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.

"The house of the king is very large and high, like the largest house in Mogadore, but built of the same materials as the walls.

There are a great many more houses in the city, built of stone, _with shops on one side_, where they sell salt, the staple article, knives, blue cloth, haicks, and an abundance of other things, with many gold ornaments.

The inhabitants are blacks, and the chief is a very large, grey-headed, old black man, who is called shegar, which means sultan or king.

The principal part of the houses are made with large reeds, as thick as a man's arm, which stand upon their ends, and are covered with small reeds first, and then with the leaves of the date tree; they are round, and the tops come to a point, like a heap of stones.