372 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLIX. 
The ruler of the country, together with the prin- 
cipal men, being absent, the place presented at that 
time a more quiet or rather dull appearance than it 
does in general ; and when I took my first walk 
through the town, I was struck with the aspect of 
solitude which presented itself to the eye on all sides. 
Fortunately there was one man in the town whose 
society and conversation were a relief to my mind. 
I was reclining in the afternoon upon my simple 
couch, occupied in reading, when I received a visit 
from three persons. One of them was a man of ap- 
parently Negro origin, showing, by his wrinkled coun- 
tenance, a career of trouble and misfortune, but 
having otherwise nothing very remarkable about him. 
It was Haj A'hmed, of Bambara origin, and formerly 
an inhabitant of Tawat, but who after a number of 
vicissitudes, having first been employed in the gold 
diggings of Bambuk, and afterwards been engaged 
on small trading expeditions from Tawat to Tim- 
buktu (where he had been twice robbed by the 
Tawarek), and from the same place to A'gades and 
Kan6, had at last settled at Medina. From thence 
he had accompanied the warlike expedition of Fbra- 
him Basha, had fought in the battles of e Akka and 
Deraije, and had been sent on several journeys as 
far as Basra and Baghdad, and at present being em- 
ployed as servant at the great Mosque, had been 
dispatched to this country in order to obtain from its 
sultan a present of eunuchs for the temple of Medina. 
The second was a venerable-looking man, with a 
