336 THE AUTHOR BEGINS TO RECOVER. 
medicine and no attendant but Baba's old mother. This 
good creature brought me twice a-day a little rice-water, 
which she forced me to drink; for I could eat nothing, I 
was soon reduced to a skeleton, and my situation was so 
deplorable that at length I excited pity even in those who 
were least disposed to feel for me. 
Suffering had deprived me of all energy. One thought 
alone absorbed my mind — that of death. I wished for it, 
and I prayed for it to God, in whom I reposed all my confi- 
dence, not in the hope of cure, for that I had relinquished ; 
but in the hope of another and a happier state. This was 
the only consolation I experienced during my long sufferings, 
and for that I was indebted to the religious principles which 
I had imbibed during the numerous adversities of my wander- 
! ing life : for, we are so constituted that it is often only in 
I misfortune, and when bereft of friends, that we turn for con- 
II solation to that God who never withholds it. 
At lengtli, after six weeks of indescribable suffering, 
during which time I subsisted solely on boiled rice and water, 
I began to feel better and to reflect on what was passing 
around me, I scarcely ever saw Baba. I could easily per- 
ceive that I was a trouble to him and his family, and that 
they were tii-ed of the burthen of a man who was continually 
ill. The presents which I had been obliged to make them every 
now and then were rapidly exhausting my means, and my bag- 
gage was becoming so scanty that I feared I should not have 
sufficient merchandise to complete my journey; for, ill as I was, 
I did not now renounce the idea of continuing it. 1 would 
rather have died on the road than have returned without making 
more important discoveries. I reflected on the best means of 
proceeding to the Niger, where I might hope to embark for 
Timbuctoo, the mysterious city which was the object of all my 
curiosity. I never for a moment reproached myself for the re- 
solution which had brought me to these deserts, where I had 
suffered so much misery. I saAV with regret the fine season 
