These Arabs left on the 17th,—a circumstance not quite indifferent to me, as I was led to expect that they might carry the news of my arrival, not only into the heart of the desert, but also to Timbúktu, and thus augment the difficulties of my journey. There were, however, also a good many individuals who wanted to pass themselves off for Arabs without having any claim to such a descent. Besides the Arabs, the Wángaráwa, or Eastern Mandingoes, especially from Miniána and Wássulo, the inhabitants of Mósi, and the people of Gʿaó, Gágho, or Gógó, frequent this market- place in considerable numbers; and it is principally the Wángaráwa who impart to this town its importance, supplying it with a small quantity of white Kóla nuts, for which the consumption here seems not to be very great, besides wodʿa (shells), or “chéde,” as the Fúlbe call them, which are evidently imported from the coast of Sierra Leone, or, more probably, from the river Nuñez[71], but they were entirely wanting at the time. The people of Mósi bring chiefly their fine donkeys, which are greatly sought after; and a numerous body of people of the sheikh Áhmedu, of Hamda-Alláhi, had left a few days before with a number of asses which they had bought here. Besides asses, the people of Mósi supply this market with gábagá, or “tári,” as the Arabs near Timbúktu call them, cotton being extremely cheap in their country, so that in the great market-places of that country, especially in Kulféla, an indigo- coloured shirt is not worth more than from 700 to 800 shells. The inhabitants of the ancient capital of the Songhay empire, and the people thereabouts, on the banks of the Niger, bring chiefly butter and corn to market; and it was highly interesting to me to be here brought into direct communication with that place, which, although once the most celebrated and renowned in all Negroland, yet has become so completely obliterated, that its geographical position has given rise to the most contrary opinions among the learned geographers of our age. Shells formed the currency of the market, and these it was very difficult to obtain. In order to supply my wants I was obliged to sell my túrkedís for 2500 to 3000 shells each, while in the town of Say they had realised 4000, and, as I afterwards found, fetched the same price in Timbúktu. Sometimes I was not able to dispose either of my túrkedís or my tobes, even at the lowest price; while others, that I had at length succeeded in selling, were returned to me as defective. I was at considerable expense for my large household, my three horses alone (ʿAlí providing for the other two) costing me every day 400 shells for the corn with which I was forced to feed them exclusively.