298 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXX. 
to distribute among the eight creditors 70,000 shells ; 
and it was the more agreeable, as the more arro- 
gant among them, seeing my extreme poverty, had 
assumed a tone of great insolence towards me, which 
I found it difficult to support in silence. Being 
now relieved a little in circumstances, I immedi- 
ately rid myself of the carpenter, the grandiloquent 
Son of Jerusalem, and sent him away. He died 
on the road before reaching Murzuk - — a fact which 
the natives attributed to the curse which I had 
given him for having stolen something from my 
house. 
My household now became more comfortable. 
Already, on the 10th of April, late in the even- 
ing, I had removed my quarters from the large 
empty courtyard in the eastern town, or billa 
gedibe, to a small clay house in the western, or billa 
futebe. 
This dwelling consisted of several small but neatly- 
made rooms, and a yard. Afterwards we succeeded in 
obtaining in addition an adjoining yard, which was 
very spacious, and included several thatched huts ; 
and all this together formed " the English house," 
which the sheikh was kind enough to concede to the 
English mission as long as anybody should be left 
there to take care of it. 
Its situation was very favourable, as will be seen 
from the plan a few pages further on, being situated 
almost in the middle of the town, and neverthe- 
less out of the way of the great thoroughfares ; 
