In other respects the town at this time became rather quieter, and trade was more dull. The small caravan of the Tájakánt, some members of which had only spent a few days in the town, left on the 20th; and the only articles which they took with them were salt and a little calico. Even directly from the north, along the most frequented route, the trade became insignificant; and a party of merchants who arrived from Tawát on the following day was exceedingly small. Among them were two respectable Ghadámsíye merchants, but having resided three or four months in Tawát, they brought neither recent news nor letters for me. However, they came just in time, as on the 22nd a countryman of theirs, of some importance, died, and I learned on this occasion something about the property of merchants in this place. The deceased was a tolerably wealthy man; among the property which he left there being found about 2000 mithkál in gold, a considerable sum of money for this place, although it did not belong to himself, but to the Tíniyan, or the well-known Ghadámsi family of the Tíni, whose agent he was. The house where he lived was worth 200 mithkál. Having, while in the town, much time at my disposal, and only little intercourse with the people, I had made ready another parcel containing the information which I had been able to collect for sending to Europe; and it was well that I had done so, as early on the 26th a small troop of poor Tawáti traders left for their native home. But, unfortunately, this parcel did not find Her Britannic Majesty’s agent to whom it was addressed at Ghadámes, as he had left his post for the Crimea; and thus my family was thrown into the deepest grief in consequence of the rumour of my death; all my effects were buried; and when I arrived at length in Háusa, where I had reckoned to find every thing that I wanted, I found even the supplies which I had left drawn away from me, as from a dead man.