268 
MY SERVANT FIGHIS. 
in the expedition. I have not made up my mind 
whether I will go to Kuka with this fellow, for 
it is not the first time he has shown something like 
an insolent behaviour. As to my servant, I had 
already discharged him, but the Shereef Kebir 
persuaded me to let him go with the boat to Kuka, 
as he knew how to place it on the camels better 
than the other servants. I scolded him well for 
going with the razzia, because he himself was once 
in bondage, and had returned free under our pro- 
tection. But I fear my words will have little 
effect ; for in Zinder, at least, the great concern 
and occupation of the black population is, to go and 
steal their neighbours, and sell them into slavery. 
I repeat again, nothing but foreign conquest by a 
non-slaveholding power will extirpate slavery from 
the soil of Africa. 
I read Milton's "Conius" and other portions 
of his poetry, and find it a great relief in drawing 
my mind a little off African subjects. I am sorry 
I did not bring with me a copy of Shakespear. 
I have very few books with me of any kind, and 
fewer maps. I received a visit of fighis from the 
villages around, also from a sister and niece of the 
Sultan of Zinder, and gave them all a bit of sugar 
and sent them off. 
Around my house exists a swarm of fighis, who 
can copy charms and a few passages from the 
Koran. I procured some of the bona fide speci- 
mens of their calligraphy. There are four different 
