41 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LXXI. 
weather, too, was more genial. We had a really warm 
day on the 13th, and I employed the fine morning in 
taking a long walk over the several small sandy ridges 
which intersect this district. There were just at the 
time very few people about here who might cause me 
any danger, and I only fell in with the goatherds, who 
were feeding their flocks by cutting down those 
branches of the thorny trees which contained young 
offshoots and leaves. But the Sheikh, having received 
some private information, suspected that our enemies 
might make another attempt against my safety ; and 
having ret^aested me to send my servant, 'Abd-AUahi, 
into the town, in the course of the day, to inform my 
people that we were about to return, he mounted with 
me, after the moon had risen, and we again entered 
our old quarters. 
This morninof one of my men, the Zaberma 
February 16th. o t i i i 
half-caste, Sambo, whom I had taken mto 
my service at the residence of Galaijo, came to request 
to be dismissed my service. In the afternoon I went to 
pay my respects to the Sheikh, and was rather asto- 
nished to hear him announce my departure more se- 
riously and more firmly than usual ; but the reason 
was, that he had authentic news that his elder brother, 
Sidi Mohammed, whose arrival he had been expecting 
so long, and whom he wanted to leave in his stead 
when obliged to escort me the first part of my journey, 
w^as close at hand. The big drum having really an- 
nounced his arrival at the tents, we mounted on horse- 
back, half an hour before midnight, and arrived at the 
encampment a little before two o'clock in the morning. 
