After about three or four hours' ride the Sarkee usually encamps, and a souk, or market, is opened at the camp for provisions. "There are no women with the _yaki_ (or army of razzia), the men cook and do all the work," says my informant. At night the Sultan calls round him his chosen troops, and distributes gour-nuts, and makes presents of provisions. He then sleeps a few hours, and probably starts at midnight, or as soon as the moon rises. A slave, a soldier of the Sarkee, who has been to a hundred razzias, tells me, that three years ago this Sarkee went to attack him of Daura in his capital. On arriving before the town the army of Zinder set fire to all the ghaseb stubble and the garden-trees around it. This done, they commenced a regular battle with the besieged. The fight continued till night, when the Sarkee of Daura fled. The Zinder people carried off a large booty: the share of the Sultan alone was nine hundred. This freebooting prince does not fight himself, but sits down at a distance from his troops and overlooks their conduct and manoeuvres; his generals command and lead on the attack, whilst a body-guard surrounds the sacred person of the monarch. On the occasion referred to, this body-guard was covered with mattrass-stuffing to shield off the terrible arrows of the Daura people. The greater part of the troops of Zinder have only a spear; a few have shields and swords, but none have muskets. All the Daura people have bows and arrows. There are numbers of petty traders here waiting for the booty of this razzia, and some of the creditors of the Sarkee went this morning to wish him God speed. I am glad I did not go out to see him start on such a nefarious expedition. It appears, however, that we are not to leave for Kuka until the return of the army. They intimate that a portion of the spoil will be sent with us to the great Sheikh of Bornou: so that after all, however unwilling, we shall seem to countenance this bloody work. _26th, Sunday._--We have still to remain here another week at least, so I must make what use I can of the time of this delay, caused by the nefarious razzia, now in course of operation. In the extravagant manner that this government of Zinder conducts its affairs, it can only support itself by periodical expeditions of this kind. There is one Fez merchant here, to whom the Sarkee owes four millions of wadâs, or about two thousand reals of Fezzan; and other creditors claim in a like proportion. Now, indeed, we begin to understand how the slave-markets of quasi-civilised countries are supplied by the surplus produce of these expeditions. The route from Aghadez to the country of Sidi Hashem, now governed by his son, is three days' journey, and from the country of Sidi Hashem to Wadnoun, three days: there is also a route of five days, a little more direct; and the route direct from Aghadez to Wadnoun is four days' journey.