Monday, 19th.—A courier from the Gadado arrived at Kano with a letter to the sultan, informing him of the defeat of the sheik of Bornou, and his retreat, with the loss of all his baggage, camels, and tents, two hundred and nine horses, and a number of slaves. The sultan sent me the letter to read, and the sheik’s water-pot, made of copper. This is an article of the first importance to a Mahomedan great man; he never travels without one. It had been cut in three different places by a sword, not in taking it, as it was found in the tent, but hacked by some of them to vent their rage on the poor pot, as they could not do it on the sheik. Saturday, 24th.—At day-break the pagans whom the sultan had sent to kill and skin a wild boar for me arrived with the skins of a boar, a sow, and one of their young ones. All the idle people in the neighbourhood had come to have a peep, as did several of the better sort of people, some of whom sat down to see me and the poor pagan, whose name is Whidah, and his sons go through the operation of salting and packing the skins. They asked Whidah if he eat the flesh? He answered, Yes, and very good it is too. It is quite ridiculous to see how much those people dread even to touch any part of the animal’s skin, and know not for what reason, only because they have heard others say so. I told them it was better meat than dogs’ flesh, which the people of Fezzan and those of Tripoli eat; and at Tripoli dogs’ flesh was publicly sold in the market; true they were Moslem, and had not a pig, which was more cleanly in its eating, and better to be eaten than a dog. My servants, the ignorant rascals, would not come near, and if there had been others to be hired, I would have paid them off. I first strewed the poison slightly over the inner part of the hides, then plenty of finely pounded salt, and made Whidah and his sons rub all well in, strewed them over with dried grass, and packed each separately in a mat, and gave them in charge to Whidah, to have them properly dried, and to take the flesh off the bones of the heads. The news soon got to the market that I had such things in my house; and on sending to the market to buy three new mats, the owner said he would sell them to me, but would not bring them to my house; and now the pigs and I are the whole talk of Soccatoo. Sunday, 25th.—Divine service. Nothing worth remarking has happened since the 25th, except that I was laid up for the last four days with ague. Wednesday, 28th.—Paid Malem Mohamed 20,000 cowries for his writing me an account of the country between Soccatoo and Masina, and Kano and Sennar, and making a chart of the river Quorra, between Cubbie and Masina.