and hold it by the same means, the French now having no money, must soon
relinquish Algiers again to the hands of the Muslims."

_4th._--The weather is getting colder and colder. The last few days have
been quite chilly, with a strong wind blowing from the east. This
morning it was quite uncomfortable, the thermometer having fallen for
the first time to 60° at sunset. We started early, and made seven hours
in a south-eastern direction. It was a nice ride; but as the day
advanced we got much sunburnt. After three hours we passed on the left
the little village Zouazgher. The caravan showed again very
picturesquely, the burdens tumbling off from the donkeys in the most
delightful confusion, and the girls squalling for help. I ate on the
road some Soudan dates, as they are called by the Arabs, and found them
pleasant--a sort of bitter sweet. The name of the tree and of the fruit
is, in Bornou, _bitu_. In Haussa the tree has two names, _aduwa_ and
_tinku_. Our course to day was up a fine valley, down which the water in
the rainy season runs from east to west. There was abundance of trees
and herbage. At this place, however, lions abound, and last night a
camel was eaten by them. We encamped opposite a mountain, rising pretty
high in sugar-loaf shape, called Adudai. Over the carcase of the camel
hovered a small flock of eagles.

A Bornouee fighi, called Mustapha, from the country Malămdi, west of
Kuka, tells us he has been six months at Aghadez. According to him, the
route from Aghadez to Timbuctoo is one month. It is open, and not
dangerous. En-Noor, indeed, promised to send any of us by that route if
we wished. There are few people on the route, and if you pay them a
little money you pass unmolested. This Bornouese fighi is not equal to
his brethren whom I saw in Tintalous. But I learnt from this itinerant
pedagogue the interesting fact, that there are a great number of persons