514 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap, LXIX. 
the messenger whom he had sent to the Awelim- 
miden, in order to induce the chief of that tribe to 
come to Timbuktu and to take me under his pro- 
tection, having reached the settlements of that 
tribe ; but I was aware that the opposite party would 
do all in their power to prevent the chief from 
approaching the town, as they were fully conscious 
that the Sheikh wanted to employ him and his host 
of warlike people, in order to subdue the Fullan and 
the faction opposed to his own authority. 
Feeling my head much better, and having 
December 27th. , , . ° 
recruited my strength with a diet of meat 
and milk, I began to enjoy the rehala life, and, it 
being a beautiful morning, I took a good walk to an 
eminence situated at some distance north of my tent, 
from whence 1 had a distant view of the landscape. 
The country presented an intermediate character be- 
tween the desert and a sort of less favoured pasture 
ground, stretching out in an undulating surface, 
with a sandy soil tolerably well clad with middle- 
sized acacias and with thorny bushes, where the goat 
finds sufficient material for browsing. The streams 
of running water which, with their silvery threads, 
enlivened these bare desert tracts, now extended a 
considerable distance farther inland than had been 
the case a few days before ; and the whole presented 
a marvellous and delightful spectacle, which, no doubt, 
must fill travellers from the north who reach Tim- 
buktu at such a season with astonishment. Hence, 
on their return home, they spread the report of 
