Chap. LXXXIII. WANT OF INFORMATION. 
361 
I went to visit some cattle-pens, in order to get a little 
fresli milk, which I was unable to procure in the town ; 
for inside the place I succeeded only after great exer- 
tion in obtaining a little goat's milk. The pools pro- 
duced by the rainy season had now dried up almost 
everywhere, and that peculiar kind of sorghum called 
" raaiwa " had been harvested ; and a few days after- 
wards, while making another excursion, to the south, 
I met the servants of the governor gathering the corn 
for their master. 
Besides my ow^n private concerns, and the anxiety 
produced by the urgency of my debts and the uncer- 
tainty with regard to the property left by me in Zin- 
der, there were two objects which attracted my whole 
attention and caused me a good deal of perplexity 
and hesitation. The first of these was the expedition 
sent by the English government up the river Benuwe, 
of which I had not the slightest idea at the time when 
it was carried out, for the despatches which I had 
received in Timbuktu, after so much delay, did not 
contain a word about such a proceeding ; and the 
letters which were forwarded afterwards to my ad- 
dress, informing me that such an expedition was to 
be undertaken, remained in Kiikawa, and I did not 
get them until my arrival in that place at the end 
of December. Thus it was not until the 29th October 
that, just in the same manner as I had heard acci- 
dentally in S6koto of the arrival of Mr. Vogel in 
Kiikawa, I was informed here, by the report of the 
natives, of such an expedition having taken place. I 
