From the courier who came from Dr. Overweg I have obtained the following account of the route from Zinder to Tesaoua:
From Zinder direct west to Tus, 1 hour; village: to Termini, 5 hours; village: to Dambidda, 1 hour; a large village: to Babul, 5 hours; village: to Gumda, 4 hours; village: to Kurnaua, 4 hours; village: to Garagumsa, 5 hours; village: to Shabari, 7 hours; village: to Maizirgi, 1 hour; large village: to Tesaoua, 5 hours.
Along this route there is abundance of herbage and trees, but no running water or wadys. There are wells of great depth. The distances between the various villages being in all, when summed up, thirty-eight hours, we must consider the whole length of the route three long and four short days' journey, as the caravans generally arrive on the fourth day.
Slavery is the curse of all these countries. My Soudan servant, Amankee, would not come with me to Zinder, on account of his longing desire to see his mother and brother and sisters; and yet, although these feelings are deep in the bosoms of all the blacks, they can see their neighbours torn away from their houses and carried off in irons with the greatest indifference. The slaves of the Sarkee of Zinder are double-ironed, like convicts, and in this condition jump through the streets, for they cannot walk. The backs of these poor slaves are all ulcerated with the strokes of the whip.
I received a visit this morning from the Jew Ibrahim. After a good deal of wrangling I exchanged three handkerchiefs for three beads of silver, but one of the beads I made him a present of. I was much surprised to hear from him that the aloe wood, _aoud el-Komari_, sold in Bornou for its equal weight in silver. He also stated that twelve rubtas of raw silk sold for one real in Mourzuk and Zinder, whilst fifteen could be purchased in Kauou for the same money. What will become of the goods of the Germans?
En-Noor's wife, Fatia, sent this morning for medicine to enable her to bring forth a child. I maliciously recommended to her a younger husband. A Tibboo has continued to pester me to death for a medicine to make him profit in his mercantile transactions. To get rid of him, being in a merry mood, I scribbled over a piece of paper, and he swallowed it. A great number of people come for medicines who are not sick. I generally content myself with a bare refusal, explaining that there is no necessity; but there is nothing so difficult as to convince a man that he is well when once he has persuaded himself of the contrary.