As we advanced, on the 21st, along the plain between the granite rocks--trees and flowers starting up thicker and thicker from the ground to greet our approach--our guides told us that we were at length entering the inhabited districts of the kingdom of Aheer, or Asben, as it is indifferently called. This announcement at once substituted pleasurable for uneasy sensations. We thought no more at all of pursuing robbers, and gave ourselves up to the delight which always attends upon difficulties vanquished. The name of the first district is Taghajeet. We expected to behold groups of inhabitants coming joyfully to welcome us. Our imaginations had adorned this country almost with the colours of home. It was about one that we crossed the unmarked frontier. Still there were rocks around, their angles softened away by trees; still wild flowers mingled with the herbage on every side; the heavens were clearing overhead, and the sun shed down a warm mantle of rays upon the land; yet there were no signs of life. The silence that reigned, I know not why, introduced ideas of terror into our minds, and we began to gaze anxiously to the right and to the left. We remembered that this region, likewise, was inhabited by Tuaricks, though not of the Haghar tribe. They might be inhospitable, perhaps hostile. All the caravan, by degrees, seemed to join in our uneasiness; and when at length, just before we pitched our tent, the cry arose of "The Tuaricks! the Tuaricks are coming!" it rose as a cry of warning and alarm. Every one snatched up his weapons as a small group approached; and all waited with impatience to learn whether they came as friends or enemies. Our uneasiness was soon quieted. The newcomers were known to some of our people, the Tanelkums, and soon scraped acquaintance with us. They paid a visit to my tent, and I gave them a number of little things, with which they were very much gratified. There was reason, then, to hope that our first impressions of security were well-founded, and I began writing my journal as if we had really arrived in a land of peace. Suddenly a man, mounted on a maharee, brought us news, at first in a friendly way, that an immense number of Tuaricks were pursuing us; and then, throwing off the mask, in their name demanded of our escort that they should deliver us up to them. This demand the Kailouees, of course, rejected with indignation; but the circumstance put our people on the _qui vive_, and we kept up a fire of musketry for two or three hours during the succeeding night.