In the evening I was visited by the sultan and midaki, and the king of Youri’s messenger with them. The messenger said his master had sent provisions and every thing for my voyage up the river to Youri. I told him I could not but feel much obliged to the king of Youri for his kindness; but that the rains were close at hand, and the road between Youri and Bornou shut up by the war; that on my return, after the rains, I should certainly visit the king, for his kindness on this occasion. The sultan of Boussa said I should be making an enemy of the king of Youri if I went away without seeing him or sending him a present. I said I really had nothing here to give; that if the messenger of the king of Youri would accompany me to the ferry where my baggage was, I would give him as good a present as I was able; but that I had now very little to give. The Youri messenger was very anxious that I should go with him; but the midaki, whose heart the gold chain has won, fairly beat him off the field, and it was decided that I am not to go to Youri. The sultan made a great many inquiries about England, and asked me two or three times if I had not come to buy slaves. I laughed in his face, and told him there was nothing we so much abhorred in England as slavery; that the king of England did every thing to prevent other nations buying slaves; that the slave trade was the ruin of Africa; that Yourriba presented nothing but ruined towns and deserted villages, and all caused by the slave-trade; that it was very bad to buy and sell men like bullocks and sheep. It was now nearly dinner-time, and he said he would come and see me at night.