Chap. XXVII. DEATH OF MR. RICHARDSON. 
203 
upon my little nag, musing on the original homes of all 
the plants which now adorn different countries, when 
I saw advancing towards us a strange-looking person 
of very fair complexion, richly dressed and armed, 
and accompanied by three men on horseback, likewise 
armed with musket and pistols. Seeing that he was 
a person of consequence, I rode quickly up to him 
and saluted him, when he, measuring me with his eyes, 
halted and asked me whether I was the Christian who 
was expected to arrive from Kano ; and on my an- 
swering him in the affirmative, he told me distinctly 
that my fellow-traveller Yakiib (Mr. Richardson) 
had died before reaching Kiikawa, and that all his 
property had been seized. Looking him full in the 
face, I told him that this, if true, was serious news ; 
and then he related some particulars, which left but 
little doubt as to the truth of his statement. When 
his name was asked, he called himself Ismail ; I learned, 
however, afterwards, from other people, that he was 
the sherif el Habib, a native of Morocco, and really of 
noble blood, a very learned, but extremely passionate 
man, who, in consequence of a dispute with Mallem 
Mohammed had been just driven out of Kiikawa by 
the sheikh of Bornu. 
This sad intelligence deeply affected me, as it 
involved not only the life of an individual, but the 
whole fate of the mission ; and though some room was 
left for doubt, yet in the first moment of excitement, 
I resolved to leave my two young men behind with 
the camels, and to hurry on alone on horseback. But 
