I preceded tffe kafila for the following reason: I had, ever since my return from Tangalia, determined to attempt the east side of the Tchad, by Lari, previous to returning home. Many had been the objections, many the reports of danger from the Waday people and Amanook, who had now boldly forsaken the lake, and was encamped at no great distance from Barca Gana, to whom he twice paid a night visit, and had been beaten back. I, however, told the sheikh I could take no present, or promise to the execution of any commission, unless this duty was accomplished, or at least until I had done my utmost, and that I would take care not to go into danger. Belial, my old companion, was once more appointed to attend me, and we moved with two camels, lightly laden; for the more train, always the more trouble and the more expense. All my friends then in Kouka mounted to escort me from the town: the women assembled outside the gate, and screamed an adieu; and I am persuaded our regrets were mutual. About midnight, while we were all asleep at Dowergoo, a despatch came to say, that the skin of a camelopard had been brought to Kouka, which the sheikh had procured for me. Columbus, therefore, returned to prepare it for preservation, while we moved on to N’Gortooah: he came up again in the evening, and reported, that though small, it was a fine specimen. On Wednesday we slept at Kaleeluwha, and on the 23d came once more on the Yeou, now a considerable stream, full of water, and running towards the Tchad, at the rate of three miles an hour*. My feelings on seeing this river for a second time were very different to what they had been * A n intelligent Moor o f Mesurata again told me, this water was the same as the Nile ; and when I asked him how that could be, when he knew that we had traced it into the Tchad, which was allowed to have no outlet, he replied, u Y es, but i t is nevertheless Nile water-sweet.'''' I had before been asked i f the Nile was not in England; and subsequently., when my knowledge o f Arabic was somewhat improved, I became satisfied that these questions had no reference whatever to the Nile o f Egypt, but merely meant running water, sweet water, from its rarity highly esteemed by all desert travellers. when I first looked oh its waters. We then had an escort of two hundred men, and yet could not feel ourselves in perfect safety one hundred yards from our tents. Mow I had only one attendant—the people about me were all natives, and I wandered about the banks of the river with perfect freedom, and slept with my tent door open, in as great security as I could have done in any part of England, had I been obliged so to travel. Other feelings also obtruded themselves; I was about to return home, to see once more dear friends, and a dear country, after an absence of nearly three years, on a duty full of perils and difficulties: two out of four of my companions had fallen victims to climate and disease, while those who remained were suffering, in no small degree, sickness and debility from the same causes: I was in health, and notwithstanding the many very trying situations, in which we had all been placed, some of them of great vexation and distress, yet had we been eminently successful. In the afternoon Belial accompanied me down the river, about nine miles, where, increasing in width to about one hundred yards, it flows into the Tchad, with a strong and deep current of water. On its banks are five considerable villages of Kanemboos, called Ittaquoi, Belagana, Afaden, Yeougana, and Boso. At Belagana, the sheikh has a large inclosure of huts, within a wall, where he generally has from five hundred to eight hundred slaves of both sexes, under the charge of four eunuchs, who are employed in preparing cotton, and spinning the linen (gubbofc), of which the tobes are made. The manner of fishing in the Yeou, a very considerable source of commerce to the inhabitants of its banks, must not be omitted: dried fish from the Yeou is carried to all the towns to the southwest, quite as far as the hills; and at this season they are usually taken in great numbers. The Bornouese make very good nets of a twine spun from a perennial plant called kalimboa: the implements for fishing are ingenious, though simple: two large gourds are o o 2
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