RESIDENCE AT SOCCATOO AND MAGARIA. 
235 
he would not allow me to go : that there were three roads, out of 
which I must choose one ; and he would send people with me ; one 
road was the way I had come, the second by way of Timbuctoo, and 
the third by way of Aghadiz and F ezzan. I answered, that by the 
way I had come he could not send me, nor was it safe I should 
attempt it, as all Yourriba and the other countries at war with the 
Fellatas were now well acquainted with my having come here as a 
messenger, with presents from the king of England to him, for the 
purpose of putting a stop to the slave trade. That the way by 
Timbuctoo was almost impassable, for the Fellatas from Foota- 
Torra and Foota-Bonda, &c. who had arrived here a short while 
ago, had with the greatest difficulty been allowed to come here with 
nothing but a staff and a shirt, and had been twelve months on the 
road, owing to the war ; and that, were I to go, all the country 
would hear of me, and his enemies would have me and all my 
baggage before I had been two months on the road. That the 
road by Aghadiz would require a number of camels, more than I 
could afford to buy at present, also a great deal of provisions, water- 
skins, &c. as there was no place for seven days’ journey that supplied 
either wood or water: that the Tuaricks were a people without 
either law or government; and if they did allow me to go, I should 
have to pay very dear for their permission, at least two camel- 
loads of blue tobes and turbans ; but if he would allow me to go 
by the way of Baghermi, Darfoor, and Egypt, I would go at all 
risks. He replied that was just going by way of Bornou, as I 
must pass through from Adamawa to Logan. “ With truth,” said 
old Ben Gusmo with great earnestness to Sidi Sheik, and loud 
enough for the sultan to hear, “ do you hear how that man talks 
before the prince of the faithful ?” He, the sultan, then asked to 
see the sheik’s letter ; I showed it to him, as also the Arabic list of 
medicines which I had brought as far as Badagry for the sheik, but 
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