48 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXXl. 
the 20th ; and the only articles which they took with 
them were salt and a little calico. Even directly 
from the north, along the most frequented route, the 
trade became insignificant ; and a party of merchants 
who arrived from Tawdt on the following day was 
exceedingly small. Among them were two respect- 
able Ghadamsiye merchants, but having resided three 
or four months in Tawdt, they brought neither recent 
news nor letters for me. However, they came just 
in time, as on the 22nd a countryman of theirs, of 
some importance, died, and I learned on this occasion 
something about the property of merchants in this 
place. The deceased was a tolerably wealthy man ; 
among the property which he left there being found 
about 2000 mithkdl in gold, a considerable sum of 
money for this place, although it did not belong to 
himself, but to the Tiniyan, or the well-known Gha- 
damsi family of the Tini, whose agent he was. The 
house where he lived was worth 200 mithkdl. 
Having, while in the town, much time at my 
disposal, and only little intercourse with the people, 
I had made ready another parcel containing the 
information which I had been able to collect for 
sending to Europe ; and it was well that I had 
done so, as early on the 26th a small troop of poor 
Tawdti traders left for their native home. But, un- 
fortunately, this parcel did not find Her Britannic Ma- 
jesty's agent to whom it was addressed at Ghaddmes, 
as he had left his post for the Crimea ; and thus my 
family was thrown into the deepest grief in conse- 
