approaching to i t ; and though I felt ashamed of the degree of derangement which I suffered from it, yet it was several days before I could get over the loss. Let it be however remembered, that the poor animal had been my support and comfort—may I not say companion ?—through many a dreary day and night; had endured both hunger and thirst in my service with the utmost patience ; was so docile, though an Arab, that he would stand still for hours in the desert, while I slept between his legs,‘his body affording me the only shelter that could be obtained from the powerful influence of a noon-day sun : he was yet the fleetest of the fleet, and ever foremost in the race. My negro lad opened his head, and found a considerable quantity of matter formed on the brain. Three horses at the Arab tents had died with similar appearances; and there can be little doubt but that it was the effect of climate, the scarcity and badness of the water, and the severe exposure to the sun which we had all undergone. The thermometer was this day in the hut 103°; the hottest day we had yet felt in Bornou. I made it a rule to shew myself among the people and merchants at some part of each market-day, in order to make myself familiar to the strangers who attended from the neighbouring towns, and to-day I was eminently successful—the young and the old came near me without much apparent alarm; but stretching out my hand, a smile, or any accidental turn of the head, always started them from my side: there seemed to be, however, a reciprocal feeling of better acquaintance between us, and I was rather surprised at the complacency, nay, even satisfaction, with which I began to survey the negro beauties—frequently exclaiming to Boo-Khaloom’s brother, who was with me, “ What a very fine g irl! what pretty features fjg without even remarking that “ toujours noir” which had previously accompanied any contemplation of what might otherwise have struck me as a pleasing countenance. March 18.—Doctor Oudney thinking himself a little improved in health, he determined on seeing the sheikh the next day, on the subject of his departure for Soudan; for myself, I was but too happy for the present in having received no refusal from the sheikh to my proposition of accompanying the ghrazzie. I had previously determined, whether I should succeed in this object or not, that I would as yet ask no other favour; as I felt assured that only by slow degrees and a patient cultivation of the friendship of El Kanemy, our ultimate objects could be accomplished. I was not, therefore, greatly surprised to find that the sheikh gave this morning a decided refusal to Doctor Oudney’s request of accompanying the kafila to Soudan. A Shouaa chief, Dreess-aboo Raas-ben-aboo-Deleel, whose people had their tents close to the Shary, visited me to-day. I found him a very intelligent cunning fellow: he put a hundred questions, and, strange to say, asked for nothing as a gift. I, however, gave him a looking-glass, with which he was much pleased. He and his people had passed over from the service of the sultan of Waday to that of our sheikh, three years ago: he told me that the Sultan of Begharmi was preparing to rebuild his capital, Kernuck; and from this man I obtained a route and plan of the branches of the Shary, close to Begharmi. March 26.—I had another visit from my new ally this morning, who came alone, and assured me the sheikh was not willing that we should see any of the country to the south of the Shary; that my liberality to him yesterday had made him take an oath to be my friend; and that if I would lay my hand on that book, pointing to my own journal, that holy book, he said he would tell me what order the sheikh had given him with respect to his conduct on our arriving in his district,—which was, that we were not to cross the river. He, however, added, that if I chose to pass the Shary and come to his tents, which were at a place called Kerga, he would find means of sending me still farther south. “ If you leave the Shary,”
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