504 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LX1X. 
the second, which was more explicit, that I should not 
return into the town. Now my firman from Stambiil 
was my greatest trouble, for having anxiously requested 
Her British Majesty's Government to send such a 
document after me, I always expected to receive it by 
some means or other ; but I was not less disappointed 
in this respect, than in my expectation of receiving 
a letter of recommendation from Morocco ; neverthe- 
less, as I had some other letters from Mohammedans, 
the Sheikh promised to comply with the first demand 
of these people, while he refused to pay any atten- 
tion to the second. After some unsuccessful nego- 
tiation, the messengers retraced their steps rather 
disheartened. 
In order to attach more sincerely to my interest 
the Tawarek chiefs, who were my only supporters, 
I gave to Fandaghumme a present equal to the one 
I had given to A'wab. Next morning there arrived 
a troop of fugitives who were anxious to put them- 
selves under the protection of the Sheikh. They 
belonged to the tribe of the Surk, who, from being 
the indigenous tribe on that part of the Niger which 
extends on both sides of the lake Debu, had been 
degraded, in the course of time, to the condition of 
serfs, and were threatened by the fanatical Sheikho 
A'hmedu with being sold into slavery. Of course it 
is the Sheikh El Bakay's policy to extend his protec- 
tion to whatever quarter is threatened by the Fulbe ; 
but, in this case, sympathy with the miserable fate of 
these poor people led him to interfere. 
