Being given for the Moors, except
about fifty pounds weight, which was expended for a man slave, the
king had agreed to release all the prisoners.
Two days after their release, the whole party consisting of the ten
moorish traders, fourteen moorish prisoners, two white men and one
slave quitted Timbuctoo, having only the five camels, which belonged
to the traders; those which were seized when Adams and his party were
made prisoners, not having been restored. As they had no means left
of purchasing any other article, the only food they took with them
was a little Guinea corn flour.
On quitting the town they proceeded in an easterly course, inclining
to the north, going along the border of the river, of which they
sometimes lost sight for two days together. Except the two mountains
before spoken of to the southward, between which the river runs,
there are none in the immediate neighbourhood of Timbuctoo, but at a
little distance there are some small ones.
They had travelled eastward about ten days, at the rate of about
fifteen or eighteen miles a day, when they saw the river for the last
time; it then appeared rather narrower than at Timbuctoo. They then
loaded the camels with water, and striking off in a northerly
direction, travelled twelve or thirteen days at about the same pace.
