38o THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER A regular descent was made on the camp by sellers of kola nuts, grisgris etc. A number of women also came, amongst whom was a Toucouleur girl named Fanta. She said she had come to see if her brother was with us, but I suspect her motives were not quite so innocent as that. In the end, this girl became a dangerous enemy to us. After warning her off again and again, we at last had ENVOYS FROM THE CHIEF OF KIBTACHI.

literally to drive her out of the camp. If we had not done so I expect she would have persuaded some of our men to desert, so great was her influence over them.

Fanta was really a very reckless person, and is supposed to have poisoned a man whom she had persuaded to treason, but who had failed to achieve the result she had hoped by that treason. The native chiefs know only too well how easy it is to seduce men from their allegiance