DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON. 155 



" His body lies in the land of the heathen ! The poi 

 Boned arrow of the unbeliever prevails ! 



" Oh ! trust not to the gun and the sword ! The spear 

 of the heathen conquers ! Boo Khalloom, the good and 

 the brave, has fallen I Who shall now be safe]" 



The sheik of Bornou was considerably mortified by the 

 result of this expedition, and the miserable figure made by 

 his troops, though he sought to throw the chief blame on 

 the Mandara part of the armament. He now invited the 

 Major to accompany an expedition against the Mungas, a 

 rebel tribe on his outer border, on which occasion he was 

 to employ his native band of Kanemboo spearmen, who, he 

 trusted, would redeem the military reputation of the mo- 

 narchy. Major Denham was always ready to go wherever 

 he had a chance of seeing the manners and scenery of Af- 

 rica. The sheik took the field, attended by his armour- 

 bearer, his drummer fantastically dressed in a straw hat 

 with ostrich feathers, and followed by three wives, whose 

 heads and persons were wrapped up in brown silk robes, 

 and each led by a eunuch. He was preceded by five green 

 and red flags, on each of which were extracts from the 

 Koran, written in letters of gold. Etiquette even required 

 that the sultan should follow with his unwieldy pomp, 

 naving a harem, and attendance much more numerous ; 

 while frumfrums, or wooden trumpets, were continually 

 sounded before him. This monarch is too dignified to fight 

 in person ; but his guards, the swollen and overloaded 

 figures formerly described, enveloped in multiplied folds, 

 and groaning beneath the weight of ponderous amulets, 

 produced themselves as warriors, though manifestly unfit to 

 face any real danger. 



The route lay along the banks of the river Yeou, called 

 also Gambarou, through a country naturally fertile and 

 delightful, but presenting a dismal picture of the deso- 

 lation occasioned by African warfare. The expedition 

 passed through upwards of thirty towns, completely de- 

 stroyed by the Fellatas in their last inroad, and of which 

 all the inhabitants were either killed or carried into slavery. 

 These fine plains were now overgrown with forests and 

 thickets, in which grew tamarind and other trees, producing 

 delicate fruits ; while large bands of monkeys, called by 

 Arabs " enchanted men," filled the woods with their cries. 



