450 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXVIL 
while the arrival of my protector, on whose disposition 
and power the success of my whole undertaking and 
my own personal safety fully depended, excited my 
imagination in the highest degree, and thus con- 
tributed greatly to increase my feverish state. 
The following day I was so ill as to be quite unable 
to pay my respects to my protector, who sent me a 
message begging me to quiet myself, as I might rest 
assured that nothing but my succumbing to illness 
could prevent me from safely returning to my native 
home. Meanwhile, as a proof of his hospitable dis- 
position, he sent me a handsome present, consisting 
of two oxen, two sheep, two large vessels of butter, 
one camel load, or " suniye," of rice, and another of 
negro-corn, cautioning me, at the same time, against 
eating any food which did not come from his own 
house. In order to cheer my spirits, he at once 
begged me to choose between the three roads by 
which I wanted to return home — either through the 
country of the Fulbe, or in a boat on the river, 
or, by land, through the district of the Tawarek. 
As from the first I had been fully aware that neither 
the disposition of the natives, and especially that of 
the present rulers of the country, the Fulbe, nor the 
state of my means, would allow me to proceed west- 
ward, and as I felt persuaded that laying down the 
course of the Niger from Timbuktu to Sdy would far 
outweigh in importance a journey through the upper 
country towards the Senegal, I was firm in desiring 
from the beginning to be allowed to visit G6go. For 
