“Timbuctoo carries on a great trade with all the caravans that come from Morocco, and the shores of the Mediterranean sea.  From Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, &c. are brought all kinds of cloth, iron, salt, muskets, powder and lead swords or scimitars, tobacco, opium, spices and perfumes, amber beads, and other trinkets, with a few more articles.  They carry back, in return, elephants’ teeth, gold dust and wrought gold, gum-senegal, ostrich feathers, very curiously worked turbans, and slaves; a great many of the latter, and many other articles of less importance.  The slaves are brought in from the south-west, all strongly ironed, and are sold very cheap, so that a good stout man may be bought for a haick, which costs in the empire of Morocco about two dollars.”

“The caravans stop and encamp about two miles from the city, in a deep valley, and the negroes do not molest them.  They bring their merchandize near the walls of the city, where the inhabitants purchase all their goods on exchange for the before-mentioned articles; not more than fifty men from any one caravan being allowed to enter the city at a time, and they must go out before others are permitted to enter.  This city carries on a great trade with Wassanah, a city far to the south-east, in all the articles that are brought to it by caravans, and gets returns in slaves, elephants’ teeth, gold, &c.  The principal male inhabitants are clothed with blue cloth shirts, that reach from their shoulders down to their knees, and are very wide, and girt about their loins with a red and brown cotton sash or girdle.  They also hang about their bodies, pieces of different coloured cloth and silk handkerchiefs.  The king is dressed in a white robe of a similar fashion, but covered with white and yellow gold and silver plates, that glitter in the sun.  He has also many other shining ornaments of shells and stones hanging about him, he wears a pair of breeches like the Moors and Barbary Jews, and has a kind of white turban on his head, pointing up, and strung with different kinds of ornaments.  His feet are covered with red morocco shoes.  He has no other weapon about him than a large white staff or sceptre, with a golden lion on the head of it, which he carries in his hand.  His countenance is mild, and he seems to govern his subjects more like a father than a king.  All but the king go bareheaded.  The poor have only a single piece of blue or other cloth about them.  The inhabitants are very numerous; I think six times as many as in Swearah, besides Arabs and other Mahommedans in their millah or separate town, which must contain nearly as many people as there are altogether in Swearah. [*] The women are clothed in a light shirt, or under-dress, and over it a green, red or blue covering, from the bosom to below the knees, the whole of them girt about their waists with a red girdle.  They stain their cheeks and foreheads red or yellow on some occasions; and the married women wear a kind of hood on their heads, made of blue cloth or silk, and cotton handkerchiefs of different kinds and colours, and go barefooted.”