LETTERS OF CREDIT. 
coast, and attain to an enormous degree of embon- 
point. They are not ill-looking, but offer nothing 
remarkable in their forms. 
I have already set down many particulars of 
manners, and shall proceed to do so in the same dis- 
jointed way. At a future time all these traits must 
be collected to form one picture.* For the present 
I am anxious about the future progress of the Mis- 
sion, and impatient, at any rate, to hear some news 
of our advance. We cannot do all the things 
we would. Our position is almost that of prisoners. 
We must depend entirely on the caprice of En- 
Noor, who, however, may already have laid out his 
plans distinctly, though he does not choose to com- 
municate them to us. 
Oct. 2d. — We have been lately discussing the 
practicability of going to Sakkatou, on a visit to 
the Sultan Bello ; and this morning I looked over, 
for the first time, some "letters of credit" which 
Mr. Gagliuffi, our plausible consul at Mourzuk, 
had given me. I found that the amount offered 
for the use of the expedition in Kanou does not 
exceed a hundred and fifty reals of Fezzan, or about 
twenty pounds sterling, and that the agent is ex- 
pressly requested not to advance any more! This 
extraordinary document induced me to look further, 
* Perhaps the note-books of Mr. Richardson, in which facts are 
set down fresh and distinct just as they presented themselves, will be 
found to be more interesting than an elaborate narrative. At any rate 
it has seemed better not to attempt to do what was left undone in this 
matter. — Ed. 
