APPENDIX. 
the caravans, out of a hundred there do not return twenty-five. 
In the said country they have no quadrupeds, because they all 
die ; and likewise many of the foresaid Arabs and Azanaghi 
are killed in the same place, and die; and that from the great 
heat. They say, from Tegazza to Tombuctoo are about forty 
days' journey on horseback, and from Tombuctoo to Melli 
thirty. I asked then what the merchants of Melli did with 
that salt. They answered, that a small quantity of it is con- 
sumed in their country, because, from being near to the equi- 
noxial, where the days and nights are equal, they are extreme- 
ly hot at certain times of the year, when their blood putrifies 
so, that if it were not for that salt they would die ; but they 
take a little bit of the said salt, and dissolve it in a cup with a 
little water, and drink it every day, with which they say that 
they preserve their health ; and what remains of the said salt 
is broken into pieces of such size that a man can carry it upon 
his back, and is carried to a great distance. The said salt is 
carried to Melli by the foresaid camels in large pieces hollow- 
ed from the mine, each camel carrying two pieces. At Tom- 
buctoo the negroes break it into more pieces, so that each man 
carries a piece, and thus they form a great army of mei* on foot, 
who carry it a great way, and in this way they carry it to a great 
water, which they could not say if it was salt or fresh, so that 
I could not know if it was a river or the sea ; but I hold it to 
be a river, because if it was the sea, there would be no need of 
salt. Having reached this water, they observe the following 
method : — All those who have the salt make piles of it in a 
row, each marking his own, and having made the said piles, 
they all turn back ; then comes another generation of negroes, 
who do not wish to let themselves be seen or spoken to. They 
come with large *barks that appear to issue from certain 
islands, and land, and having seen the salt, place a quantity of 
gold opposite to each pile, and then return, leaving the gold 
and the salt; and when they are gone, the salt negroes come, 
