PRESENT — MAIDUKIAS. 
309 
peace existed between England and the Porte. He 
was very anxious to continue his questions, but 
there being two or three hundred persons present, 
he was obliged to defer them till the evening. I 
was much gratified with the sight. It was really a 
scene of African state, but without deformities. 
There was no blood, no slaying of victims, no abject 
ceremonies ; nothing to offend the eye of the Euro- 
pean. We merely saw, seated on a raised platform, 
a black, robed in barbaric style of splendour, with 
a hundred courtiers and officers squatted on the 
ground him, all humble beings, but not abject. 
On returning, his highness sent our caravan 
four bullocks, to be slaughtered for our use. To- 
day was market-day, but there was no stock of con- 
sequence here, there being little foreign commerce. 
There may be a score of foreign merchants, nearly 
all from Fezzan, but they are mere traders, and 
only bring a few things for the Sultan and his chief 
officers. These merchants say that there is no 
money here, nor, indeed, in Bornou. 
The place for money is Kanou. All the wealth 
of Central Africa is, according to them, concen- 
trated there. Kanou is, in fact, the London of 
Soudan. I asked a merchant here, who was 
accounted rich ; that is, who was a Maidulda ? He 
replied, " One with property to the amount of a 
thousand dollars." Even a man with five hundred 
is accounted a somebody. Such is the estimate of 
