Things were in this situation when, on the 29th of April, a messenger arrived at Benowm with the disagreeable intelligence that the Bambarra army was approaching the frontiers of Ludamar.  This threw the whole country into confusion, and in the afternoon Ali’s son, with about twenty horsemen, arrived at Benowm.  He ordered all the cattle to be driven away immediately, all the tents to be struck, and the people to hold themselves in readiness to depart at daylight the next morning.

April 30.—­At daybreak the whole camp was in motion.  The baggage was carried upon bullocks—­the two tent poles being placed one on each side, and the different wooden articles of the tent distributed in like manner; the tent cloth was thrown over all, and upon this was commonly placed one or two women; for the Moorish women are very bad walkers.  The king’s favourite concubines rode upon camels, with a saddle of a particular construction, and a canopy to shelter them from the sun.  We proceeded to the northward until noon, when the king’s son ordered the whole company, except the tents, to enter a thick low wood which was upon our right.  I was sent along with the two tents, and arrived in the evening at a negro town called Farani:  here we pitched the tents in an open place at no great distance from the town.

May 1.—­As I had some reason to suspect that this day was also to be considered as a fast, I went in the morning to the negro town of Farani, and begged some provisions from the dooty, who readily supplied my wants, and desired me to come to his house every day during my stay in the neighbourhood.—­These hospitable people are looked upon by the Moors as an abject race of slaves, and are treated accordingly.

May 3.—­We departed from the vicinity of Farani, and after a circuitous route through the woods, arrived at Ali’s camp in the afternoon.  This encampment was larger than that of Benowm, and was situated un the middle of a thick wood, about two miles distant from a negro town called Bubaker.  I immediately waited upon Ali, in order to pay my respects to Queen Fatima, who had come with him from Saheel.  He seemed much pleased with my coming, shook hands with me, and informed his wife that I was the Christian.  She was a woman of the Arab caste, with long black hair, and remarkably corpulent.  She appeared at first rather shocked at the thought of having a Christian so near her; but when I had, by means of a negro boy who spoke the Mandingo and Arabic tongues, answered a great many questions which her curiosity suggested respecting the country of the Christians, she seemed more at ease, and presented me with a bowl of milk, which I considered as a very favourable omen.