I was peculiarly situated with regard to my new companion El Waláti, who was the sole reason of my making so long a stay in this place, while my exhausted camels, instead of having, as it was asserted, a fair opportunity of recruiting their strength for the remainder of the journey, were growing weaker every day from want of good feeding. The clever Arab, who represented himself as a very important person in Timbúktu, and as an intimate friend of the sheikh El Bakáy, under whose especial protection I intended to place myself, at times had the power of raising my spirits by the interesting information which he was able to give me. Now and then, for instance, he described the great mercantile importance of Sansándi, or dwelt upon the great authority enjoyed by the chief, whose fame had inspired me with so much confidence in my undertaking this journey to the west, and through whose influence the former mercantile importance of Timbúktu had not only been entirely restored, but a new interest had accrued to it as being the seat of a religious chief of high authority, who exercised an influence, not very unlike that of the pope of Rome, over a very large tract of country, and extending even over the pagan tribes around, into the very heart of Mósi, that country which, as we shall see more distinctly further on, from a remote age has been the champion of paganism against Islám. But on other occasions the conduct of my companion was so little straightforward, as to fill me with serious fears. Nevertheless, I here entered into an agreement with him, giving him a fine black tobe and a black shawl, and stipulating to reward him, on my safe arrival in Timbúktu, with a present of twenty dollars and a white heláli bernús, besides buying him here a horse for the price of another tobe, three túrkedí, and a black shawl. On the whole, at that time, I was too much imposed upon by his fascinating manners to become fully aware of his intriguing character; and perhaps it was well that it was so, or I might not have trusted myself into his hands. However, by degrees, I became heartily tired of the long delay which he, together with ʿAlí el Ágeren, forced upon me. I had long prepared everything for my outset, and on the 20th I finished a letter, which I addressed to Her Majesty’s consul at Tripoli, and inclosed it under cover to my friend ʿAbd el Káder dan Taffa, in Sókoto, and decided on intrusting it to the care of Dahóme, the man who had accompanied me from Gando, and who was to return home from this place, beyond which he enjoyed no authority; but unfortunately he took so little care of the parcel on his journey, when he had to cross a great many swollen rivers, that the outer envelope was destroyed entirely, so that the learned Púllo, not knowing what to make of a letter in a writing which he did not understand, left it with the bearer, with whom I found it on my return to Gando, in the middle of the following year.