Having rejoined my camels, I set out, without delay, through the forest, taking the lead with my head servant, but I had scarcely proceeded three miles when I saw advancing towards me a person of strange aspect,—a young man of very fair complexion, dressed in a tobe like the one I wore myself, and with a white turban wound thickly round his head. He was accompanied by two or three blacks, likewise on horseback. One of them I recognised as my servant Mʿadi, whom, on setting out from Kúkawa, I had left in the house as a guardian. As soon as he saw me, he told the young man that I was ʿAbd el Kerím, in consequence of which, Mr. Vogel (for he it was) rushed forward, and, taken by surprise as both of us were, we gave each other a hearty reception from horseback. As for myself, I had not had the remotest idea of meeting him; and he, on his part, had only a short time before received the intelligence of my safe return from the west. Not having the slightest notion that I was alive, and judging from its Arab address that the letter which I forwarded to him from Kanó was a letter from some Arab, he had put it by without opening it, waiting till he might meet with a person who should be able to read it. In the midst of this inhospitable forest, we dismounted and sat down together on the ground; and my camels having arrived, I took out my small bag of provisions, and had some coffee boiled, so that we were quite at home. It was with great amazement that I heard from my young friend that there were no supplies in Kúkawa; that what he had brought with him had been spent; and that the usurper ʿAbd e’ Rahmán had treated him very badly, having even taken possession of the property which I had left in Zínder. He moreover informed me that he himself was on his way to that place, in order to see whether fresh supplies had not arrived, being also anxious to determine the position of that important town by an astronomical observation, and thus to give a firmer basis to my own labours. But the news of the want of pecuniary supplies did not cause me so much surprise as the report which I received from him, that he did not possess a single bottle of wine. For having now been for more than three years without a drop of any stimulant except coffee, and having suffered severely from frequent attacks of fever and dysentery, I had an insuperable longing for the juice of the grape, of which former experience had taught me the benefit. On my former journey through Asia Minor, I had contracted a serious fever in the swamps of Lycia, and quickly regained my strength by the use of good French wine. I could not help reproaching my friend for having too hastily believed the news of my death before he had made all possible inquiries; but as he was a new comer into this country, and did not possess a knowledge of the language, I could easily perceive that he had no means of ascertaining the truth or falsehood of those reports.