of the bamboo, through, the-bars of which he looks on his visitors, who are not allowed,to approach within seventy or eighty ,yards of his person. -1 tail odl djttroirfi shem Their dressy,are extremely rich, and-consist of .striped; silks and linens of various colours, from Cairo and Soudan. When they take the field, their appearance is truly grotesque: the sultan is preceded by six men, bearing frum-frums (trumpets*) of cane* ten feet long s an instrument peculiar to royalty, • but which produces a music neither agreeable nor inspiring. Their own heads, and those of their horses, are hung round with charms, sewed up in leather cases, red, green, and white ; and altogether, with their wadded doublets and large heads, they would be more apropos in a pantomime than in a field of battle. At the present moment there is but one power in ;eentral Africa to be at all compared to the sheikh of Bornou in importance,—that of Bello, the Felatah chieftain ; and from the sensation created throughout the neighbourhood of Kano and Kashna, oh his late defeat of the Begharmi force* I imagine he would find but little difficulty in extending his empire in that direction : he has turned all his victories to the advantage ofthoseforwhomhe conquered, by attending to their improvement in moral and religious duties. His subjects are the most strict Mussulmans in all the black country, and their respect for us gradually increased on ascertaining that we really had a religion of our own, and obeyed its ordinances by praying, if not by fasting,-—which they at first doubted. Our determination to travel fearlessly and boldly in our own characters, as Englishmen and Christians, mistrusting no one, so far from proving an impediment to our progress, as we were assured from all quarters it would do, excited a degree of confidence to which we may, in a great measure, attribute the success which has attended our steps. Wherever El Kanemy Jias power, Europeans, and particularly Englishmen, will be hospitably and kindly received. Bornou was always infested by robbers, who way-laid and plundered travellers within sight of the walls of the capital: such an event now never occurs, and the roads through the sheikh’s government are probably as safe as any even in happy England itself. Although harassed by the constant wars in which he has been engaged, yet has not the sheikh been unmindful of the benefits which an extended commerce would confer upon his people, nor of the importance of improving their moral condition, by exciting a desire to acquire, by industry and trade, more permanent and certain advantages than are to be obtained by a system of plunder and destructive warfare. Arab or Moorish merchants, the only-ones who have hitherto ventured amongst them, are encouraged and treated with great liberality. Several of them are known to have returned, after a residence of less than nine years, with fortunes of fifteen and twenty thousand dollars; and which might, perhaps, by a more intelligent trader, have been doubled, as the commodities with which they barter are mostly European produce, purchased at Tripoli, at prices full two hundred and fifty per cent, above their prime cost. The usual calculation of a Moorish merchant is, that a camel load of merchandize, bought at Mourzuk for 150 dollars, will make a return, in trading with Bornou, of 500 dollars, after paying all expenses. Persons in Fezzan will send three camel loads in charge of one man, and, after paying all the expenses out of the profits, give him a third of the remainder for his labour. From the circumstance, however, of there being no direct trade from this country with Tripoli, or, I believe, with any of the ports of Barbary, English goods (the demand for which is daily increasing amongst a population of not less than five millions), within six hundred miles of the coast, are sold at enormous prices, although frequently of the very worst description #. * The articles most in request amongst the Negro nations a r e : — Writing paper, on which the profit is enormous. U U
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