Thus ended the month of January, with utter disappointment at the failure of my expected departure, and with nothing but empty promises. After a sleepless night, I awoke on the 1st of February full of anxiety. I felt really afraid lest my host, notwithstanding his friendly disposition towards me, might keep me here the whole summer. At length I eased my mind in a slight degree by writing a letter to the Sheikh, wherein I made him a witness against himself, in having so repeatedly given me his word, that I should certainly leave this city and proceed on my home journey. But matters, indeed, now looked more serious, another Púllo officer of well-known energy, viz. Átkar, the governor of Gúndam and Díre, having arrived with a considerable troop of armed men from Hamda-Állahi, and another man of still more importance, Áhmed el Férreji, was soon expected. The Fúlbe seemed fully resolved to vindicate their power and authority over the town; and, in order to show that they were masters of the place, they exacted this year a tribute of 2000 shells on each slave with great severity. Uncertain as were my prospects, I contrived to pass my time usefully by applying myself to the study of the idiom of the Western Tawárek, with Mohammed ben Khottár, the Sheikh’s nephew, and a Tárki of the name of Músa, for my teachers. Thus endeavouring to master my impatience, I listened with composure to the several rumours which were repeatedly spread with regard to the arrival of the various brothers of the Sheikh, an event which, according to his statement, formed now the only reason for delaying my departure. But in a long private conversation which I had with him on the 4th, when I urged him more than usual, he began to appeal to my humane feelings, and, discarding all political motives, confessed that the chief reason which detained him was the pregnancy of his wife, and earnestly begged me to await the result of this event. All this time, on account of the unusual height which the inundation had reached this year, a great deal of sickness prevailed in the town; and among the various people who fell a sacrifice to the disease was the son of Táleb Mohammed, the richest and most influential Arab merchant in the place, whose life I should have liked very much to save; but, seeing that the cure was very uncertain, I thought it more prudent (as I always did in such cases) not to give him any medicine at all.