Chap. LV. 
UNFORESEEN DIFFICULTY. 
103 
time, but we afterwards found Sokoto, and many places 
between that and Timbuktu, much dearer ; but the 
character of dearth in Katsena is increased by the 
scarcity of shells in the market, which form the 
standard currency, and, especially after I had cir- 
culated a couple of hundred dollars, I was often 
obliged to change a dollar for 2300 shells instead 
of 2500. 
I had here a disagreeable business to arrange ; for 
suddenly, on the 18th of March, there arrived our old 
creditor Mohammed e' Sfdksf, whose claims upon us 
I thought I had settled long ago by giving him a bill 
upon Fezzan, besides the sum of two hundred dollars 
which I had paid him on the spot* : but, to my great 
astonishment, he produced a letter, in which Mr. 
Gaglium*, Her Majesty's agent in Murzuk, informed 
him that I was to pay him in Suddn. 
Such is the trouble to which a European traveller 
is exposed in these countries, by the injudicious ar- 
rangements of those very people whose chief object 
ought to be to assist him, while at the same time all 
his friends in Europe think that he is well provided, 
and that he can proceed on his difficult errand with- 
out obstacle. 
On the 19th of March we received information that 
the army of the Goberawa had encamped on the site 
of the former town of Roma, or Ruma ; and I was 
given to understand that I must hold myself in readi- 
ness to march at an hour's notice. 
* See Vol. III. p. 473. 
h 4 
