90 
TRAVELS m AFRICA. Chap. LXXII. 
His horses had been brought from Kabara on the 
9th, and several people, who were to accompany us 
on our journey eastward, having joined us the follow- 
ing day, the Sheikh himself arrived on the 11th, 
and our encampment became full of bustle. My 
own little camping-ground also was now enlivened 
with all my people, who had come to join me ; and 
my small store of books, which had been brought from 
the town, enabled me to give more variety to my en- 
tertainment. 
A rather disagreeable incident now occurred. 
The Zoghoran officer, the companion of Ferreji, had 
come out on some errand, while I was staying with 
the three brothers in the large tent, which had 
been erected for Sidi Mohammed. I wanted to leave, 
but Bakay begged me to stay. I therefore remained 
a short time, but became so disgusted with the in- 
sulting language of the Zoghoran, that I soon left 
abruptly, although his remarks had more direct 
reference to the French, or, rather, the French and 
half-caste traders on the Senegal, than to the English 
or any other European nation. He spoke of the 
Christians in the most contemptuous manner, de- 
scribing them as sitting like women in the bottom 
of their steamboats, and doing nothing but eating 
raw eggs: concluding with the paradoxical state- 
ment, which is not very flattering to Europeans, 
that the idolatrous Bambara were far better people, and 
much farther advanced in civilisation than the Chris- 
tians. It is singular how the idea that the Europeans 
