102 
COURIER SENNA. 
gone thirty- three days. If, happily, he arrive to 
day, he will save a week of the Shantah from 
Mourzuk to Tripoli. If we remain here now 
twenty-five days, and are thirty-five days more 
before we arrive at Zinder, that will be sixty days, 
I shall then have only twenty days more to wait 
till the expiration of the four months, when I may 
expect the courier to return. Thus I hope to 
have the money to pay the Sfaxee before I go to 
Sakkatou. But, alas ! such calculations are ex- 
tremely uncertain, and we cannot tell what a day 
may bring forth. For our support and safety we 
must repose firmly in the goodness of an Almighty 
Providence. 
Nov. 30th to Dec. 3d. — The weather has been 
mild these last few days ; this morning, half an 
hour after sunrise, thermometer 51°. 
En-Noor has been to pay a visit to the Sultan 
of Asoudee, meeting him at some neighbouring 
village. There was a council respecting the affairs 
of the tribe of the Iteesan, who are fighting amongst 
themselves ; but no news has transpired since his 
return. The old sheikh is in good health and 
spirits, which he attributes partly to drinking my 
coffee twice and thrice a-day. He says we shall 
leave here in the course of twelve days. 
Senna is grown, or rather collected, in all the . 
districts of Aheer; but it is cheap now, and does 
not fetch the price in Tripoli which it formerly did ; 
many other as suitable purgatives being found in 
