468 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXVIII. 
when the kafla of the Tawatiye was ready to set out 
on their journey to the north, and stayed with them 
during the heat of the day. They were encamped 
in about twenty-four small leathern tents, round the 
well where we had a few days previously watered 
our horses, and mustered more than fifty muskets, 
each of them being armed, moreover, with a spear 
and sword ; but notwithstanding their numbers, and 
the circumstance that a rather respectable man, of 
the name of Haj A'hmed, the wealthiest person of 
Insala or c Am-Sala, was among them, and was to 
accompany them as far as Mamun, I felt no inclina- 
tion to go with this caravan, and thus to deprive 
myself of the opportunity of surveying the river, nor 
did my protector himself seem to find in this northerly 
road any sufficient guarantee for my safe return home. 
I therefore only made use of this opportunity in order 
to send to Europe, by way of Ghadames, a short re- 
port of my arrival in Timbuktu, and a general outline 
of the political circumstances connected with my stay 
in the city. 
The caravan having started the following morning, 
we stayed two days longer in the camp, and then 
once more returned into the town, without any fur- 
ther difficulty, in the company of Sidi A'lawate, who 
had come out to join us with a body of armed fol- 
lowers, and who behaved now, on the whole, much 
more amiably towards me. He even gave me some 
interesting particulars with respect to Sego*, which 
* The chief information related to the circumstance that all 
