at them ; and be afterwards understood that many persons
came several day’s journey on purpose. The Moors remained
closely confined in prison; but Adams and the.
Portuguese boy had permission to visit them. At the end
of about six months, there arrived a company of trading
Moors with tobacco, who after some weeks ransomed the
whole party. Adams does not know the precise quantity
of tobacco which was paid for them, but it consisted of the
lading of five camels, with the exception of about fifty
pounds weight reserved by the Moors. These Moors seemed
to be well known at Tombuctoo, which place, he understood,
they were accustomed to visit every year during the
rainy season.
Tombuctoo is situated on a level plain, having a river about
two hundred yards from the town, on the south-east side,
named La Mar Zarah* The town appeared to Adams'to
cover as much ground as Lisbon. He is unable to give any
idea of the number of its inhabitants; but as the houses are
not built in streets, or with any regularity, its population,
compared with that of European towns, is by no means in
* Or La Mar Zahr.■ I t was not easy to fix the probable orthography of
African names, from Adams’s indistinct pronunciation.
proportion to its size. It has no walls, nor any thing resembling
fortification. The houses are square, built of
sticks, clay, and grass, with flat roofs of the same materials.
The rooms are all on the ground floor, and are without any
article of furniture, except earthen jars, wooden bowls, and
mats made of grass, upon which the people sleep. He did
not observe any houses, or any other buildings, constructed
of stone. (12)
The river La Mar Zarah is about three quarters of a mile
wide at Tombuctoo, and appears to have, in this place,
but little current, flowing to the south-west. About two
miles from the town to the southward it runs between two
high mountains, apparently as high as the mountains which
Adams saw in Barbary S here it is about half a mile wide.
The water of La Mar Zarah is rather brackish, but is commonly
drunk by the natives; there not being, as Adams
believes, any wells at Tombuctoo. (is) The vessels used by
the natives are small canoes for fishing, the largest of which
is about ten feet long, capable of carrying three men : they
are built of fig-trees hollowed out, and caulked with grass,
and are worked with paddles about six feet long. (14) The
river is well stored with fish, chiefly of a sort which Adams
took for the red mullet: there is also a large red fish, in
shape somewhat like a salmon, and having teeth; he thinks
E