Hillman had been for a long time employed in making a gun-carriage for a four-pounder, which the sultan of Fezzan had formerly brought as a present to the sheikh: the scarcity of iron, the awkwardness of the negro blacksmiths, and clumsiness of their work when finished, were so distressing to the correct eye of an English shipwright, that even after the carriage was completed—and considering the means he had, it was very well done—Hillman was far from being satisfied with his work: not so, however, the sheikh. We took it to him this afternoon, and he was greatly pleased and surprised at the facility with which its elevation could be increased or decreased: both this and the wheels were subjects of great wonder. During the work, on several occasions, the sheikh had sent Hillman presents of honey, milk, rice, wheat, and sweet cakes, all of which he had shared with his companions. On one occasion, after he had finished a large chair, which pleased the sheikh excessively, he sent him a bag of gubbuk (money of the country): this, after inquiring what it was, he returned, with the true and honest pride of an English seaman, saying, “No! the king of England pays me—I don’t want that; but I am much obliged to the sheikh, nevertheless.” The season seemed now to prove very unhealthy both to the natives and ourselves, and from six to ten bodies were seen carried out daily from the city gates. My poor friend Mai Meegamy was attacked, among the rest, by this dreadfully prevalent complaint, and he sent for me by daylight. I found him in an alarming state of fever, with a fit of the ague on him at the time: after consulting with Doctor Oudney, who was unable to visit him, I gave him a strong dose of emetic tartar, and in two days had the pleasure of seeing him quite recovered. The effect of the emetic tartar was to him a matter of the greatest astonishment: at the first sight of the dose he was unwilling to take it, and asked what a little white powder like that could do for him: he was very shortly, however, convinced, that the quantity I had prescribed was quite sufficient. “What wonderful medicine!” said he: “why, if I had swallowed so much,” taking up a little sand in his hand, “what would have become of me! Wonderful! wonderful! the English know every thing: why are they not Musselmen?” This day, a large guana and a young crocodile were brought to me by one of the Shouaas: they had been killed on the banks of the Shary, five days distant, and were in pretty good preservation. I proceeded to dry them in the way mentioned by Mr. Burchell; and although this was a matter I had never before had the least experience in, or taste for, yet I became every day more and more interested in the collections and preservations of our specimens of birds and other animals.