value in Aheer, because food is scarce. We have,
however, managed to purchase a bullock--a great beast.

_28th._--I did not feel so well after the meat-eating; we have had so
little of it, and so seldom, that a little extra quite upsets me, and
the gnawing it makes all my teeth bleed. Thermometer, 50 deg.. The weather
has changed to mistiness, haziness. It is now reported that we still
remain here twenty-five days longer, the caravan arriving only in twenty
days, and five being allowed to rest the camels. So we have time enough
for the Haussa and Bornou languages. I wish to master the grammar of
each, so as to superintend some translation of the Scriptures.

_29th._--The weather is still hazy, and warmer; but whilst it is warmer
in the morning it is cooler in the mid-day, on account of the clouds and
haze. Half an hour after sunrise, thermometer 56 deg..

En-Noor says we shall start in seventeen days, but ten days more or less
for these people are nothing. Our courier for the money has just been
gone thirty-three days. If, happily, he arrive to day, he will save a
week of the Shantah from Mourzuk to Tripoli. If we remain here now
twenty-five days, and are thirty-five days more before we arrive at
Zinder, that will be sixty days. I shall then have only twenty days more
to wait till the expiration of the four months, when I may expect the
courier to return. Thus I hope to have the money to pay the Sfaxee
before I go to Sakkatou. But, alas! such calculations are extremely
uncertain, and we cannot tell what a day may bring forth. For our
support and safety we must repose firmly in the goodness of an Almighty
Providence.

_Nov. 30th to Dec. 3d._--The weather has been mild these last few days;
this morning, half an hour after sunrise, thermometer 51 deg..

En-Noor has been to pay a visit to the Sultan of Asoudee, meeting him at
some neighbouring village. There was a council respecting the affairs of
the tribe of the Iteesan, who are fighting amongst themselves; but no
news has transpired since his return. The old sheikh is in good health
and spirits, which he attributes partly to drinking my coffee twice and
thrice a-day. He says we shall leave here in the course of twelve days.

Senna is grown, or rather collected, in all the districts of Aheer; but
it is cheap now, and does not fetch the price in Tripoli which it
formerly did; many other as suitable purgatives being found in Europe, I
suppose. Senna is, besides, procur