TWO LEARNED MOHAMMEDANS.

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very brightly under its founder, was recently reduced by civil discord, and seems now destined to a premature old age.

Having here offered this general view of the empire of Bórnu, I refer for particulars to the appended chronological tables, which, I trust, although very imperfect, particularly in the beginning, will yet form a sufficient groundwork wherewith to begin more profitable inquiries into the history of those regions than have been hitherto made.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE CAPITAL OF BÓRNU.

HAVING endeavored to impart to the reader a greater interest in the country by relating its former history, as far as I was able to make it out, I shall now give an account of my stay in Kúkawa before setting out on my journey to Adamáwa.

Regarding Kúkawa only as the basis of my further proceedings, and as a necessary station already sufficiently known to the European public by the long stay of the former expedition, I endeavored to collect as much information as possible with regard to the surrounding countries. Two of my friends were distinguished by a good deal of Mohammedan learning, by the precision with which they recollected the countries they had wandered through, and by dignified manners; but they differed much in character, and were inclined to quarrel with each other as often as they happened to meet in my house.

These two men, to whom I am indebted for a great deal of interesting and precise information, were the Arab Ahmed bel Mejúb, of that division of the tribe of the Welád bu-Seb'a who generally live in the Wadi Sákiyet el Hamra, to the south of Morocco, and the Púllo Ibrahim, son of the Sheikh el Mukhtár, in Kaháide on the Senegal, and cousin of the late Mohammed el Amín, the energetic prince of Fúta-Tóro. Ahmed had traveled over almost the whole of Western Africa, from Arguín on the ocean as far as Bagírmi, and had spent several years in

Adamáwa, of which country he first gave me an exact description, especially with regard to the direction of the rivers. He was a shrewd and very intelligent man, yet he was one of those Arabs who go round all the courts of the princes of Negroland, to whatever creed or tribe they may belong, and endeavor to obtain from them all they can by begging and by the parade of learning. I esteemed him on account of his erudition, but not in other respects.

Quite a different person was the Púllo Ibrahím—a very proud young man, fully aware of the ascendency, and strongly marked with the distinguishing character of the nation to which he belonged. He had performed the pilgrimage to Mekka, crossing the whole breadth of Africa from west to east, from warm religious feeling mixed up with a little ambition, as he knew that such an exploit would raise him highly in the esteem of his countrymen, and secure to him a high position in life. He had been two years a hostage in Ndér (St. Louis), and knew something about the Europeans. It had struck him that the French were not so eager in distributing Bibles as the English, while he had truly remarked that the former were very sensible of the charms of the softer sex, and very frequently married the pretty daughters of the Dembaséga. He obtained from me, first the Zabúr, or the Psalms of David, which even the Arabs esteem very highly, and would esteem much more if they were translated into a better sort of Arabic, and afterward the whole Bible, which he wished to take with him on his long landjourney.

The Arabs and the Fúlbe, as is well known, are in almost continual warfare all along the line from the Senegal as far as Timbúktu; and it was most interesting for me to see him and Ahmed in violent altercation about the advantages of their respective nations, while I was thereby afforded an excellent means of appreciating their reports with regard to the state of the tribes and countries along the Senegal. The way in which they began to communicate to me their information was in itself expressive of their respective characters, Ahmed protesting that, before he dared to communicate with me, he was compelled

DANGEROUS MEDICAL PRACTICE.

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to ask the permission of the vizier, while Ibrahím laughed at him, declaring that he felt himself fully authorized to give me any information about Negroland. Ibrahim became an intimate friend of mine, and took a lively interest in me, particularly commiserating my lonely situation in a foreign country, far from home, without the consolations of female companionship. As an example of the risks which European travelers may incur by giving medicines to natives to administer to themselves at home, I will relate the following incident. Ibrahím told me one day that he wanted some cooling medicine, and I gave him two strong doses of Epsom salts, to use occasionally. He then complained the following day that he was suffering from worms; and when I told him that the Epsom salts would not have the effect of curing this complaint, but that worm-powder would, he begged me to give him some of the latter; and I gave him three doses, to use on three successive days. However, my poor friend, though an intelligent man, thought that it might not be amiss to take all this medicine at once, viz., four ounces of Epsom salts and six drachms of worm-powder; and the reader may imagine the effect which this dose produced upon a rather slender man. Unfortunately, I had just taken a ride out of the town; and he remained for full two days in a most desperate state, while his friends, who had sent in vain to my house to obtain my assistance, were lamenting to all the people that the Christian had killed their companion, the pious pilgrim.

Besides these two men, there were many interesting strangers at that time in Kúkawa, from whom I learned more or less. Some of them I shall here mention, as their character and story will afford the reader a glance at one side of life in Negroland. A man who had performed travels of an immense extent, from Khórasán in the east as far as Sansándi in the west, and from Tripoli and Morocco in the north as far as Asiantí and Jenakhéra and Fertít toward the south, would have been of great service if he had preserved an exact recollection of all the routes which he had followed in his devious wanderings; but, as it was, I could only gather from him some general information, the most interesting part of which had reference to Mósi, or rather

Móre, a large and populous country, known by name already from Sultan Béllo's curious communications to Captain Clapperton, but always misplaced in the maps, and its capital Wóghodoghó.

This enterprising man, who generally traveled as a dervish, had gone from Sofára on the Máyo balléo or Niger, between Hamdallahi and Ségo, across a most unsettled country, to Wóghodoghó; but he was unable to give me any precise details with regard to it, and I never met another person who had traveled this dangerous route. He had also traveled all along the pagan states to the south of Bagírmi and Wadáy, and advised me strongly, if it were my plan to penetrate to the upper Nile (as, indeed, I then intended, notwithstanding my total want of means), to adopt the character of a dervish, which he deemed essential for my success. But while such a character might, indeed, insure general success, it would preclude the possibility of making any accurate observations, and would render necessary the most painful, if not insupportable privations. And, on the whole, this poor fellow was less fortunate than I; for in the year 1854 he was slain on that very route from Yóla to Kúkawa which I myself had twice passed successfully. He was a native of Baghdád, and called himself Sherif Ahmed el Baghdádi.

There was another singular personage, a native of Sennár, who had been a clerk in the Turkish army, but, as malicious tongues gave out, had been too fond of the cash intrusted to his care, and absconded. He afterward resided some years in Wadáy, where he had drilled a handful of the sultan's slaves, had come to this kingdom to try his fortune, and was now about to be sent to Wadáy by the Sheikh of Bórnu, as a spy, to see if the prince of that country had still any design of recommencing hostilities. From all persons of this description a traveler may learn a great deal; and, intriguing fellows as they generally are, and going from court to court spreading reports every where, prudence requires that he should keep on tolerably good terms with them.

Most interesting and instructive was a host of pilgrims from

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different parts of Másena or Mélle, partly Fúlbe, partly Sónghay, who, having heard of the white man, and of his auxiety to collect information respecting all parts of the continent, came repeatedly to me to contribute each his share. I used to regale them with coffee, while they gave me ample opportunities of comparing and testing their statements. The most interesting

and best informed among them were Bu-Bakr, a native of Hamdalláhi, the capital of the sheikh (sekho) Ahmedu ben Ahmedu, who, having made a pilgrimage to Mekka, had long resided in Yeman, and was now returning homeward with a good deal of knowledge; and another cheerful and simple-hearted old man from Sá, on the Isa or Niger, between Hamdalláhi and Timbúktu. Indeed, as the report of Ahmed bel Mejúb about Adamáwa had confirmed me in my determination to sacrifice every thing in order to visit that country as soon as possible, so the manifold information of these people with respect to the countries on the middle course of the so-called Niger excited in me a most ardent desire to execute the design, previously but vaguely entertained, of accomplishing also a journey westward to Timbúktu.

Among my Bórnu friends at this time, the most instructive were Shitíma Makarémma and A'msakay. The former, who had been a courtier under the old dynasty, and who had saved his life by his intrigues, was a very intelligent old man, but an acknowledged rascal, to whom unnatural vices, which seem in general entirely unknown in these regions, were imputed. Nevertheless, he was the only man who was master of all the history of the old dynasty; and he spoke the Kanúri language with such exquisite beauty as I have never heard from any body else. He had two very handsome daughters, whom he succeeded in marrying, one to the vizier and one to his adversary, 'Abd e' Rahmán; but in December, 1853, he was executed, together with the vizier, but on totally different grounds, as having long forfeited his life. Quite a different sort of man was A'msakay, a simple Kánemma chief, who has been represented in one of my sketches. He had formerly distinguished himself by his expeditions against the Búdduma, till those enterprising