188 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LVII. 
acquainted with the country and the people, and that 
I was anxious to establish friendly relations with the 
most distinguished and learned among them. But he 
gave me repeatedly to understand that he wished me 
not to go to Hamdall&hi, to present my compliments 
to their countrymen and coreligionists there and their 
chief or his successor, we having just received a few 
days previously the news of the death of Shekho 
A'hmedu, while he had not the slightest objection to 
my going to Timbuktu, and paying a visit to the 
sheikh el Bakay, who had spent some time in Sokoto 
and was on friendly terms with the family of Fodiye. 
