Of the people of his own district the Sultan said, "You have nothing to fear from them, except that thieves may come in the night. Beware of them; and fall upon any one who may come near your tents after dark. There may be people who will slink from the neighbouring towns to rob you; take care and watch during the night." Upon this I asked him for a couple of servants as guards, but he replied that it was not necessary.
Of the Tanelkums he observed: "It will be better when they are gone, for many strangers come to them, known neither to you nor to me; and they may rob you." This was an excellent observation, for on the road I always found that the Haghar strangers, the bandits, and all the idle, low characters, who might follow the caravan, never failed to make friends with our Tanelkums, and thus gained a footing to carry on their treacherous designs.
The greater part of the interview was thus occupied by a little oration on the part of this respectable Sultan, who wound up by saying that he hoped, if it pleased God, that we should now enjoy some repose, and afterwards be conducted safely to Zinder and Soudan.
Observing that the dialogue was flagging, I caused the presents we had brought with us to be laid out. The Sultan examined all the articles carefully and quietly, but said not a word. Then his son-in-law informed us aside that it was now time to retire. We did so with many compliments, trusting that our visit had produced a favourable impression. I was very anxious to know what was thought of the present,—the largest we have yet given, much larger than what was received by either Hateetah or Wataitee. I sent two of my servants about to pick up the news in town. I was not disappointed; I hoped to please his highness, and succeeded. He was greatly delighted; and, moreover, displayed immense generosity for an African. Immediately we had retired he called together all the great people of the town, and thus addressed them: "See the fine present these Christians have brought me. I shall, however, only take a blue burnouse for myself. The rest I give to you. Take all else." The notables were greatly pleased at being called in to share in the gifts, and exclaimed, "The Consul is a fine man; a man of a large heart." So far, so good. But some of the lesser men were heard to say, "Ah! now the Christians are in peace, and yet they give us nothing. How much did they give away, and yet get no rest!" Sure enough; but having been thus forcedly generous, we had now scarcely anything left to give. It would require a thousand camel-loads to satisfy all the tribes and people in this route, even if their exigencies did not rise in proportion to our wealth.
We have not yet been able to procure any provisions in Tintalous. After a journey of two months, during which we have been obliged to feed the whole caravan, Kailouees and Tanelkums, to say nothing of the robbers and bandits, who were pleased to levy this kind of tribute upon us, we arrive at a friendly town, and can find nothing to eat! This is really too bad. Fortunately, I put away three bottles of olive oil in the spirit-boxes. With these and my little macaroni I may manage, perhaps, to subsist until provisions can be found. But my servants have finished their last hemsa, and the Germans have nothing left. Our last resource is our biscuits, which I am sorry we are obliged to eat in this early part of our journey. This supply of biscuits has certainly cost us much in carriage—many hard dollars; but nevertheless we have found it excellent for our health, and it now promises to save us from starvation. We had heard contradictory reports on the road; some people saying we should find everything in Aheer, and others nothing. The latter prophecy seems likely to turn out true.
There is not much herbage about where we are, so we are obliged to send away the camels some distance to feed. It appears to be only the beginning of the rainy season in Tintalous. We have passed through much finer districts in Aheer than this; e.g. that of Taghajeet, where we observed fat women and fat sheep! But we have not yet seen the enormously fat women that Mr. Gagliuffi described. This, of course, would always be difficult for us, except in our capacities as physicians. Dr. Overweg has the best chance of this piece of good luck.
5th.—We are much troubled with a nephew of En-Noor, the same that acted as the courier from Seloufeeat to Tintalous. We gave him a white burnouse, and he is worrying Yusuf to let him have a finer and better one. This individual has given us more trouble than anything else in Tintalous. Little things here, as elsewhere, prove more annoying than great things. To set matters straight, we have offered him a better burnouse, but he is not yet content.
The Tanelkums are also very troublesome. I always saw that we must beware of them, for they will never let us rest, if they can help it, whilst they are with us. Beg, beg, beg; this alone describes their conduct towards us.
All the people we have had about us seem to have considered us their lawful prey, and seek to gain their ends, if not by violence, at least by continual importunities: still it must be acknowledged that the Tanelkums rendered us considerable service on the road. But, even without this claim, they would, no doubt, have still pursued the same system of eternal begging.
This day and yesterday we had thunder, lightning, and much rain. The sky was covered with clouds, yet the thermometer rose at half-past three in the afternoon to 82° in our tent. I walked a little before the tent early this morning, to keep up my bodily vigour. I had a little internal pain yesterday. If I suffer in Africa from disease, it will most probably be from dysentery. God grant that I may escape, and be grateful for his mercy!