186 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LVII. 
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 e Abd el Kader to his former dignity. I had 
great difficulty in convincing him that I had very little 
influence with the emir el Mumemn, 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 re- 
instating him in his former position. 
Among the people who sought my acquaintance 
there was also Khalilu dan Hassan, one of the pre- 
sumptive heirs to the royal power — Hassan being a 
younger brother of Bello — a young man of gentle- 
manly manners, but not of a very generous disposi- 
tion, 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 Fellani dominions. It had been composed by 
e Abd Allahi, the brother of 'Othman the Reformer, to 
