principally natron, beads made at Venice of various kinds, and come by the way of Tripoli and Ghadamis, and unwrought silk of various colours, principally red, of about one ounce in weight, and is sold here at three thousand cowries; it and natron are as good as cowries. The caravans from Bornou and Houssa, which always halt here a considerable time, bring horses, natron, unwrought silk, beads, silk cords, swords that once belonged to Malta, exchanged for bullocks at Bengazie, in the regency of Tripoli, sent to Kano and remounted, and then sold all over the desert and the interior; these swords will sell for ten or twenty dollars a piece or that value, and sometimes more; cloths made up in the Moorish fashion; looking-glasses of Italian manufacture from about a penny a piece to a shilling in Malta; tobes or large shirts undyed, made in Bornou; khol or lead used as blacking for the eye-lids; a small quantity of ottar of roses, much adulterated; sweet smelling gum from Mecca; a scented wood also from the East; silks the manufacture of Egypt; turbans; red Moorish caps with blue silk tassels; and sometimes a few tunics of checked silk and linen made in Egypt: the last are generally brought by Arabs. A number of slaves are also brought from Houssa and Bornou, who are either sold here or go further on. The Bornou caravans never go further than this place, though generally some of their number accompany the Houssa merchants to Agolly in Yourriba, Gonja, and Borgoo, from which they bring Kolla or Gora nuts, cloth of woollen, printed cottons, brass and pewter dishes, earthenware, a few muskets, a little gold, and the wares mentioned before as brought from Yourriba. They carry their goods on bullocks, asses, and mules; and a great number of fine women hire themselves to carry loads on their heads; their slaves, male and female, are also loaded. The Bornou merchants, during their stay, stop in the town in the houses of their friends or acquaintances, and give them a small present on their arrival and departure, for the use of the house. The Houssa merchants stop outside the walls in little straw huts or leathern tents, which they erect themselves. They sell their goods and wares in their houses or tents; the small wares they send to the market and round to the different houses by their slaves to sell; there are also a number of male and female brokers in the town, whom they also intrust. The pedlers or western merchants always live in the houses of the town, and attend the markets daily, employing their spare time in spinning cotton, which they provide themselves with on their arrival, and support themselves by this kind of labour. There have been no fewer than twenty-one of these mercantile women living in my landlady’s house at one time, all of them from Yourriba and Borgoo: these women attend the markets at the different towns between this and their homes, buying and selling as they go along. The caravans