AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 173 
The streets are wide and clean. There are seven 
mosques, each surmounted by a square tower, from 
which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. Counting 
the floating population, the capital of the Soudan does 
not contain more than from ten to twelve thousand 
inhabitants. 
Timbuctoo, situated in the midst of a vast plain of 
THE SURROUNDINGS OF TIMBUCTOO. 
shifting white sand, trades in salt only, the soil being 
quite unsuitable to any sort of cultivation. The town 
is always full of people, who come to exact what they 
call presents, but what might with more justice be styled 
forced contributions. It is a public calamity when a 
Tuarick chief arrives. He remains in the town a couple 
of months, living with his numerous followers at the 
expense of the inhabitants, until he has wrung costly 
presents from them. Terror has extended the domina- 
