DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON. 129 



remonstrate with the bashaw on this apparent violation of 

 his promise. After a tedious journey of twenty days, with 

 only three attendants, he arrived, and waited on the barba- 

 rian, who received him with his usual courtesy ; but, not 

 giving that full satisfaction which was expected, the Major 

 lost no time in setting sail for England, to lodge a complaint 

 with his own court. This step was painfully felt by the 

 bashaw, who sent vessel after vessel, one of which at last 

 overtook Major Denham while performing quarantine at 

 Marseilles, and announced that arrangements were actually 

 made with Boo Khalloom for escorting him to the capital 

 of Bomou. Accordingly, on the Major's return to Tri- 

 poli, he found the Arab chief already on the borders of the 

 Desert. 



This trader, who was now to be a guide to the English 

 into the immense regions of the south, was a personage of 

 a very different character from what we in this country can 

 form any idea of. The African caravan-merchant has no- 

 thing in common with that respectable class of men who, 

 seated in counting-houses at London or Amsterdam, direct 

 the movement of their ships over the ocean, and count the 

 silent accumulation of their profits. He, on the contrary, 

 must accompany his merchandise from one extremity to the 

 other of a great continent, and across its immense deserts, 

 the scene of much suffering, and frequently of death itself. 

 Nor is it from a parched wilderness and a burning climate 

 that he has most to apprehend. His path is every where 

 beset by bands whose trade is plunder, and who find amuse- 

 ment in assassination. He must therefore have his pro- 

 perty guarded by armed men, ready to defend with their 

 blood what his money has purchased. These followers, 

 oeing in continual service, and exposed to frequent fight- 

 ing, become practised soldiers, and are more than a match 

 for the roving barbarians who infest the Sahara. Even 

 the greatest princes view these merchant-chiefs with fear 

 and jealousy ; and though they contrive to draw consider- 

 able advantage from their trade, scarcely consider the king- 

 dom as their own while their troops are within its boun- 

 daries. The merchants, unhappily, do not confine them- 

 selves to self-defence ; but, seeing robbery practised on 

 every side against themselves, begin to retaliate, and soon 

 find it cheaper, and, according to African ideas, not less 



