turbans, yellow, red, and white, and tied under the chin; the horses heads were also defended by plates of the same metal: their saddles were small and light; their stirrups of brass, in which four toes of the foot only are placed; a sandal of leather covers the foot, ornamented with the skin of a crocodile, and to this the spur is fixed. They really,' says Major Denham, in one of his letters, rode beautifully, and charged rapidly to within a few feet of our horses' heads without checking their speed, when they brought up, shaking the reversed spear at Boo Khaloom, with a cry of Barca, Barca! welcome, welcome!' After this, he says, they closed their flanks and completely surrounded the travellers and their little party of Arabs; they had nearly put an end to us (he adds) by the dust alone which they raised; and their spears rattled over our heads in rather discordant notes of welcome-all this, however, was managed with a skill and address that was any thing but savage.'

Surrounded by this tumultuous escort they approached the town; and after about an hour's delay, were ordered to move on through several dark avenues of the sacred palace of the Sheik of Spears, lined with his guards, in plain blue Soudan shirts, and armed each with a spear and dagger. In the same garb the Sheik received them, seated in an inner room, on a small carpet, but having on his head a Cashmere turban. Two slaves, with loaded pistols, were lying at his feet. Having read the letter of the Bashaw of Tripoli, he merely said they were welcome, and ordered a negro to shew them to the huts that had been prepared for them. They were pleased with the cast of his countenance, and his affable and engaging manner: his age appeared to be about forty-five.

The rise of the Sheik to his present power has been extremely rapid, no uncommon circumstance among the African nations. Shumeen el Kalmi, one of the most complete soldiers of fortune, (bating one, perhaps,) that to our knowledge the last century has produced, possessing an enterprising genius, a sound and mature judgment, engaging features, and the most conciliating demeanour, has raised himself, in the space of little more than twenty years, from the humble station of a Fighi, or schoolmaster and writer of charms, in Fezzan, to dictate laws to upwards of two millions of subjects; and can, it is asserted with every appearance of truth, at this moment bring fifty thousand armed men into the field, twothirds of them mounted, and possessing a degree of discipline, considering his means, creditable to him in the extreme. From his learning, as well as his upright and religious life, expounding the Koran at the age of twenty-one years, he long ago obtained the title of Sheik of the Koran;' and notwithstanding his prosperous career since that period, so little of vanity is there mixed with his ambition,

LL4

ambition, that he has never been induced to renounce that title, by taking upon himself the one of Sultan.

After delivering Bornou from the incursions of the Fellaté,* from whom the present sultans of Soudan are sprung, and routing them with great slaughter, Shumeen had the magnanimity to resist the offer of the sultanship of Bornou, to which he was unanimously called; and adopted in preference the policy of making one of the still remaining branches of the native Sultans assume the appearance of power, while he, first doing homage himself, induced his whole army to follow the example. He then established the Sultan at Birnie, and himself at Engornou; but a few years afterwards built Kouka, his present residence. Of all the spoils taken in war he is careful to let the Sultan have his share. A little before our travellers arrived, he had captured, on an expedition to the east, above 3000 slaves, 4000 oxen, and 5000 camels, which he divided with the African Peishwah.

The Sultan's court at Birnie is described as one of faus, silks, and feathers, while the Sheik's is one of spears. Dr. Oudney paid a visit to this mock sovereign, to whom he was conducted by a troop of horsemen of most grotesque appearance, dressed in high round-topped turbans and short thick stuff cotton jackets, looking so thick and bunchy,' says the Doctor, that they sat on their horses as steady and unmoveable as if they had been so many well stuffed sacks of corn.' The great horse of state, with a huge man upon him, headed the procession; (we are glad to find such respectable authority for the Lord-Mayor's man in armour;) but so swelled out was the horse with the covering of a thick stuffed carpet, and so loaded was the man with clothing and charms, that both of them appeared almost incapable of moving. The Sultan was perched in a kind of cage in the wall, from which he did not descend, but sent his ambassador to bid the strangers welcome; and in the meantime the drums beat, and the long wooden trumpet sounded, whilst a sort of herald under a tree, with a mace in his hand, was vociferating, with all his might, the genealogy, the tities, and the praises of the Sultan.

Our travellers, having satisfied their curiosity at Kouka and the neighbouring towns, were desirous of prosecuting their discoveries. beyond the dominions of Bornou; Dr. Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton wishing to proceed to Soudan, and Major Deubair to the eastwari; but the Sheik gave them to understand that his cousin, the Bashaw of Tripoli, having strictly charged him with the care and protection of their persons, he considered himself

* El Fellaté is mentioned by Burckhardt as a tribe of Bedouins; and totally distinct from the Fellata, of whom we shall have presently to speak.

The Sultan of Bornou,' says Burckhardt, never shews himself but on feast-days.' responsible

responsible for their safety, and could not, therefore, allow them to depart on any service of danger. Nothing, indeed, could exceed his kindness to the strangers: and Major Denham entertained a sanguine hope that he might be allowed to accompany him on a projected expedition against Bhagermi, after the rainy season. He is never tired,' says the Major, of asking questions about sieges; and gunpowder is his delight. Thirty or forty English muskets, and two camel-loads of good powder would be to him a more acceptable present than any other that could be given him. My rockets are here invaluable; he has seen two, which have delighted and frightened the whole nation. I have given him a dozen, all that were left; and they are preserved with the utmost care;' and he adds, by means of these alone, I shall get to Bhagermi, as they are to accompany an expedition to that country, which is in agitation, and they cannot as yet set them off; one of them bursting over the town, he assures me, will cause its immediate surrender by its inhabitants.'

In the meantime, however, an occasion offered for this enterprizing officer to proceed beyond the boundaries of Bornou. Boo Khaloom, who had attended our travellers from Tripoli, thought it no bad opportunity, before his return, to avail himself of the advanced situation in the interior, to proceed on a Grazzie, a sort of marauding expedition which the native tribes of Africa are in the practice of making upon each other. At the earnest solicitation of Major Denham to accompany this expedition, the Sheik reluctantly consented, but insisted on sending an old Negro servant to take care of him. The number composing the Grazzie consisted of about 3000 men, partly Arabs of Boo Khaloom, partly natives of Bornou, under the command of Barca Gana, his chief Mameluke and general, and some of the troops of the Sheik. They travelled south; and after a march of six days reached Mora, the capital and residence of the Sultan of Mandara,† situated in a valley at the foot of a noble chain of hills, at the distance of 170 miles from Kouka. These hills or mountains (said to extend to the distance of 30 or 40 days to the south-west) are composed of granite, and their sides clothed with trees. In the valleys are many towns inhabited by Musselmans; but those who dwell in the mountains are Kindies, or savages, who receive protection from the Sultan of Mandara, in consideration of furnishing him with a

It may here be remarked that the very same term Grazzie, universal in central Africa, is that which is given by the Bheels and others of central India for a similar kind of plundering expedition. The word Grassiah,' says Sir John Malcolm,' is derived from gruss, a Sanscrit word, which signifies a mouthful; and has been metaphorically applied to designate the small share of the produce of a country which these plunderers claim.'

+ Mandara is mentioned by Burckhardt as a district tributary to Bornou.

certain

certain number of slaves, Boo Khaloom had expected that a portion of these would have been given to him at Mara; but this was positively refused; he therefore proceeded still southerly against the Fellata, a very powerful nation, on the offer of the Sultan to add to his forces. The Major's account of this enterprize, written to a friend of his at Malta, is so curious and full of interest that we shall give it in his own words.

'On the 25th April, the Sheik's troops, the Arabs, and about 2000 horse of the sultan of Mandara, with himself, set forth for Musfeia, the capital of the Fellatas. Our road lay through extensive valleys, thickly planted with trees, and bounded by those beautiful hills, the sides of which presented here and there clusters of huts, and the height of which sometimes exceeded 1500 feet. On the 28th, soon after daylight, we approached the Fellatas' towns, having marched nearly the whole night. Two of them were quickly burnt, and passing on we came upon a third, situated between two low hills, with a dry wadey in front. Here the Fellatas had mustered their forces, had carried a strong fence of pointed stakes from one hill to the other, were themselves on a rising ground behind, and covered by the huts. The position was extremely strong and well chosen. The Arabs moved on with great gallantry, Boo Khaloom at their head; and, notwithstanding the repeated showers of arrows (some poisoned and some not), that poured on them from behind the palisades, they carried them in less than half an hour and, pushing on, drove the Fellatas up the sides of the hills. A few of the Bournou spearmen now supported the Arabs, and pierced through and through about fifty unfortunates whom the fire of the Arabs had obliged the Fellatas to leave wounded near the stakes. Had even a small part of either the Mandara troops or those of the Sheik now moved up boldly, they must have carried the town, for the Fellatas did not exceed 1000 or 1200 men at the utmost; but they still kept on the other side of the wadey, out of reach of the arrows. The Arabs advanced to the very houses, and got possession of some of them, Barca Gana, myself, and about forty of his own people alone accompanying them. Seeing the backwardness of their enemies, they now made an attack in their turn; the arrows were so thick that there was no standing against them, and the Arabs quickly fell back. Barca Gana had two horses hit under him, that died almost immediately, the arrows being poisoned; and here poor Boo Khaloom received his death wound by an arrow of the same description, which struck him in the foot. My horse was badly wounded in the shoulder and in his near hind leg; an arrow had struck me in the face as it passed, merely bringing the blood, and two others stuck in my bornouse;

bornouse; and most of the Arabs had two and some three wounds, and one dropped near me with five sticking in his head alone.

No sooner did the Mandara and Bornou troops see the retreat of the Arabs than they one and all took to flight in the most dastardly and confused manner possible; and I now, for the first time, as I saw Barca Gana on a fresh horse, lamented my own folly in thus exposing myself, being badly provided against accidents. If either of my horse's wounds were from poisoned arrows, I felt that nothing could save me; however there was not much time for reflexion. We instantly became a confused flying mass, and plunged, in the greatest disorder, into that wood which we had but a few hours before moved through with order and very different feelings.

'I had got a little to the west of Barca Gana's track, and was following one of the sultan of Mandara's eunuchs mounted on a white horse, when the cries behind of the Fellata horse pursuing made both him and me quicken our pace. The spur however had the effect of incapacitating my animal altogether. The arrow I found afterwards had reached the shoulder bone, and in passing over some rough ground he stumbled and fell. Almost as soon as I was on my legs, the Fellatas were on me. I had however kept hold of the bridle, and seizing a pistol from the holster presented it at two, who were pressing me with their spears. They instantly went off; but another, who came on me more boldly just as I was trying to remount, received the contents somewhere in his left shoulder, and again I was enabled to raise my foot to the stirrup. Once more mounted, I again pushed my retreat. I had not however proceeded many hundred yards, when my horse again came down with more violence than before, threw me to a considerable distance against a tree, and, alarmed at the horses behind him, he quickly started up, escaped, and left me on foot and unarmed. My life was now preserved by one of those wonderful interpositions of Divine Providence, which ought to fill the mind of man with gratitude and devotion.

"I was almost instantly surrounded, and, incapable of making the least resistance, as speedily stripped. In an attempt first to save my shirt and then my trowsers, one villain made two thrusts at me with a spear that badly wounded my hands in two places, and slightly my body, just under my ribs on the right side. Indeed I saw nothing before me but the death I had seen inflicted on those who had fallen into the hands of the enemies of the people, in whose power I now was-but it was otherwise ordained.

Scarcely were my clothes torn off me, when my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil. Without a moment's reflexion, I crept under the belly of the horse nearest to me, and started, as fast,

as