“I take the advantage of a Tuaric going to Tuat, to acquaint you, that I am safe and in perfect health, and completely recovered from the trifling indisposition which annoyed me on leaving that place. If it pleases God I shall be in Timbuctoo in less than twenty days, and in two months afterwards I hope to find my way to some part of the coast. I have met with much annoyance from the Tuaric; few, very few of whom are like Hatteta, and are not, as the consul anticipated, our friends. You shall know all particulars from me on my arrival at Timbuctoo, from whence I shall lose no time in addressing you. I have stopped in the sun to write; pray excuse it, for I am in great haste, and I write with only a thumb and a finger, having a very severe cut on my fore finger.” This cut probably refers to the wounds he had received, but which he did not wish to mention in a more serious manner. About the middle of October, new reports reached Tripoli, of Major Laing’s safe residence with Mooktar, a short distance from Timbuctoo, but adding, that a Jew servant, and a black servant, who had accompanied him, had both been killed in an attack of the Tuaric. The consul wished to believe these reports false, and flattered himself that they were so, but, unfortunately, they were too true. Major Laing’s Arab servant, Hamet, arrived at Tripoli, bringing letters from his master with him, dated Azoad, the 1st and 10th of July, at which place he had been detained for some time after his escape from the attack of the robbers, in consequence of a dreadful fever there raging among the inhabitants. In his letter of the 1st he thus mentions it. “I was detained,” he says, “to afford assistance to the sufferers with my medicines; nearly half the population have been swept away by its ravages; and among others, Sidi Mooktar himself, the marabout and sheik of the place; his loss I must regret, for he had taken a considerable interest in my situation, and had promised to conduct me to Nooshi; which, I regret to say, his son neither possesses the disposition, nor the power to do. While attending Sidi Mooktar, I was seized with the malady myself, and for nine days, lay in a very helpless and dangerous state, without any attendance, for poor Jack was taken ill at the same time, and the surviving sailor never was of much service to himself nor to any body else. My fever yielded at length to the effects of blistering and calomel, but poor Jack’s proved fatal, and he breathed his last on the 21st ult. On the 25th the sailor was taken ill, and died on the 28th, so that I am now the only surviving member of the mission.”