172 
TRAVELS IN AFEICA. 
Chap. XXVI. 
account of the mission, to the value of one hundred 
pounds ; but, either because he wished to deliver it to 
the director himself, or in order to obtain also the 
hire stipulated for him if he should be obliged to 
carry the merchandise on to Kiikawa, he declared that 
the things had gone on in advance to Kano, — an evi- 
dent falsehood, which eventually caused us much 
unnecessary expense, and brought Mr. Overweg and 
myself into the greatest distress; for I did not, in 
fact, receive this merchandise till after my return from 
Adamawa — having subsisted all the time upon " air 
and debts." 
This and the following day I was busy answer- 
ing my letters, and I will only mention here that 
from this place I intimated to one of my friends, — 
Mr. Richard Lepsius, of Berlin, — my foreboding 
that it might be my destiny, after trying in vain to 
penetrate to any great distance in a south-eastern 
direction, to turn my steps westwards, and to fill up 
my researches into the regions about Timbuktu by 
my personal experience. Having finished my parcel 
of letters, I gave it to the Mugharbi to take with 
him to Kano, and entrust it to the care of one of 
my Tinylkum friends, who would soon forward it to 
Miirzuk. 
Having been thus freshly imbued with the restless 
impulse of European civilization, and strengthened 
with the assurance that highly respected persons at 
such a distance took a deep interest in the results of 
our proceedings, I resolved not to linger a moment 
