The Emír of Hamda-Alláhi’s sending a force to Timbúktu in order to dispose of me, with the assistance of the inhabitants of that town, without paying the slightest regard to the opinion of my protector, had caused a considerable reaction in the whole relation of the Sheikh to the towns-people, and he had made up his mind to pitch his camp outside the city, in order to convince the inhabitants, and the Fullán in particular, that he did not depend upon them, but had mightier friends and a more powerful spell upon which he could safely rely. He had even, while still absent in Gúndam, opened communication with Áwáb, the chief of the Tademékket, to this effect. But all these proceedings required more energy and a more warlike character than, I am sorry to say, my friend and protector actually possessed; and our adversaries were so busy, that, in the night of the 9th, owing to the arrival of a party of Tawárek, who were well known not to be friendly disposed towards him, he was so intimidated, that at two o’clock in the morning he himself came to my house, rousing us from our sleep and requesting us most urgently to keep watch, as he was afraid that something was going on against me. We therefore kept a constant look out the whole night on our terrace, and seeing that the rear of our house was in a partial state of decay, facilitating an attack in that quarter, we set to work early in the morning repairing the wall and barricading it with thorny bushes. The artisans of the town were so afraid of the party hostile to me, who were the nominal rulers, that no one would undertake the task of repairing my house. However, the more intelligent natives of the place did all in their power to prevent my learned friend from leaving the town, as they felt sure that such a proceeding would be the commencement of troubles. The consequence was, that we did not get off on the 10th, although the Sheikh had sent his wife and part of his effects away the preceding night, and it was not till a little before noon the following day that we actually left the town. [Footnote 122: It is a highly interesting fact, that we find this native name, which is given to calico in the region of the Niger, already mentioned by that most eminent and clear-sighted of Arab geographers, Ábu ʿObaid Allah el Bekrí, in the middle of the eleventh century, or fully 800 years ago. For, in describing the manufacture of cotton in the town of Silla, which has become so familiar to Europeans in consequence of Mungo Park’s adventures, he expressly mentions that this calico was called “shígge” by the natives, الازر المسماة بالشكيات. (El Bekrí, ed. de Slane, 1857, p. 173.) Great interest is imparted by such incidents to the life of a region which, to the common observer, seems dead and uninteresting.]