SIDI HAMET, 
515 
ed some time in Mr Willshire's house, he began 
to give an account of the events which had occur- 
red in his journey across the desert, to and be- 
yond Tombuctoo. These appeared to Riley so 
curious, that he prevailed upon Sidi Hamet to 
give a regular narration of them, which, with the 
assistance of an interpreter, he took down from 
his diction. The following are the principal 
facts : — 
The first journey made by Sidi Hamet to Tom- 
buctoo was with a caravan of three thousand ca- 
mels, and eight hundred men. They proceeded 
along the sea coast till they came to the border 
of the negro territories, when they turned east- 
ward to Tombuctoo. The desert crossed during 
the whole of this journey, was described by Sidi 
Hamet as resembling that over which Riley had 
travelled, generally a dead level, sometimes co- 
vered by moving sand hills. At one place, they 
travelled for a month without finding a blade of 
grass ; at another, for ten days the ground was as 
hard as the floor of a house. The caravan re- 
turned by the same route, having suffered no dis- 
aster except the loss of several hundred camels. 
The next journey was far more eventful. Sidi 
Hamet here joined the great accumulated caravan, 
and wen^t with it in the direct route across the de- 
sert. The caravan consisted of above one thou- 
sand men and four thousand camels, about half of 
