August 13.—The long expected kafila arrived from Soudan, which was a signal for our departure: they had been fifty days on the road from Kano, in consequence of the waters; and had they been delayed much longer, the season would have been so far advanced as to have prevented the departure of all those merchants that had many slaves: going, as they do, poor creatures, nearly naked, the cold of Fezzan, in the winter season, kills them by hundreds. With the Soudan kafila came Khalifa, a Moor and a fighi; he had been at Saralo, as he called Sierra Leone, and desired to be brought to me, as he knew English. He certainly knew enough to convince me of his truth, when he asserted that he had met my countrymen. “Gun, cap, and water!” he kept continually saying: and my Bornou friends were not a little surprised when I told them it was the language of my country. He spoke greatly of some person he called the Doctor[55], whom he had seen at Bammakoo and Bunjalow, a good looking man, with a red beard, and long projecting nose, with bad front teeth. He gave away many things, wrote a great deal, and was much liked by all the people. Two persons were with the Doctor, whom he believed were French, and had come from Ender; one was called Gentleman, and the other Fausta, or Forster; “but they held their heads down, and did not talk to the people like the Doctor,” said Khalifa. “The Doctor,” he said, “wanted to go to Sego, but the sultan would not allow him to come to his country, and would not even look at the presents he sent him, as he feared they had charms which would kill him, either by the sight or smell. He, however, sent him slaves, and horses, which he, the Doctor, also returned, saying that he wanted nothing but to see the country and the rivers. The sultan of Sego replied, he had heard that his (the doctor’s) king had water all round his country, and he might go and look at that. Khalifa said the Sego people were Kaffirs, and knew not God, therefore were afraid of Christians; but the Moors knew them, and liked them. When the present king of Sego’s father was alive, he, Khalifa, then a boy, remembered Christians going to D’Jennie and Timboctoo, and hearing that the Tuaricks killed them in their boat near Nyffé[56].” On Monday, the 20th of the Mohamedan month _del Khadi_, and the 16th of August, we took our final leave of Kouka, and not without many feelings of regret, so accustomed had we become, particularly myself, to the people. In the morning I had taken leave of the sheikh in his garden, when he had given me a letter to the king, and a list of requests: he was all kindness, and said he had only one wish, which was that I might find all my friends well, and once more return to them. He gave me his hand at parting, which excited an involuntary exclamation of astonishment from the six eunuchs and Karouash, who were the only persons present.