in the best health, though it is probable that he felt
already very weak while he was there: for, according to the
man whom he hired in Zinder as his dragoman, he had, while
there, a dream that a bird came down from the sky, and when
sitting on the branch of a tree, the branch broke off and
the bird fell down to the earth. Mr. Richardson being very
much affected by this dream, went to a man who from a huge
book explains to the people their dreams. On the man's
telling him that his dream meant death, he seems really to
have anticipated that he would not reach the principal
object of his journey. But, nevertheless, he seemed to be
quite well, mounting even the horse which the Governor of
Zinder had made him a present of, as far as Minyo, when he
begged the Governor to give him a camel, which he mounted
thenceforward. He felt notoriously ill in Kadalebria, eleven
or twelve days' journey from here (Kuka); and he is said by
his servant to have taken different kinds of medicines, one
after the other: from which you may conclude that he did not
know himself what was his illness. Mr. Richardson never
could bear the sun, and the sun being very powerful at this
time of the year, it must have affected him very much. I
think this to be the chief reason of his death; at least, he
seems not to have had a regular fever. He was happy to reach
the large town of Rangarvia after a journey of three short
days, and had the intention of returning from here directly
to Tripoli, without touching at Kuka and the low, hot plain
of Bornou, which he was affrightened of very much. He
offered two hundred mahboubs for a guide to conduct him
directly to the road to Bilma; but there being no road from
here, and no guide having been found, it was necessary first