Chap. LXX. 
DEPARTURE PUT OFF. 
15 
this quarter was greatly darkened by this circum- 
stance. 
This was one of those rainy days which 
January 15th. 
are said not to be unusual towards the end 
of January and the beginning of February in this 
quarter along the river, though, in the other parts of 
Negroland that I had visited, I had never beheld 
anything of the kind. But the quantity of rain that 
fell even here was very little, for the sky, which had 
been cloudy in the morning, cleared up about noon ; 
and although in the afternoon it became again over- 
cast, with thunder in the distance followed by light- 
ning towards evening, yet there fell only a few drops 
of rain in the course of the night. 
On the 16th, having made a good breakfast on a 
goat roasted whole before the fire, we returned again 
into the town, where I was desired to cure a man of 
a disease over which I had no power. The character 
and position of the person would have rendered it a 
circumstance of the highest importance to me if I 
had been able to do so. The chronic disease under 
which Mohammed ben 'Abd-Allahi, for this is the 
person of whom I speak, was labouring, cast a melan- 
choly gloom over him. I admired his manners, 
and the fine expression of his features ; but I 
was disappointed to find that, although well versed 
in his religious books, he did not possess any histori- 
cal knowledge as to the former state of these coun- 
tries, which formed an object of the highest interest 
to me. The arrival of this person made my pro- 
