Gomsoo Also Told Clapperton, And His Account Was Confirmed By Others, That The Sultan Of Youri Was A Native Of

Sockna, in the regency of Tripoli, and prided himself extremely on his birth, but that he was such a drunkard,

Whenever any person of consequence came to visit him, that nothing proved so acceptable a present as a bottle of rum.

On Clapperton's return home from Gomsoo's, he found a message had been left for him to wait upon the sultan, which he complied with immediately after breakfast. He received him in an inner apartment, attended only by a few slaves. After asking Clapperton how he did, and several other chit chat questions, he was not a little surprised, without a single question being put to him on the subject, to hear, that if he wished to go to Nyffee, there were two roads leading to it, the one direct, but beset by enemies; the other safer, but more circuitous; that by either route he would be detained during the rains, in a country at present in a state of rebellion, and therefore that he ought to think seriously of these difficulties. Clapperton assured the sultan that he had already taken the matter into consideration, and that he was neither afraid of the dangers of the roads nor of the rains. "Think of it with prudence," the sultan replied, and they parted.

From the tone and manner in which the sultan pronounced the latter sentence, Clapperton felt a foreboding that his intended visit to Youri and Nyffee was at an end.

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