sidered as invaluable. His personal appearance was prepossessing, apparently not more than forty-five or forty-six, with an expressive countenance, and a benevolent smile. We delivered our letter from the Bashaw; and after he had read it, he inquired, "What was our object in coming?" we answered, "To see the coun try merely, and to give an account of its inhabitants, produce, and appearance, as our Sultan was desirous of knowing every part of the globe." His reply was, "That we were welcome! and whatever he could show us would give him pleasure; that he had ordered huts to be built for us in the town; and that we might then go, accompanied by one of his people, to see them; and that when we were recovered from the fatigue of our long journey, he would be happy to see us." With this we took our leave. Our huts were little, round, mud buildings, placed within a wall, at no great distance from the residence of the Sheikh. The enclosure was quadrangular, and had several divisions formed by partitions of straw mats, where nests of huts were built, and occupied by the stranger merchants who accompanied the kafila; one of these divisions was assigned to us, and we crept into the shade of our earthy dwellings, not a little fatigued with our entré and presentation. Our huts were immediately so crowded with visitors, that we had not a moment's peace, and the heat was insufferable. Boo Khaloom had delivered his presents from the Bashaw, and brought us a message of compliment, together with an intimation that our own would be received on the following day. About noon we received a summons to attend the Sheikh; and we proceeded to the palace, preceded by our negroes, bearing the articles destined for the Sheikh by our Government; consisting of a double-barrelled gun, by Wilkinson, with a box, and all the apparatus complete, a pair of excellent pistols in a case, two pieces of superfine broad cloth, red and blue, to which we added a set of china, and two bundles of spices. The ceremony of getting into the presence was ridiculous enough, although nothing could be more plain and devoid of pretension than the appearance of the Sheikh himself. We passed through pas sages lined with attendants, the front men sitting on their hams; and when we advanced too quickly, we were suddenly arrested by these fellows, who caught forcibly hold of us by the legs; and had not the crowd prevented our falling, we should infallibly have become prostrate before arriving in the presence. Previous to entering into the open court in which we were received, our papouches, or slippers, were whipped off by these active, though sedentary gentlemen, of the chamber; and we were seated on some clean sand on each side of a raised bench of earth, covered with a carpet, on which the Sheikh was reclining. We laid the gun and pistols together before him, and explained to him the locks, turnscrews, and steel shot-cases, holding two charges each, with all of which he seemed exceedingly well pleased; the powder-flask, and the manner in which the charge is divided from the body of powder, did not escape his observation: the other articles were taken off by the slaves almost as soon as they were laid before him. Again we were questioned as to the object of our visit. The Sheikh, however, showed evident satisfaction at our assurance that the King of England had heard of Bornou and himself; and, immediately turning to his kaganawha (counsellor), said, "This is in consequence of our defeating the Begharmis." Upon which, the chief who had most distinguished himself in these memorable battles, Bagah Furby (the gatherer of horses), seating himself in front of us, demanded, "Did he ever hear of me?" The immediate reply of "Certainly," did wonders for our cause. Exclamations were general; and, “Ah! then your king must be a great man!" was re-echoed from every side. We had nothing offered us by way of refreshment, and took our leave. I may here observe, that besides occasional presents of bullocks, camel-loads of wheat and rice, leathern skins of butter, jars of honey, and honey in the comb, five or six wooden bowls were sent us, morning and evening, containing rice, with meat, paste made of barley flour, savoury but very greasy; and on our first arrival, as many had been sent of sweets, mostly composed of curd and honey. In England, a brace of trout might be considered as a handsome present to a traveller sojourning in the neighbourhood of a stream; but at Bornou things are done differently. A camel-load of bream, and a sort of mullet, was thrown before our huts on the second morning after our arrival; and for fear that should not be sufficient, in the evening another was sent. We had a fsug, or market, in front of one of the principal gates of the town. Slaves, sheep, and bullocks, the latter in great numbers, were the principal live. stock for sale. There were at least fifteen thousand persons gathered together, some of them coming from places two and three days distant. Wheat, rice, and gussul, were abundant; tamarinds in the pod, ground nuts, ban beans, ochroes, and indigo; the latter is very good, and in great use amongst the natives, to dye their tobes (shirts) and linen. L on the rising ground, with the wadey before them; their horse were all under' cover of the hills and the town:-this was a strong position. The Arabs, however, moved on with great gallantry, without any support or co-operation from the Bornou or Mandara troops, and not withstanding the showers of arrows, some poisoned, which were poured on them with his handful of Arabs, carried them from behind the palisades, Boo Khaloom, in about half-an-hour, and dashed on, driving the Felatahs on the sides of the hills. The women were every where seen Major Denham, we have already mentioned, accompanied Boo Khaloom and his Arabs, and Barca Gana, the black general of the Sheikh, on a plundering expedition to the south, against a tribe of Felatahs. Indeed it was a preconcerted matter with the Bashaw of Tripoli, that such an expedition should be undertaken, and supplying their protectors with fresh he expected to receive a large numarrows during this struggle; and when ber of slaves as his proportion of the they retreated to the hills, still shooting booty. Of this our travellers were on their pursuers, the women assisted by kept in ignorance, though they dis- rolling down huge masses of the rock, covered that it was with a view to it previously undermined for the purpose, that they were escorted by so large which killed several of the Arabs, and a party of Arabs; such an escort be- wounded others. Barca Gana, and about ing quite unnecessary for the one hundred of the Bornou spearmen, purposes of protection. Major Denham now supported Boo Khaloom, and pierced thought he would have an opportunates, who were left wounded near the through and through some fifty unfortunity of observing the proceedings stakes. I rode by his side as he pushed of these savages, by accompanying the expedition. It very nearly cost him his life. His account of the kind of warfare carried on, and of the different tribes and people they bad intercourse with, must be read with painful and melancholy interest. It exhibits a dreadful picture of the state of this ill-fated region. We shall lay before our readers a part of the narrative, which is almost of a romantic character. The dangers and escapes of the charge are related by him in a bold, manly, and interesting manner. The Bornouese army had burned two Felatah towns, and they came to a third, where they met with an unexpected resist ance. We now came to a third town, in a situation capable of being defended against assailants ten times as numerous as the besieged; this town was called Musfeia. It was built on a rising ground, between two low hills, at the base of others, forming part of the mass of the Mandara mountains; a dry wadey extended along the front; beyond the wadey a swamp; between this and the wood, the road was crossed by a deep ravine, which was not passable for more than two or three horses at a time. The Felatahs had car. ried a very strong fence of palisades, well pointed, and fastened together with thongs of raw hide, six feet in height, from one hill to the other, and had placed their bow-men behind the palisades, and VOL. XVIII. on quite into the town, and a very desperate skirmish took place between Barca Gana's people and a small body of the Felatahs. These warriors throw the spear with great dexterity; and three times I saw the man transfixed to the earth who was dismounted for the purpose of firing the town, and as often were those who rushed forward for that purpose sacrificed for their temerity by the Felatahs. Barca Gana, whose mus cular arm was almost gigantic, threw eight spears, which all told, some of them at a distance of thirty or thirty-five yards, and one particularly on a Felatah chief, who with his own hand had brought four to the ground. Had either the Mandara or the Sheikh's troops now moved up boldly, notwithstanding the defence these people made, and the re-inforcements which showed themselves to the southwest, they must have carried the town with the heights overlooking it, along which the Arabs were driving the Felatahs, by the terror their miserable guns excited; but, instead of this, they still kept on the other side of the wadey, out of reach of the arrows. The Felatahs, seeing their backwardness, now made an attack in their turn: the arrows fell so thick that there was no standing against them, and the Arabs gave way. The Felatah horse now came on; and had not the little band round Barca Gana and Boo Khaloom, with a few of his mounted Arabs, given them a very spirited check, not one of us would probably have lived to see the following 3 D day as it was, Barca Gana had three horses hit under him, two of which died almost immediately, the arrows being poisoned; and poor Boo Khaloom's horse and himself received their death-wounds by arrows of the same description. My horse was badly wounded in the neck, just above the shoulder, and in the near hind leg an arrow had struck me in the face as it passed, merely drawing the blood, and I had two sticking in my bor nouse (saddlecloth). The Arabs had suffered terribly; most of them had two or three wounds, and one dropped near me with five sticking in his head alone. Two of Boo Khaloom's slaves were killed also near his person. No sooner did the Mandara and Bor. nou troops see the defeat of the Arabs, than they, one and all, took to flight in the most dastardly manner, without having once been exposed to the arrows of the enemy, and in the utmost confu. sion. We instantly became a flying mass, and plunged, in the greatest disorder, into that wood we had but a few hours before moved through with order, and very different feelings. I had got a little to the westward of Barca Gana, in the confusion which took place on our passing the ravine, which had been left just in our rear, and where upwards of 100 of the Bornowy were speared by the Felatahs, and was following at a round gal. lop the steps of one of the Mandara eunuchs, who, I observed, kept a good look-out, his head being constantly turned over his left shoulder, with a face expressive of the greatest dismay—when the cries behind of the Felatah horse pursuing, made us both quicken our paces. The spur, however, had the effect of incapacitating my beast altogether, as the arrow, I found afterwards, had reached the shoulder-bone, and, in passing over some rough ground, he stumbled and fell. Almost before I was on my legs, the Felatahs were upon me; I had, however, kept hold of the bridle, and seizing a pistol from the holsters, I presented it at two of these ferocious savages, who were pressing me with their spears: they instantly went off; but another who came on me more boldly, just as I was endeavouring to mount, received the contents somewhere in his left shoulder, and again I was enabled to place my foot in the stirrup. Remounted, I again pushed my retreat; I had not, however, proceeded many hundred yards, when my horse again came down with such violence as to throw me against a tree at a considerable distance, and alarmed at the horses behind him, he quickly got up and escap ed, leaving me on foot and unarmed. The eunuch and his four followers were here butchered, after a very slight resistance, and stripped within a few yards of ine: their cries were dreadful, and even now the feelings of that moment are fresh in my memory; my hopes of life were too faint to deserve the name. I was almost instantly surrounded, and, incapable of making the least resistance, as I was unarmed, was as speedily stripped; and whilst attempting first to save my shirt, and then my trowsers, I was thrown on the ground. My pursuers made several thrusts at me with their spears, that badly wounded my hands in two places, and slightly my body, just under my ribs on the right side; indeed, I saw nothing before me but the same cruel death I had seen unmercifully inflicted on the few who had fallen into the power of those who now had possession of me; and they were alone prevented from murdering ine, in the first instance, I am persuaded, by the fear of injuring the value of my clothes, which appeared to them a rich booty; but it was otherwise ordained. My shirt was now absolutely torn off my back, and I was left perfectly naked. When my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil, the idea of escape came like lightning across my mind, and, without a moment's hesitation or reflection, Į crept under the belly of the horse nearest me, and started as fast as my legs could carry me for the thickest part of the wood; two of the Felatahs followed, and I ran on to the eastward, knowing that our stragglers would be in that direction, but still almost as much afraid of friends as foes. My pursuers gained on me, for the prickly underwood not only obstruct. ed my passage, but tore my flesh miserably; and the delight with which I saw a mountain stream gliding along at the bottom of a deep ravine cannot be ima gined. My strength had almost left me, and I seized the young branches issuing from the stump of a large tree which overhung the ravine, for the purpose of letting myself down into the water, as the sides were precipitous, when, under my hand, as the branch yielded to the weight of my body, a large liffa, the worst kind of serpent this country produces, rose from its coil, as if in the very act of striking. I was horror-struck, and deprived for a moment of all recollectionthe branch slipped from my hand, and I tumbled headlong into the water beneath; this shock, however, revived me, and with three strokes of my arms I reached the opposite bank, which, with difficulty, I crawled up, and then, for the first time, felt myself safe from my pursuers. Scarcely had I audibly congratulated ting myself down from behind Maramy, myself on my escape, when the forlorn I knelt down amongst them, and seemand wretched situation in which I was, ed to imbibe new life by the copious without even a rag to cover me, flashed draughts of the muddy beverage which I with all its force upon my imagination. swallowed. Of what followed I have no I was perfectly collected, though fully recollection: Maramy told me afterwards alive to all the danger to which my state that I staggered across the stream, which exposed me, and had already begun to was not above my hips, and fell down at plan my night's rest in the top of one of the foot of a tree on the other side. the tamarind-trees, in order to escape the About a quarter of an hour's halt took panthers, which, as I had seen, abounded place here for the benefit of stragglers, in these woods, when the idea of the and to tie poor Boo Khaloom's body on liffas, almost as numerous, and equally to a horse's back, at the end of which Mabe dreaded, excited a shudder of despair. ramy awoke me from a deep sleep, and I found my strength wonderfully increased; not so, however, our horse, for he had become stiff, and could scarcely move. As I learnt afterwards, à conversation had taken place about me while I slept, which rendered my obligations to Maramy still greater. He had reported to Barca Gana the state of his horse, and the impossibility of carrying me on, when the chief, irritated by his losses and defeat, as well as at my having refused his horse, by which means, he said, it had come by its death, replied, “Then leave him behind. By the head of the Prophet! believers enough have breathed their last to-day. What is there extraordinary in a Christian's death? Raas il Nible-Salaam Yassarat il le mated el Yeom ash min gicb l'ean e mut Nestéräni Wahad." My old antagonist, Malem Chadily, replied, "No; God has preserved him, let us not forsake him!" Maramy returned to the tree, and said "his heart told him what to do." He awoke me, assisted me to mount, and we moved on as before, but with tottering steps, and less speed. The effect produced on the horses that were wounded by poisoned arrows was extraordinary: immediately after drinking they dropped, and instantly died, the blood gushing from their nose, mouth, and ears. More than thirty horses were lost at this spot from the effects of the poison. I now saw horsemen through the trees to the east, and determined on reaching them, if possible, whether friends or enemies; and the feelings of gratitude and joy with which I recognised Barca Gana and Boo Khaloom, with about six Arabs, although they also were pressed closely by a party of the Felatahs, was beyond description. The guns and pistols of the Arab Sheikhs kept the Felatahs in check, and assisted in some measure the retreat of the footmen. Í hailed them with all my might, but the noise and confusion which prevailed from the cries of those who were falling under the Felatah spears, the cheers of the Arabs rallying, and their enemies pursuing, would have drowned all attempts to make myself heard, had hot Maramy, the Sheikh's negro, seen and known me at a distance. To this man I was indebted for my second escape; riding up to me, he assisted me to mount behind him, while the arrows whistled over our heads, and we then galloped off to the rear as fast as his wounded horse could carry us; after we had gone a mile or two, and the pursuit had something cooled, in consequence of all the baggage having been abandoned to the enemy, Boo Khaloom rode up to me, and desired one of the Arabs to cover me with a bornouse. This was a most welcome relief, for the burning sun had already begun to blister my neck and back, and gave me the greatest pain. Shortly after, the effects of the poisoned wound in his foot caused our excellent friend to breathe his last: Maramy exclaimed, "Look, look! Boo Khaloom is dead !" I turned my head, almost as great an exertion as I was capable of, and saw him drop from his horse into the arms of his favourite Arab-he never spoke after. They said he had only swooned; there was no water, however, to revive him, and about an hour after, when we came to Makkery, he was past the reach of restoratives. In this way we continued our retreat, and it was after midnight when we halted in the Sultan of Mandara's territory. Riding more than forty-five miles in such an unprovided state on the bare back of a lean horse, the powerful consequences may be imagined. I was in a deplorable state the whole night; and notwithstanding the irritation of the flesh-wounds was augmented by the woollen covering the Arab had thrown over me, teeming as it was with vermin, it was evening the next day before I could get a shirt, when one man, who had two, both of On coming to the stream, the horses, which he had worn eight or ten days at with blood gushing from their nostrils, least, gave me one, on a promise of get rushed into the shallow water, and, letting a new one at Kouka. Towards the evening I was exceedingly disordered and ill, and had a pleasing proof of the kindheartedness of a Bornoucse. Mai Meegamy, the dethroned sultan of a country to the south-west of Angornou, and now subject to the Sheikh, took me by the hand, as I had crawled out of my nest for a few minutes, and with many exclamations of sorrow, and a countenance full of commiseration, led me to his leather tent, and, sitting down quickly, disrobed himself of his trowsers, insisting I should put them on. Really no act of charity could exceed this! I was exceedingly affected at so unexpected a friend, for I had scarcely seen, or spoken three words to him; but not so much so as himself, when I refused to accept of them; he shed tears in abundance, and thinking, which was the fact, that I conceived he had offered the only ones he had, immediately called a slave, whom he stripped of those necessary appendages to a man's dress, according to our ideas, and putting them, on himself, insisted again on my taking those he had first offered me. I accepted this offer, and thanked him with a full heart; and Meegamy was my great friend from that moment until I quitted the Sheikh's dominions. We found that forty-five of the Arabs were killed, and nearly all wounded; their camels, and every thing they possessed, lost. Some of them had been unable to keep up on the retreat, but had huddled together in threes and fours during the night, and by shewing resistance, and pointing their guns, had driven the Felatahs off. Their wounds were, some of them, exceedingly severe, and several died during the day and night of the 29th, their bodies, as well as poor Boo Khaloom's, becoming instantly swollen and black, and sometimes, immediately after death, blood issuing from the nose and mouth, which the Bornou people declared to be in consequence of the arrows having been poisoned. Major Denham went out to the banks of the Lake Tchad, on a hunting-party against the elephants. He says, Maramy (one of the party) came galloping up, saying that he had found three very large elephants grazing to the south-east, close to the water. When we came within a few hundred yards of them, all the persons on foot, and my servant on a mule, were ordered to halt, while four of us who were mounted rode up to these stupendous animals.. The Sheikh's people began screeching violently; and although at first they appeared to treat our approach with great contempt, yet after a little they moved off, erecting their ears, which had until then hung flat on their shoulders, and giving a roar that shook the ground under us. One was an immense fellow, I should suppose 16 feet high, the other two were females, and moved away rather quickly, while the male kept in the rear, as if to guard their retreat. We wheeled swiftly round him, and Maramy casting a spear at him, which struck him just under the tail, and seemed to give him about as much pain as when we prick our finger with a pin, the huge beast threw up his proboscis in the air with a loud roar, and from it cast such a volume of sand, that, unprepared as I was for such an event, nearly blinded me. The elephant rarely, if ever, attacks; and it is only when irritated that he is dangerous; but he will sometimes rush upon a man and horse, after chocking them with dust, and destroy them in an instant. As we had cut him off from following his companions, he took the direction leading to where we had left the mule and the footmen. They quickly fled in all direetions; and my man Columbus (the mule not being inclined to encrease its pace) was so alarmed, that he did not get the better of it for the whole day. We press. ed the elephant now very close, riding before, behind, and on each side of him; and his look sometimes, as he turned his head, had the effect of checking instantly the speed of my horse; his pace never exceeded a clumsy, rolling walk, but was sufficient to keep our horses at a short gallop. I gave him a ball from each barrel of my gun at about fifty yards distance, and the second, which struck his ear, seemed to give him a moment's uneasiness only; but the first, which struck him on the body, failed in making the least impression. After giving him another spear, which flew off his tough hide without executing the least sensa tion, we left him to his fate. elephants were at no great distance; and News was soon brought us that eight coming towards us, it was thought pru dent to chace them away, and we all mounted for that purpose. They ap peared unwilling to go, and did not even turn their backs until we were quite close, and had thrown several spears at them; the flashes from the pan of the gun, how. ever, appeared to alarm them more than any thing; they retreated very majesti cally, throwing out, as before, a quantity of sand. A number of the birds here called tuda were perched on the backs of the elephants; these resemble a thrash in shape and note, and were represented to me as being extremely useful to the |