April 24th. This morning Shereef Sidi Mahomed Moora Abdalla, a native of
Morocco, arrived with five bullocks loaded with salt. He had formerly
resided some months at Gibraltar, where he had picked up as much English
as enabled him to make himself understood. He informed me, that he had
been five months in coming from Santa Cruz; but that great part of the
time had been spent in trading. When I requested him to enumerate the
days employed in travelling from Morocco to Benowm, he gave them as
follows;--to Swera, three days; to Agadier, three; to Jiniken, ten; to
Wadenoon, four; to Lakeneigh, five; to Zeeriwin-zeriman, five; Tisheet,
ten; to Benowm, ten; in all fifty days; but travellers usually rest a
long while at Jiniken and Tisheet; at the latter of which places they dig
the rock salt, which is so great an article of commerce with the Negroes.

In conversing with these Shereefs, and the different strangers that
resorted to the camp, I passed my time with rather less uneasiness than
formerly. On the other hand, as the dressing of my victuals was now left
entirely to the care of Ali's slaves, over whom I had not the smallest
control, I found myself but ill supplied, worse even than in the fast
month. For two successive nights they neglected to send us our accustomed
meal; and though my boy went to a small Negro town near the camp, and
begged with great diligence from hut to hut, he could only procure a few
handfuls of ground nuts, which he readily shared with me. Hunger, at
first, is certainly a very painful sensation; but when it has continued
for some time, this pain is succeeded by languor and debility: in which
case, a draught of water, by keeping the stomach distended, will greatly
exhilarate the spirits, and remove for a short time every sort of
uneasiness. Johnson and Demba were very much dejected. They lay stretched
upon the sand, in a sort of torpid slumber: and even when the kouskous
arrived, I found some difficulty in awakening them. I felt no inclination