esent from his highness to me.
This is the first present of the kind I have received in Africa; and
after giving away about five hundred pounds sterling of Government money
I have got in return, at last, a horse worth one pound fifteen shillings
and fourpence, the current value of this country! The Sarkee of Zinder
is miserably poor, but he was afraid to let me go to Kuka, to his
master, without giving me a present.

I started from Zinder, riding my "gift horse," about an hour before
sunset, and arrived at Dairmummegai, a very large village, where the
Kashalla had pitched tent, after three hours' ride. Our course was due
east, through a scattered forest of dwarf-trees, in which were
fluttering about a number of strange-looking birds, that reminded me I
was in a foreign land. One solitary bird excited my pity; its form was
something like that of a small crane, but, verily, it was most
disproportionally thin, with very long neck and shanky legs. It was
wandering about as if it had lost itself in the world; and yet a bird
losing itself in the world is a strange notion! We met a couple of
huntsmen, on the shoulders of one of whom was coiled a fine bleeding
gazelle. These huntsmen had only bows and arrows, and they had managed
to get a gazelle, whilst we, with all our matchlocks and muskets, had
never been able to shoot one of these animals during our eight or nine
months of passage through the desert. The Kashalla was exceedingly glad
at my arrival, and got ready a bowl of new milk. He is a man of some
fifty or sixty years of age, black, and with Bornou features, speaking a
little Arabic. The greater part of the Bornou people know a few words of
this language. The Sheikh sent him to bring the boat and our baggage. He
is a friendly, quiet man, whilst the man sent by Haj Beshir, Said, is an
impudent slave, and only thinking of what he can get by his journey.

I saw, as I passed through the streets of Zinder this morning, a number
of slaves chained together, going to the market of Kanou; so that this
place is the great central depot of this merchandise. These were some of
the fruits of the Sarkee's last razzia.

_9th._--The morning was cool, and we started early, and made six hours
and a-quarter in a general south-east direction, through a continuation
of scattered forests, with open spaces, the wood being broken in upon
here and there by a scanty ghaseb cultivation. Amongst the trees, some
rose with giant arms and all the c