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On the 20th April M. Caillie entered Tombuctoo. His feelings at the sight
of this celebrated city were those of disappointment. Perhaps in his
wanderings he had fed his imagination with dreams of a flourishing and
splendid capital reared amid the waste. He thus describes it:--"The
spectacle before me did not answer my expectation. At first sight it
presents but a heap of houses, neither so large nor so well peopled as I
expected. Its commerce is less considerable than is stated by public
report, a great concourse of strangers coming from every part of Soudan.
I met in the streets only the camels coming from Kabra. The city is
inhabited by negroes of the Kissour nation. They form the principal
population. The city is without any walls, open on all sides, and may
contain 10,000 or 12,000 inhabitants, including the Moors." The houses
are built of brick; and there are seven mosques, the principal one of
great size, having a tower fifty feet high. The city depends exclusively
on trade, which is entirely in the hands of the Moors. The chief article
of commerce is salt, which is dug out of the mines of Sahara; but other
articles, both of European and native manufacture, are likewise sold. The
goods are embarked for Jenne, and bartered for gold, slaves, and
provisions. The city is surrounded with plains of moving sand. "The
horizon is of a pale red. All is gloomy in nature. The deepest silence
reigns--not the song of a single bird is heard."

On the 4th May, M. Caillie departed from Tombuctoo, and in a few days
arrived at Aroan, a town containing 3000 inhabitants, on the route to
which neither herb nor shrub was seen; and their only fuel was the dung
of camels. On the 19th May he prepared to cross the desert, along with a
large caravan. Scarcely a drop of water could be found, and many of the
wells were dried up. "Before us appeared a horizon without bounds, in
which our eyes distinguished only an immense plain of burning sand,
enveloped by a sky on fire. At this spectacle the camels raised long
cries, and the slaves mournfully lifted up their eyes to heaven." They
suffered much from thirst during this dreary march, and their strength
was almost exhausted before they reached the springs of Telig. After many
days harassing toil, they came to the frontiers of Morocco, and M.
Caillie, having crossed the Atlas, contrived to make his way to Tangier.




CHAPTER XXXV.

Lander's Journey.


In the preceding chapter the reader must have admired the fortitude and
resolution manifested by Lander, when, after the death of Clapperton, he
had to travel to the coast alone. His attempt to reach the Niger shewed
that his disposition was ardent and enterprising, and that, but for
untoward circumstances, he would have effected his object. On his return
to England, he again offered his services to government, and accompanied
by his brother John, embarked from Portsmouth on the 9th January 1830,
and reached Cape Coast Castle on the 22d of the following month.

Having hired several native attendants, one of whom, called Pascoe, was
well qualified to act as an interpreter, the travellers sailed to
Badagry, and landed on the 22d. They resided some days at this place, the
chief being unwilling to part from them till he had obtained as presents
almost every article which he coveted. As if in contrast with the beauty
of the country, the inhabitants of Badagry are a dissolute, sensual, and
greedy race. While they resided in the town, the Landers were invited to
visit the spot where the Mahomedans perform some of their religious
rites. Two Mussulmen guided them to the place, which was about a mile
distant. They came to a bare space of sandy ground, surrounded with
trees; here they found the Mussulmen engaged in prostration and ablution.

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