On Clapperton’s return home from Gomsoo’s, he found a message had been left for him to wait upon the sultan, which he complied with immediately after breakfast.  He received him in an inner apartment, attended only by a few slaves.  After asking Clapperton how he did, and several other chit chat questions, he was not a little surprised, without a single question being put to him on the subject, to hear, that if he wished to go to Nyffee, there were two roads leading to it, the one direct, but beset by enemies; the other safer, but more circuitous; that by either route he would be detained during the rains, in a country at present in a state of rebellion, and therefore that he ought to think seriously of these difficulties.  Clapperton assured the sultan that he had already taken the matter into consideration, and that he was neither afraid of the dangers of the roads nor of the rains.  “Think of it with prudence,” the sultan replied, and they parted.

From the tone and manner in which the sultan pronounced the latter sentence, Clapperton felt a foreboding that his intended visit to Youri and Nyffee was at an end.  He could not help suspecting the intrigues of the Arabs to be the cause, as they knew well, if the native Africans were once acquainted with English commerce by the way of the sea, their own lucrative inland trade would from that moment cease.  He was much perplexed during the whole of the day, to know how to act, and went after sunset to consult Mahomed Gomsoo.  Clapperton met him at the door of his house, on his way to the sultan, and stopped him to mention what had passed, and how unaccountably strange it appeared to him, that the sultan, after having repeatedly assured him of being at liberty to visit every part of his dominions, should now, for the first time, seem inclined to withdraw that permission, adding, that before he came to Sockna, he never heard of a king making a promise one day and breaking it the next.  All this, he knew, would find its way to the sultan.  Gomsoo told Clapperton that he was quite mistaken; for that the sultan, the gadado, and all the principal people, entertained the highest opinion of him, and wished for nothing so much as to cultivate the friendship of the English nation.  But, said Clapperton, on leaving him, it is necessary for me to visit those places, or else how can the English get here?  As Clapperton anticipated, Gomsoo repeated to the sultan every word he had said, for he was no sooner at home, than he was sent for by the sultan, whom he found seated with Gomsoo and two others.  He was received with great kindness, and Gomsoo said he had made the sultan acquainted with their conversation.  Clapperton thanked him, and expressed his earnest hope, that he had neither done nor said any thing to offend him.  The sultan assured him that his conduct had always met with his approbation, and although he was freely disposed to show him all the country, still he wished to do so with safety to him.