June 20, 1325
Today I finally reached the town of al-Jaza’ir, but we did not completely pass through the town just yet. We had to wait for a fellow group of people who had been on the journey with us, so we could reunite with them (Document B). Eventually we continued on with our journey finally residing in Bijaya. The leader of this region, Ibn Sayyid an-Nas, ruled a tyrannical government. A member of our party died along the way, and he left all of his riches to a certain man. This man was being delivered the gold, but when doing so, this harsh ruler forced the man to give him the money that didn’t belong to him (Document B). As we were stopping in Bijaya a fever came across me. Everybody was telling me to rest and recover, but this was my journey to Mecca. I couldn’t even imagine giving in even for a day, and wait for the fever to pass, I had to keep going. When we arrived at Qusantinah, we decided to stay there for a little while and we set up camp. But in the middle of the night a heavy rainfall appeared so we bolted into town to seek refuge. When we awoke in the morning the governor came to greet us. Everybody there was very nice and treated us with their best manners. Once we left this respectful town, I was once again contaminated with the fever, but as I said I would not rest until I reached Mecca (Document B).
Good job Simone. I especially liked the way you described how Battuta wouldn't give up on his journey to Mecca even if he was ill.
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