302 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXXXI. 
sleep than the preceding night on the banks of the 
Niger, where mosquitoes had swarmed, 
Friday, This day brought me to Tamkala ; my 
August 4th. (j^jyjgis pursuing a shorter and I a more 
circuitous route, but both arriving at the same time 
at the gate of this town. It had been my intention, 
from the beginning, to visit this place ; but the tur- 
bulent state of the country had induced me the year 
before to follow a more direct road, and I did not 
learn until now, that on that occasion A'bii el Hassan, 
as soon as he heard of my approach, had sent four 
horsemen to Garbo, in order to conduct me to his 
presence ; but they did not arrive till after I had 
left that place. The town of Tamkala, which gives 
great celebrity to this region, had suffered consider- 
ably during the revolution of Zaberma ; and if the 
bulky crops of native corn (which were just ripe) 
had not hid the greater part of the town from view, 
it would most probably have presented even a more 
dilapidated appearance ; for not only was the wall 
which surrounded the place in a great state of decay ; 
but even the house of the governor himself was 
reduced almost to a heap of ruins. It was rather 
remarkable that, as I approached the building, a 
female slave, of rather light yellowish colour, saluted 
me, the white man, in a familiar manner, as if I had 
been a countryman and co-religionist of hers. She 
belonged, I think, to a tribe to the south of A'da- 
mawa. 
Having then paid our respects to the governor. 
