The small caravans of Tájakánt which arrived during my stay in the town, the largest of which did not number more than seventy or eighty camels, are rather an exception to the rule, and can therefore furnish no data with regard to the average, although I am quite sure that they very rarely exceed 1000 camels. The consequence of this state of things was, that, especially during the first part of my residence, the merchandise from the north fetched a very high price, and sugar was scarcely to be had at all. With regard to European manufactures, the road from Morocco is still the most important for some articles, such as red cloth, coarse coverings, sashes, looking-glasses, cutlery, tobacco; while calico especially, bleached as well as unbleached, is also imported by way of Ghadámes, and in such quantities of late, that it has greatly excited the jealousy of the Morocco merchants. The inhabitants of Ghadámes are certainly the chief agents in spreading this manufacture over the whole north-western part of Africa, and, in consequence, several of the wealthier Ghadámsi merchants employ agents here. The most respectable among the foreign merchants in Timbúktu is Táleb Mohammed, who exercises at the same time a very considerable political influence; and the wealthiest merchants from Morocco besides him, during the time of my stay, were El Méhedi, the astronomer, Múlʿa ʿAbd e’ Salám, the nobleman, and my friend the Swéri: while among the Ghadámsi merchants, Mohammed ben Táleb, Snúsi ben Kyári, Mohammed Lebbe-Lebbe, Haj ʿAlí ben Sháwa, and Mohammed Weled el Kádhi, were those most worth mentioning. But to apply even to these first-rate merchants a European standard of wealth would be quite erroneous, the actual property of none of them exceeding probably 10,000 dollars, and even that being rather an exceptional case. Scarcely any of them transact business on a large scale, the greater part of them being merely agents for other merchants residing in Ghadámes, Swéra (Mogador), Merákesh (Morocco), and Fás. The greater part of the European merchandise comes by way of Swéra, where several European merchants reside, and from this quarter proceeds especially the common red cloth, which, together with calico, forms one of the chief articles of European trade brought into the market. All the calico which I saw bore the name of one and the same Manchester firm, printed upon it in Arabic letters. But I am quite unable, either with respect to this article or any other, to give an account of the quantity brought into market. All the cutlery in Timbúktu is of English workmanship. Tea forms a standard article of consumption with the Arabs settled in and around the town; for the natives it is rather too expensive a luxury.