In the evening preceding our departure, our camp exhibited a busy scene, as we were engaged in finishing our preparations for the journey, the Sheikh undertaking the outfit of one half the messengers and I the other; but the presents, also, which the latter destined for the chiefs of Negroland, were delivered to me, in order that I might take them under my care. He had, besides, the goodness to supply me with some native cotton and tobacco, to distribute as presents to the Tawárek and Songhay on our road: he also gave a dress to each of my companions, I doing the same to those among his pupils who had been most attached to me. I even felt induced to make a present of a very handsome tobe from Sansándi, richly ornamented with silk, which I had intended to take with me as a specimen of that very interesting manufacture, to Sídi Mohammed, a son of the Sheikh, who had accompanied us, and who, on account of our long absence from the town, was rather shabbily dressed at the time. [Footnote 37: L. vii. c. 3.] [Footnote 38: Journal Leipsic Oriental Society, vol. ix. p. 549.] [Footnote 39: A translation of this letter will be given in Appendix IV.] [Footnote 40: The Gá-béro are divided into the following tribes: the Shédibé, the Bwájil, the Sillánche (the latter probably so called from the well known town Silla), the Ágades, and the Gorrong.] [Footnote 41: This young man actually came to Tripoli in the course of last summer, but the unfortunate state of Indian affairs, and other circumstances, together with an illness common with people coming from the interior, which attacked both him and his companions, prevented his coming to this country.] CHAP. LXXIX. SEPARATION FROM THE SHEIKH. — CROSS THE RIVER TO THE SOUTH-WESTERN SIDE. — VARIOUS ENCAMPMENTS. — RIVER STUDDED WITH ISLANDS. — ANSÓNGHO. [Sidenote: Saturday, July 8th.] At length the day dawned when I was, in reality, to begin my home- journey, for all our former movements along the river had rather resembled the wanderings of the natives themselves than the direct march of a European traveller, and, although I felt sincerely attached to my protector, and under other circumstances might still have found a great many objects worthy of my investigation and research in this region, I could not but feel greatly satisfied at being at length enabled to retrace my steps homeward, with a tolerable guarantee as to my safety. It was highly gratifying to me that when I left this place a great many people wished me a hearty farewell and a prosperous journey; nay, Thákkefi even commissioned me to offer his special regards to Queen Victoria, with whose name I had made him acquainted.