RESIDENCE AT SOCCATOO. 
269 
Bello, to the hour of his death, I never observed him to smile. 
My master had been ill of dysentery before my arrival, but was 
then much better. 
RESIDENCE AT SOCCATOO MY MASTER S DEATH BURIAL. 
On the 13tli December, the day after my arrival, Sultan Bello 
sent for my master and myself to repair to his residence. As soon 
as we entered, he began to make inquiries of the nature of the pre- 
sents I had with me, and was extremely desirous to know if I 
had left any with Hadji Ben Sallah for the sheik of Bornou. I 
replied, 1 had not. “ Are you sure you have not ?” said he. I 
again answered with firmness in the negative. The sultan then 
demanded the king of England’s letters to the sheik of Bornou, 
which my master reluctantly produced; but refused to accede to 
the sultan’s request to open and read them, observing that, when 
his king discovered, on his return to his country, he had so unfaith- 
fully broken his trust, he would immediately be beheaded. The 
sultan himself took the letters, and waving his hand for us to with- 
draw, we left the apartment. We had not been in our hut more 
than a couple of hours when the Gadado, his brother, Hadji Ben 
Sallah, and several of the principal inhabitants of Soccatoo, entered, 
and demanded, in the name of Bello, the presents intended for the 
sheik of Bornou, together with all the arms and ammunition we 
did not want ourselves. My master became deeply agitated when 
he had heard their errand, and rising up from his couch, exclaimed 
with much energy and bitterness — “ There is no faith in any of 
you ; you are an unjust people ; you are worse than highway rob- 
bers.” They cautioned him to be more guarded in his expressions, 
or it might cost him his head. “ If I lose my head,” rejoined my 
