 
company, felt very sickly. He had suffered already 
a great deal in Zmder, and ought not to have exposed 
his small store of strength to such a severe trial. 
Not being able to have regard to his state of health, 
as there was no water here, we pursued our jour- 
ney soon after midnight, and reached the well- 
known walls of Katsena after a march of about six 
hours. 
It was with a peculiar feeling that I pitched my 
tent a few hundred yards from the gate (kofa-n-samri) 
of this town, by the governor of which I had been so 
greatly annoyed on my first entering this country. It 
was not long before several A'sbenawa people be- 
longing to Annur, followed by the servants of the 
governor, came to salute me ; and after a little while 
I was joined by my old tormentor the Tawati mer- 
chant Bel-Ghet. But our meeting this time was very 
different from what it had been when I first saw him ; 
for as soon as he recognized me, and heard from me 
that I was come to fulfil my promise of paying a visit 
to the sultan of Sokoto, he could not restrain his 
delight and excitement, and threw himself upon my 
