70 
INTENDED JOURNEY. 
hausted. To the worthy and generous Sidi-Abdallahi- 
Chebir^ I was therefore indebted for my return through the 
great desert. I had only merchandise to the value of thirty- 
five piastres, which I reserved to buy a camel, to carry me to 
the sea-coast, either through the great desert, or by directing 
my course westerly. I confess that the idea of crossing the 
Sahara in so dry a season was accompanied by not a little 
alarm ; I was afraid that, with my slight resources, I should 
not be able to support the privations and fatigues of such a 
journey, augmented, as they must be, by a scorching wind, 
which blows unceasingly and renders the heat intolerable. 
However, after mature reflection, I resolved to encounter the 
dangers to which the great drought could not fail to expose 
me, and to venture with a caravan among the moving sands 
of the desert. I reflected that if I should return by the way 
of Sego, Sansanding, and our establishments at Galam, those 
who might envy the success of my enterprise, the very under- 
taking of which had created for me many enemies, would 
pretend to doubt the fact of my journey and of my residence 
at Timbuctoo, whereas, by returning through the Barbary 
states, the mere mention of the point at which I had arrived 
would reduce the most malignant to silence. 
Sidi-Abdallahi daily lavished on me marks of his kind- 
ness ; he even went so far as to urge me to remain in Tim- 
buctoo. He said he would give me merchandise to trade on 
my own acccount ; and, observed, that when I should have 
accumulated sufficient profit, I might return to my own 
country without assistance from any one. However, the fear 
of being discovered, joined to a strong wish to re- visit my 
native land, induced me to decline his generous offers. I 
considered, moreover that, as my departure for the interior of 
Africa was not authentically known, even that circumstance 
would be buried in oblivion, were I to perish, and the 
observations I had made would be lost to my country. In- 
fluenced by these considerations, I resolved to endeavour to 
