AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF TEE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 175 
heard that a caravan was about to start for Tafilet; and 
as he knew that another would not go for three months, 
fearing detection, he resolved to join this one. It con¬ 
sisted of a large number of merchants, and 600 camels. 
Starting on the 4th of May, 1828, he arrived, after 
terrible sufferings from the heat, and a sand-storm in 
which he was caught, at El Arawan, a town of no private 
resources, but important as the emporium for the 
Toudeyni salt, exported at Sansanding, on the banks of 
the Niger, and also as the halting-place of caravans from 
Tafilet, Mogador, Ghat, Drat, and Tripoli, the merchants 
here exchanging European wares for ivory, gold, slaves, 
wax, honey, and Soudan stuffs. On the 19th May, the 
caravan left El Arawan for Morocco, by way of the 
Sahara. To the traveller’s usual sufferings from heat, 
thirst, and privations of all kinds, was now added the 
pain of a wound incurred in a fall from his camel. ITe 
was also taunted by the Moors, and even by their slaves, 
who ridiculed his habits and his awkwardness, and even 
sometimes threw stones at him when his back was turned 
towards them. 
On the 14th of July the caravan entered the pro¬ 
vince of Tafilet, famous for its majestic date-trees. 
The province of Tafilet contains several large villages 
and small towns. Ghourland, El Ekseba, Sosso, Bolieim, 
and Ressant, which our traveller visited, contained some 
twelve hundred inhabitants each, all merchants and 
owners of property. 
The soil is very productive : corn, vegetables, dates, 
European fruits, and tobacco, are cultivated in large 
quantities. Among the sources of wealth in Tafilet we 
may name very fine sheep, whose beautifully white wool 
makes very pretty coverlets, oxen, first-rate horses, 
donkeys, and mules. 
On the 2nd August the caravan resumed its march, 
and Caillie arrived at Fez, where he made a short 
stay, and then pressed on to Rabat, the ancient Saleh. 
Exhausted by his long march, with nothing to eat but 
a few dates, obliged to depend on the charity of the 
Mussulmans, who as often as not declined to give him 
