EPILOGUE 50s chief, who was honoured and obeyed by them, was our friend. When the treaty of Rhadames was made, we said to them, " We want to go to the Sudan by way of Air : you will guide us, you will protect our traders, you will hire your camels to us, and you will find it to your profit to do so."

A Tuareg proverb says, " You should never promise more than half what you mean to perform."

The Azgueurs of course expected our caravans to arrive, and they are still expecting them. Gradually, however, they are beginning to doubt us. " What," they are saying.

MEDAL OF THE LYONS GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

" did those Frenchmen, who seemed so anxious to trade in our country, come to do here ? " When this question is put to a Tuareg, he will answer immediately, " They came to spy; they were the spies of a great army, which will come to take away our liberty and our independence."

In the English of Tripoli and their agent, the Kaimakhan of Rhadames, they would have advisers, who would increase their suspicions of us. Little by little the sympathy the Tuaregs had felt for us would give way to dread of us.

Ikhenukhen is dead now, the Sahara is closed to us, more completely closed than when Duveyrier visited it, or when Barth and Richardson crossed it.