500 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXIX 
In reply he alleged that they were by no means 
afraid of them, having vanquished them on a former 
occasion, but that they only awaited the arrival of 
their kinsfolk to show them that they were the real 
masters of Timbuktu. 
To add to the conflict of these opposing interests, 
a great number of strangers were at this time col- 
lected in the town, most of whom were of a far more 
fanatical disposition than the inhabitants themselves, 
who, on the whole, are very good-natured. The 
Berabish alone, who had come into the town with 
about one thousand camels carrying their salt, mus- 
tered one hundred and twenty horse, prepared, no 
doubt, to fight the Fullan, if the latter should attempt 
to levy the " ashiir," or the tithe, but still more hos- 
tilely disposed towards the Christian stranger who 
had intruded upon this remote corner, one of the 
most respected seats of the Mohammedan faith, and 
against whom they had a personal reason of hostility, 
as they were commanded by 'All, the son of Hamed 
Weled 'Abeda, the acknowledged murderer of Major 
Laing ; and, of course, the news of my residence in 
the town, and of the hostile disposition of the Fiilbe, 
who had now been two months attempting in vain 
to drive me out of it, had spread far and wide. 
This great influx of strangers into the town raised 
the price of all sorts of provisions, particularly that 
of Negro corn and rice, in a remarkable degree, the 
latter rising from 6000 to 7500 shells the "suniye," 
while the former, which a few days before had been 
