The Christians, On The Contrary, Are Looked Upon As Hardened Infidels, And As Deliberate Despisers Of The Prophet's Call; And

As they in general steadfastly reject the Mahommedan creed, and at least never embrace it, whilst they have hopes of

Ransom; the Moslim, consistently with the spirit of many passages in the Koran, views them with the bitterest hatred, and treats them with every insult and cruelty which a merciless bigotry can suggest.

It is not to be understood that the Christian slaves, though generally ill treated and inhumanly worked by their Arab owners, are persecuted by them ostensibly on account of their religion. They, on the contrary, often encourage the Christians to resist the importunities of those who wish to convert them; for, by embracing Islamism, the Christian slave obtains his freedom, and however ardent may be the zeal of the Arab to make proselytes, it seldom blinds him to the calculations of self-interest.

Three days after Williams and Davison had renounced their religion, a letter was received from Mr. Dupuis, addressed to the Christian prisoners at Wadinoon, under cover to the governor, in which the consul, after exhorting them most earnestly not to give up their religion, whatever might befal them, assured them that within a month, he should be able to procure their liberty. Davison heard the letter read, apparently without emotion, but Williams became so agitated that he let it drop out of his hands, and burst into a flood of tears.

From this time, Adams experienced no particular ill treatment, but he was required to work as usual. About a month more elapsed, when the man who brought the letter, and who was a servant of the British consul, disguised as a trader, made known to Adams that he had succeeded in procuring his release, and the next day they set out together for Mogadore.

On quitting Wadinoon, they proceeded in a northerly direction, travelling on mules at the rate of thirty miles a day, and in fifteen days arrived at Mogadore. Here Adams remained eight months with Mr. Dupuis. America and England being then at war, it was found difficult to procure for Adams a conveyance to his native country; he therefore obtained a passage on board a vessel bound to Cadiz, where he remained about fourteen months as servant or groom, in the service of Mr. Hall, an English merchant there. Peace having been in the mean time restored, Adams was informed by the American consul, that he had now an opportunity of returning to his native country with a cartel, or transport of American seamen, which was on the point of sailing from Gibraltar. He accordingly proceeded thither, but arrived two days after the vessel had sailed. Soon afterwards he engaged himself on board a Welsh brig, lying at Gibraltar, in which he sailed to Bilboa, whence the brig took a cargo of wool to Bristol, and after discharging it there, was proceeding in ballast to Liverpool; but having been driven into Holyhead by contrary winds, Adams there fell sick, and was put on shore. From this place he begged his way up to London, where he arrived completely destitute. He had slept two or three nights in the open streets, when he was accidentally met by a gentleman, who had seen him in Mr. Hall's service at Cadiz, and was acquainted with his history, by whom he was directed to the office of the African Association, through whose means his adventures were made known to the public.

Adams may be said to have been the first Christian, who ever reached the far-famed city of Timbuctoo, and it must be admitted that many attempts were made to throw a positive degree of discredit upon his narrative, and to consider it more the work of deep contrivance than of actual experience. It is certain that many difficulties present themselves in the narrative of Adams, which cannot be reconciled with the discoveries subsequently made, but that cannot be argued as a reason for invalidating the whole of his narrative; especially when it is so amply and circumstantially confirmed by the inquiries which were set on foot by Mr. Dupuis, at the instigation of the African Association, and the result of which was, a complete confirmation of all the circumstances, which Adams

CHAPTER XIII.

It is perhaps not the least of the many extraordinary circumstances attending the city of Timbuctoo, that no two travellers agree in their account of it; and for this reason it is most difficult to decide, to whom the greatest credibility should be awarded, or, on the other hand, whether some of them, who pretend to have resided within its walls, ever visited it at all. The contradictions of the respective travellers are in many instances so gross, that it is scarcely possible to believe that the description, which they are then giving can apply to one and the same place, and therefore we are entitled to draw the inference, that some of them are practising on our credulity, and are making us the dupes of their imagination, rather than the subjects of their experience. The expectations of moorish magnificence were raised to a very high pitch, by some of the inflated accounts of the wealth and splendour of the great city of central Africa; but these expectations were considerably abated by the description given of Timbuctoo by Adams and Sidi Hamet, a moorish merchant, who describes that city in the following terms: -

"Timbuctoo is a very large city, five times as great as Swearah (Suera or Mogadore). It is built in a level plain surrounded on all sides with hills, except on the south, where the plain continues to the bank of the same river, which is wide and deep, and runs to the east. We were obliged to go to it to water our camels, and there we saw many boats, made of great trees, some with negroes paddling in them across the river. The city is strongly walled in with stone laid in clay, like the towns and houses in Suse, only a great deal thicker."

The latter account is at total variance with both Adams and Caillie, who describe Timbuctoo as a city having no walls, nor any thing resembling fortifications.

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