On the 23d we came to the first springs within the limits of Fûr, which are in this place called Wadi Masrûk. The white ant, _Termis_, was here exceedingly vexatious, building his covered way to every thing within the tent, and destroying all within his reach. This together with the rains, which were now increasing, and began to pour in a torrent through the valley, obliged us to abandon the tents, and take shelter in the next village, (Sweini,) where I obtained an apartment in the house of Ali-el-Chatîb, one of the principal merchants established in the country. In it I passed eight or ten days, not having arrived at Cobbé, one of the towns whither the jelabs chiefly resort, till the seventh of August. At Sweini resides generally a Melek or governor on the part of the Sultan of Dar-Fûr; and there all strangers, as well as merchants of the country, coming with the caravan, are obliged to wait, till the pleasure of the monarch in disposing of them be known. Coming as I did under considerable exceptions from the general rule of merchants trading to that country, and, in the Arabic language, rather as _Daif-es-Sultan_, the king’s stranger, in which light the people of the country had hitherto viewed me, I expected to obtain, without delay, permission to continue my journey to the royal residence. I observed to the Melek of Sweini and other public officers, in one among many conversations I had with them, that “intending to visit the Sultan, I should hardly have expected to be put back with frivolous excuses, as the nonpayment of duties which you dare not explicitly demand of me, and tributes under the name of presents, which have never yet been exacted of a stranger. If any duties be payable, beyond what have already been discharged, you are perfectly at liberty to detain all, or such part, of the articles I bring with me, as you judge sufficient to answer your claim; but not to refuse me permission to go to the Sultan, with whom I have business. Or if other reasons operate to prevent my request being complied with, and any suspicions prevail relative to my views in coming here, I desire, without further delay, to be furnished with the means of returning to Egypt, before I suffer, as commonly happens to strangers, from the effects of the climate, while I am yet in the habit of travelling, and while the funds are yet unexhausted which should support me in my progress farther.”