This circumstance was rather a damper on a private scheme I had then in contemplation. During the time our meal was being cooked, which was both our dinner and supper, I made inquiry how far distant the place was to which the merchant had gone, and was informed that, supposing I commenced my journeys every morning before the rising of the sun, and walked fast, without stopping to eat till the sun was gone out of sight, I should reach the place in eight or nine days at farthest. One man said he had once been with this Mahomedan priest, and returned from Adafoodia in seven days. I was informed by the King of Zafoora, that the merchant had a white man in his company. This information was a stimulus to my determination to pursue my object of obtaining information. The white man I conjectured must have been a man named Bell, who had obtained a free passage from England to Fernando Po, whence he said he intended to proceed up the Niger to the confluence of the Shadda, thence up that river to the lake Shad, and there remain three years. This I was told on the coast, but from what I had already experienced of the African climate, I feared that his calculations were too extravagant, still I could come to no other conclusion than that the white man spoken of by the King must be the same. I now began to reflect upon my present position. First, I had left my guard in a clandestine manner, and in all probability I might be the means of an excellent man (my caboceer) losing his head. Next, I might incur the displeasure of the King of Dahomey, who had been my real friend; and, lastly, I might probably sacrifice those who accompanied me. I had, however, already made a serious breach, and I determined to proceed at all hazards, resolving to send the weakest of my three soldiers back to Baffo, to inform the caboceer of my guard that my friend had gone on a few days’ journey, accompanied by a countryman whom I was anxious to see, and desired him to make himself easy till my return, which would be as soon as possible.