He
does not know whether the fact was sufficiently authenticated, but it
is certain that the woman herself declared it, adding some revolting
accounts of her own feasts on human flesh.

Adams never saw any individual put to death at Timbuctoo, the
punishment for heavy offences being generally slavery; for slighter
misdemeanours, the offenders are punished with beating with a stick;
but in no case is this punishment very severe, seldom exceeding two
dozen blows, with a stick of the thickness of a small walking-cane.

The infrequency of the punishment of death in a community, which
counts human life amongst its most valuable objects of trade, is not,
however, very surprising; and considerable influence must be conceded
to the operation of self-interest, as well as to the feelings of
humanity, in accounting for this merciful feature, if it be indeed
merciful, in the criminal code of the negroes of Soudan.

During the whole of the residence of Adams at Timbuctoo, he never saw
any other Moors than those whom he accompanied thither, and the ten
by whom they were ransomed; and he understood from the Moors
themselves, that they were not allowed to go in large bodies to
Timbuctoo. This statement bears on the face of it a certain degree of
improbability; but it loses that character when it is considered that
Timbuctoo, although it is become, in consequence of its frontier
situation, the port, as it were, of the caravans from the north,
which could not return across the desert the same season, if they
were to penetrate deeper into Soudan, is yet, with respect to the
trade itself, probably only the point whence it diverges to Houssa,
Tuarick, &c. on the east, and to Walet, Jinnie, and Sego, on the west
and south, and not the mart where the merchandise of the caravans is
sold in detail. Such Moors, therefore, as did not return to Barbary
with the returning caravan, but remained in Soudan until the
following season, might be expected to follow their trade to the
larger marts of the interior, and to return to Timbuctoo only to meet
the next winter's caravans. Adams arriving at Timbuctoo in February,
and departing in June, might therefore miss both the caravans
themselves and the traders, who remained behind in Soudan; and, on
the same principle, Park might find Moors carrying on an active trade
in the summer at Sansanding, and yet there might not be one at
Timbuctoo.

Adams never proceeded to the southward of Timbuctoo, further