436 DIXAN. 
moment of our departure, for the purpose of keeping the Hazorta 
quiet in their station below Taranta. To this arrangement 
Shum Hummar's brother, who had brought me a private mes- 
sage, acceded ; and it was resolved that he should attend me 
part of the way down, on receiving a small present, and should 
then proceed to his brother to inform him of our plans, and to 
appoint him to meet us at Weah. 
During our stay at Dixan, a cafila arrived from the interior, 
which on enquiry I discovered to consist of travellers from Dar 
Fur. Two of them shortly after paid me a visit, and solicited 
my permission to go down with our party to the coast, a request 
with which I willingly complied, in the hope of obtaining some 
information respecting their native country . I afterwards learned 
that they had employed nearly three months in their journey, 
having set out from Ril at the latter end of February ; that they 
had travelled a considerable way towards the south, out of the 
direct road, on account of their country being engaged in war 
with the people of Sennaar : that they had passed through a dis- 
trict called Mitchecie, which may, in all probability, be the 
Da-mitchequa, before described as inhabited by Shangalla, 
Da*' or Dar" merely signifying country), and that their 
ultimate destination was Mecca. Sultan Abd'el Rachman, who 
reigned over Dar Fur during Mr. Browne's stay in that country, 
had been dead seven years, and had been succeeded by his son 
Mahomed, whose character was considered as very superior to 
that of his father. My informant also told me, that he had 
heard of a white man having visited the capital, and mentioned, 
of his own accord, that he had been ill-treated by the ruling 
