Chap. LXXIY. EXCITmG NEWS. 
123 
and almost in a starving condition, all their property 
having been taken from them. They informed me 
that the Igwadaren had plundered twelve villages 
along the Eghirreu, among others, those of Bdmba, 
E'gedesh, Asliman, and Zomgoy. 
The river was enlivened the whole day long with 
boats going up and down, and some of the people 
asserted that these boats belonged to the Fiilbe, who 
were looking out for an opportunity of striking a blow. 
The whole world seemed to be in a state of revolution. 
The news from the north of the advance of the French, 
the particulars of which, of course, could not but 
become greatly exaggerated, as the report Avas carried 
from tribe to tribe, excited my friend greatly, and the 
several letters, written by the people of Tawat, who 
were resident in Timbuktu, having reference to the 
same event, with which the messenger whom he had 
sent to that place returned, did not fail to increase 
his anxiety. 
All these people seemed to be inspired with the 
same fear, that the French might without any fur- 
ther delay march from el Golea, which they were 
said to have occupied, upon Timbuktu, or at least 
upon Tawat. On the whole it was very fortunate 
indeed that I was not in the town at this con- 
juncture, as in the first excitement these very 
people from Tawat, who previously had taken me 
under their especial protection, and defended me 
repeatedly, would have contributed to my ruin, as, 
from their general prejudice against a Christian, 
they lost all distinction between English and French, 
