for Easterns, or people who live in the East, to look upon a Government as anything but a milch cow?  Mustapha Bey, who took a very affectionate leave of me, is now engaged in examining a tremendous case of peculation—­something like a defalcation of two thousand mahboubs.  He is quite bewildered for the time.  The Greek doctor came to see us off; but we started in a little confusion, for Mr. Yusuf Moknee was drunk, as he was nearly all the time of our stay at Mourzuk.

I left Mourzuk on the 25th of June, late in the evening, and proceeding until midnight, stopped at a little cluster of palms, with two or three inhabitants, called Thurgan.  Then rising at daylight, and starting at once, I passed Om-el-Hamam, and reached Tesaoua about nine in the evening.  I found that the Germans and the Tanelkums had gone on in advance some days, but not so fast that we could not hope to overtake them.  The hurry and bustle attendant on the preparations for starting has rendered me rather indisposed; I was quite unwell on the 27th.  Next day, however, I could receive Hateetah and the son of Shafou, and have a civil row with them.  I had to ask them whether they would travel by night, and what they would agree to do if any one fell sick.  To the first question they promptly answered “No, they would not;” but to the second, that in case any one was very ill indeed, they would wait a little for him, or travel in the night.  I said that this was not exactly what I wanted, and that in case of sickness the expedition must be stopped.  They recommended me to go to Ghat, and there remain twenty days until the great heat had passed, allowing the Tanelkums to go on.  This advice is worth reflection:  but perhaps we may not suffer so much from the heat as I anticipate.  We came to a tolerable understanding, and it was at length agreed that we should start on the 29th.

The weather is now cool, the wind often blowing round in the course of the day; it rarely blows through, as at sea.  On the way from Mourzuk we had hot and cold blasts together; but now we are out in the desert, we find the climate much more temperate than in the city.  I hope and pray that I shall be able to bear up against the heat.

What a magnificent sky we had last night!—­never did I behold the stars in greater glory.  The Scorpion was brilliant, if not fierce; and the constellation on his right shone splendidly.  At about eight o’clock Jupiter was setting towards the horizon like a sun!

29th.—­We left Tesaoua at length, at three in the afternoon.  The boat and our servants had gone on before with the Tuaricks, who prefer not travelling in the dark, if possible.  We can often start after them in this way, and catch them up by pushing on some hours after sunset.  Our course lay south this evening.  The heavens, before the rising of the moon, had a most luminous appearance; Jupiter was seen only about an hour above the horizon, and the Milky Way was very conspicuous, but at eight o’clock described only a small segment in the heavens.