We here met with a party of native traders from Hómbori, with oxen laden with salt, who gave us some useful information with regard to the road before us. It had been a point of great dispute with us whether or not we should visit that town, one of the most ancient settlements in Negroland, probably already mentioned as an independent place by El Bekrí[76], and forming the seat of a governor in the palmy days of the Songhay empire, the Hómbori-koy, and where even now a considerable market is held; but after mature consideration we had thought it better to leave it on one side, as on account of the considerable intercourse of people in that place, and the many Arabs who frequent it, the danger of my true character being there discovered was the greater. Notwithstanding our determination not to touch at Hómbori, on setting out the following day, after an almost sleepless night, owing to the number of mosquitoes, we preserved an entirely northerly direction. There was a good deal of cultivation round the village, consisting of Indian and Negro millet, the crops being almost ripe. But I here met again that great annoyance to the husbandman, the black worm “hálowes,” my old acquaintance in Bagírmi, which I had not seen in the whole intervening country, and which causes an immense deal of damage to the crops. The ground was rocky in many places; but this did not prevent the growth of the monkey-bread tree, which is often seen shooting forth from between the very rocks. Further on I also observed a little cultivation of beans, while the black worm was succeeded by large heaps of the small red worm, which I had first observed on the banks of the river Sírba, and which seems to be a terrible nuisance to many of these districts. Gradually the road became more swampy, while we obtained a distant view of the detached mountains of Hómbori.