journey.  If these accounts be correct, the country must be one of the most interesting in Africa.  They say, that on account the height of the mountains some of the inhabitants do not see the moon for fifteen days together.  A Sultan rules paternally in this out-of-the-way country, where the Mohammedan religion reigns paramount.  My informant made me pay three Tunisian piastres and two common handkerchiefs for a vocabulary of the language of the Tibboos of Tibesty.  A visit to this singular oasis might repay a hardy traveller; but the people of the country have a faithless character, and it would be dangerous to trust to their promises of protection.

The Tibesty Tibboos must not be confounded with the Tibboos of the salt-mines of Bilma, who have recently made their submission to the Porte.  There is little connexion between the people, although they speak a similar language.  The Bilma Tibboos lie in the direct route to Bornou, and were fully studied by the Denham and Clapperton expedition.

15th.—­Continue to prepare papers to send home.  Report the fact, that the functionaries of Mourzuk trade in slaves.

16th.—­I had lent Mustapha a sword; but, after keeping it a night, he was obliged to return it, sending word that a firman had been written to all the functionaries of the Porte, forbidding them to receive any presents,—­an excellent measure, doing credit to the Sultan’s administration.  The great plague of the East is the system of bribery carried on under the form of presents.  The pay of the Pasha is six hundred and fifty mahboubs per month, nearly all spent in the town.

17th.—­The weather is extremely hot and sultry.  The sun burns the umbrella if you pass for a few minutes under it.  Even the natives complain of the extreme heat of the weather.

18th.—­Not quite so oppressive; but, as Dr. Barth says, the south wind blows throughout Northern Africa in May.

20th.—­This morning, the black who came with us, and had two wives, divorced one of them, returning the woman’s dowry of thirty-seven Tunisian piastres.  The divorce took place before the Kady in the open streets.

21st.—­Haj Lameen came to see me.  He does not forget to remind us that the Tuaricks expect many presents.  I have no doubt they do.  He says we must be generous at all the following places:—­Ghat, Aheer, Aghadez, Damerghou, Zinder, Minyou, Tesaouah, Kashna, Kanou, Sakkatou, Bornou, Begharmi, Mandara, and to the Tibboos of Bilma; not to mention the intermediate towns and villages.  However, if the presents be valuable, we may expect in some places rations of food in return.  It is worthy of remark, that this said Haj Lameen, brother of the governor of Ghat, took an oath during the past year that he would never again purchase slaves.  This is a remarkable instance of the progress of opinion.  I afterwards gave Lameen a present, consisting of one pound of tea, five