Tuesday, 23d.—Cool and cloudy. A large caravan arrived from Yourriba. They had come through Borgoo, where they sold what natron they had remaining after they left Yourriba. They were in Katunga when I was there; but were forbidden to hold any communication with us, on pain of having their throats cut. They told me that my friend the fat eunuch had endeavoured to hire a man to assassinate me, but that they were all afraid. There are strong reports of a war between the Sheik El Kanami and the Fellatas. They say the sheik has taken the city of Hadija, and that the governor of Kano is gone out to meet him, as he is advancing upon Kano. Whether it is a report to please the Nyffé people, who cannot bear the Fellatas, or not, I do not know. We had a number of such reports when in Bornou last journey. In the evening a messenger from the sultan of Boussa arrived, bringing me a present of a beautiful little mare. The messenger of the sultan was accompanied by another person from the midaki, a female slave, bringing me rice, yams, and butter. He brought a message from the sultan desiring me to kill a she-goat, and distribute the flesh amongst the inhabitants of Koolfu the day before I left it; that he had distributed gora nuts and salt for me at Boussa, which would do for Koolfu. I was also desired not to eat any meat that came cooked from the west, and which would be sent by the Magia’s female relations from Tabra, as they intended to take away my life by poison. Through the night continual rain, thunder, and lightning. Thursday, 25th.—Sent Sheeref Mohamed to Raba, a town possessed by the Fellatas, three days south of this, on the banks of the Quorra, with a message to the late Imam of Boussa, who, he says, has got some of the books belonging to the late Mungo Park: one, he tells me, was carried to Yourriba by a Fellata, as a charm and preservative against musket balls. He is either to buy them, or I will give him Arabic books for them in exchange.