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ties, they succeeded in obtaining permission to visit it and the kingdom of Loggun, situated on its banks. They were surprised at the magnitude of the stream, which they found near its junction, about half a mile broad, and running at the rate of between two and three miles an hour. They traced it upwards about forty miles, and saw it flowing, in great beauty and ma'jesty, past the high walls of the capital of Loggun.' This country, now seen and heard of for the first time by Europeans, presented some features superior to any yet seen in Africa. Amid the furious warfare of the surrounding states, the Loggunese have steadily cultivated peace, which, by a skilful neutrality, they have been able to maintain. They are industrious, and work steadily at the loom, which is considered here as an occupation not degrading to freemen. The cloth, after being thrice steeped in a dye composed of their incomparable indigo, is laid on the trunk of a large tree, and beaten with wooden mallets, till it acquires the most brilliant gloss. They have a metallic currency, only indeed of iron; but none of their neighbours have any thing of the kind. They are described as a remarkably handsome and healthy race; the females, in particular, far more intelligent, and possessing a superior carriage and manner to those of any neighbouring nation. We are concerned to add, that, though much superior in these respects to the Bornou females, they fall below them in those virtues, which form the chief ornament of their sex. In particular, we find them charged with a total absence of common honesty. They examined every thing, even to the pockets of my trowsers; and more inquisitive ladies I never saw in any country. They begged for every thing, and nearly all attempted to steal something. When found out, they only laughed heartily, clapped their hands together, and exclaimed-Why, how sharp he is! Only think! Why, 'he caught us.' Yet, from these facts, it would perhaps be hasty to class all the ladies of Loggun as common thieves. The case was very unique-a white man, a being of a different species; his pockets filled with beads and coral, which rank, in this part of the world, with pearls and diamonds; in short, there seems to have been more of frolic, than of a downright determination to rob, in the whole transaction. In the course of their stay, some darker features were developed. There being two rival Sultans, father and son, Major Denham was solicited by both for poison to be employed against the other; and much surprise was expressed by the youth, when, in spite of the accompanying present of three beautiful black damsels, the petition was rejected. Loggun is very abundant in provisions of all kinds, the cattle being chiefly furnished by Shouaas, who inha

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bit in great numbers about the lake. Unhappily, it swarms with another species of life: Flies, bees, and mosquitos, with immense black toads, vie with each other in their peace-des'troying powers.' The inhabitants dare not stir out for two or three hours in the day, without the hazard of their bites producing serious illness; children have been known to be killed by them. The only resource is, to make a fire of wet straw, and sit involved in the thick smoke it produces-if the remedy is not thought worse than the evil.

The end of this expedition was distressing. Mr Toole, an amiable young officer who accompanied Major Denham, died; and he himself was obliged to hasten out of the country, as the Begharmis had entered, and were ravaging it in all directions. He rejoined the Sheikh at Kouka, and marched with him against the invaders. A battle was fought; the Begharmis attacked very furiously, with two hundred chiefs at their head, and had at one time nearly surrounded Barca Gana's wing, The Sheikh had not had time to summon his Kanemboo spearmen, and could only muster a body of Arabs and some negroes, whom he had trained to the use of the musquet; yet with these he finally gained the victory; and so total was the route, that even the Bornou cavalry at length came forward, and did considerable execution in the pursuit.

Major Denham accompanied Barca Gana in another expedition against the La Sala Shouaas, a sort of amphibious pastoral people, inhabiting a number of verdant islands on the southeastern shores of the lake. These islands are separated by channels so shallow, that the natives who understand them, can easily pass on horseback from one to the other; but as the bottom is full of mud and holes, the approach is very perilous to such as have not attained this knowledge. Barca Gana, having brought his troops to the shore of the lake, while the La Salas were drawn up on an island opposite, was disposed to pause. The view, however, of their fine herds and flocks, which were heard lowing and bleating on the opposite shores, roused the hunger and valour of the troops to an ungovernable pitch. There arose a general cry :-' What! shall we be so near them, and not eat them? This night these flocks and women shall be ours.' Animated by these noble sentiments, they insisted on being led into the water; and Barca Gana, though against his better judgment, was now foremost in the attack. They were soon, however, entangled in narrow passes, and began to flounder amid the holes and mud. As their ranks fell into confusion, the enemy poured on them clouds of missiles, and sent detachments of cavalry to attack them on all sides, and intercept their re

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The route was complete; the invulnerable Barca Gana was pierced in the back through his chain armour, and four cotton robes, and was with difficulty carried off by his followers. We do not at all regret this victory of the La Salas, except in so far as it arrested our traveller in his design of making the circuit of the Tchad, and exploring Africa to the eastward.

This excursion introduces to us a race of Shouaa Arabs, called Dugganahs, who present their race, and even human nature, under a more pleasing aspect than it was seen in any other part of this long peregrination. They are entirely pastoral, and they live in plenty and patriarchal simplicity, often subsisting for months together, solely on the milk of their herds. They live in tents of leather formed into circular camps, and do not emigrate unless in case of necessity. They are distinguished by fine serious expressive countenances, large features, and long bushy beards. Tahr, their chief, might, it is said, have sat for the picture of one of the patriarchs. Their domestic affections appeared very strong. Tahr, after closely examining Major Denham as to the motives of so long an absence, concludes, And have 'been three years from your home? Are not your eyes dimmed 'with straining to the north, where all your thoughts must ever 'be? Oh! you are men, men indeed. Why if my eyes do not 6 see the wife and children of my heart for ten days, when they should be closed in sleep they are flowing with tears!'

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During the whole night after the battle, the Dugganah women were heard singing dirges over their deceased husbands, in strains so musically piteous,' that it was impossible not to sympathise with them. The following address is certainly a curious combination of genuine kindness with interested coaxing.

A girl sits down by your tent with a bowl of milk, a dark blue cotton wrapper tied round her waist, and a mantila of the same thrown over her head, with which she hides her face, yet leaves all her bust naked; she says, "A happy day to you! Your friend has brought you milk you gave her something so handsome yesterday, she has not forgotten it. Oh! how her eyes ache to see all you have got in that wooden house," pointing to a trunk. "We have no fears now; we know you are good; and our eyes, which before could not look at you, now search after you always: they bid us beware of you, at first, for you were bad, very bad; but we know better now. How it pains us that you are so white!" p. 272.

Tahr was sounded as to the means of proceeding eastward; but he discouraged all thoughts of it, saying, Spears are now shining in the hands of the sons of Adam, and every man fears his neighbour.'

To complete the picture of this part of Africa, it will be ne

cessary to mention the Biddoomah, a formidable people inhabiting certain large islands in the eastern part of the lake, much more in the interior than the La Salas. With the exception of the occupants of the Mandara mountains, Major Denham thought them the rudest beings be had ever beheld. They are Pagans, but worship a presiding power, who, they say, left them without riches or cattle, instead of which he gave strength and cunning, by which they might be enabled to take these good things from those who had them. This destination they zealously fulfil, carrying on a constant piratical war against Bornou, Begharmi, Kanem, and every state within their reach. Around all the shores of this vast expanse of water, there is not a spot which is for a moment secure from their inroads. The immediate vicinity of the capital is not excepted. Besides cattle, they carry off many of the inhabitants, for whom if possible they extort a ransom, otherwise they give them wives, and treat them tolerably. Their naval force is said to amount to nearly a thousand large canoes. The most enterprising of the Bornou sovereigns never seem to view it as a possible thing, either to reduce or check them. They say, The waters are theirs, what

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We now close Major Denham's narrative, which includes all the information obtained relative to Bornou and the adjoining regions. The volume, however, contains also the details of another equally important expedition, which Mr Clapperton and Dr Oudney with difficulty obtained permission to make westward into Soudan; and, though the story is not so varied or eventful, the value of the information obtained is fully equal. Their way at first lay partly along the banks of the Yeou, which were here found well cultivated, and crowded with towns and villages. Beyond the Bornou frontier, the route led along the territories of the Bedee, a rude people, who, protected by natural fastnesses, hold themselves still independent, and retain their Pagan rites, on which ground it is considered the first duty of all the neighbouring nations to enslave or kill them. It cannot be wondered at that the Bedees should do in like manner towards them: and hence this tract becomes extremely dangerous, especially as the caravans have a habit of considering all they meet as Bedees. The party experienced one day an extreme and remarkable cold. The water was covered with thin flakes of ice, and the leathern water-skins were frozen as hard as a board. This cold, which has excited a good deal of speculation, we should suppose must have been occasioned by the north wind which blew over the swampy, woody, and perhaps mountainous country, occupied by these Bedees.

On entering the territory now included in the empire of the Felatahs, the travellers found themselves at once in the midst of superior cultivation, and a superior people. The fields were covered with large crops of wheat, two of which were annually produced by irrigation, and the grain stored in large granaries raised on poles as a security from the insects. As this, however, was a conquered country, the ravages of Felatah warfare were visible, and whole quarters were seen in the towns, from which all the inhabitants had been carried into slavery. Katagum, a district which can muster 20,000 foot and 4000 horse, had been recently wrested from Bornou, and formed now the most westerly Felatah province. The Yeou was now seen in a new direction, coming from the south, out of a country said to be mountainous, and inhabited by rude tribes.

After a journey of about five weeks, Mr Clapperton entered Kano, the great emporium of Houssa, and indeed of Central Africa. It considerably disappointed expectation; and scarcely at first appeared like a city at all. They had advanced a quarter of a mile within the walls before even detached groupes of houses began to show themselves. However, as these walls are fifteen miles in circumference, it is not surprising that only a fourth part of the circuit should be occupied with houses. The inhabited part is divided into two by a large morass, on a spot in the midst of which, dry only during a part of the year, the great market is held. This market is the most frequented, and the best regulated in Africa. We doubt, however, whether the appointment of a Sheikh to regulate the prices be either necessary or useful. Such, however, is the confidence established, that it seems common to carry away packets of goods without opening them; and if any fraud afterwards appears, the packet is sent back, from whatever distance; and the dylala, or broker, is compelled to procure restitution of the purchase money. In the list of goods is given coarse writing paper, of French manufacture, brought from Barbary; ⚫ scissors and knives, of native workmanship; crude antimony and tin, both the produce of the country; unwrought silk of a red colour, which they make into belts and slings, or " weave in stripes into the finest cotton tobes; armlets and • bracelets of brass; beads of glass, coral, and amber; finger rings of pewter, and a few silver trinkets, but none of gold; tobes, turkadees, and turban shawls; coarse woollen cloths of all colours; coarse calico; Moorish dresses; the cast-off gaudy garbs of the Mamelukes of Barbary; pieces of Egyptian linen, checked or striped with gold; sword blades from Malta, &c. &c. The market is crowded from sunrise to sunset every day, not excepting their Sabbath, which is kept on Friday.''

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