446 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LXXXV. 
delay in Murzuk than I should otherwise have al- 
lowed myself, as I was most anxious to proceed on 
my journey ; nevertheless I staid only six days. 
Having some preparations to make for this last 
stage of my march, I had thus full opportunity 
of becoming aware of the immense difference in 
the prices of provisions between this outlying oasis 
of North Africa and Negroland, especially Kiikawa, 
and for the little supply which I wanted for my 
journey from here to Tripoli, I had to pay as much as 
100 makhbiibs. Besides procuring here my necessary 
supplies for the road, my chief business was in dis- 
charging some of my servants, and more particularly 
Mohammed el Gatroni, whose fidelity I have men- 
tioned before. I added to the small remainder of his 
salary which I still owed him, the stipulated present 
of fifty Spanish dollars, which I would willingly have 
doubled if I had had the means, as he well deserved 
it ; for it is only with the most straightforward con- 
duct and with a generous reward that a European 
traveller will be able to make his way in these 
regions. 
As for encountering the dangers of the road, the 
arrangement of the Bashd, that a party of soldiers 
whom he had discharged, and who were returning 
home, should travel in my company, seemed rather 
of doubtful effect; as such a company, while it af- 
forded a little more security in certain tracts, could 
not fail to turn against myself the disposition of the 
native population in those districts where the revolt 
