EXPLORATION OF THE BAMINGI 185 



dashed to pieces on rocks as big as elephants, that lay hid 

 below the rapids of the river. 



After an hour's poling we reached a pretty sand-bank 

 at the point where the river (no longer known as the Shari) 

 divides into the channels of the Bamingi and Gribingi. 

 Of these, the former is the bigger, as its name " plenty 

 water " implies, being fifty yards wide, while the latter is not 

 more than thirty yards. 



The Bamingi was still unknown to the explorer, unless we 

 consider the record of a French trader, named Behagle, who 

 attempted to ascend it, but had his boat smashed and nearly 

 all his men drowned at the rapids about four miles from the 

 mouth, and was compelled to return. Ill fate pursued him 

 on the Shari, which he descended as far as Kusseri, where he 

 was received with friendliness by Othman Cheiko, one of 

 Ribeh's lieutenants. In spite of the latter's warning, he 

 went to Dikwa to see Rabeh, who demanded from him the 

 rifles of his men, but Behagle refused and was thrown into 

 prison. Not long afterwards, Rabeh, in a fit of spite at the 

 hard knocks he received from the French at Kouno, and to 

 show he was still a king, sent orders to Dikwa and had 

 Behagle hanged. 



Early the next morning, in fine weather, we started on our 

 voyage up the new river. For over three miles the course was 

 smooth and against a current of not more than two miles an 

 hour, but soon we heard ahead of us the ominous sound of 

 water pouring over rocks, and a little while afterwards, on 

 turning a bend, a cascade appeared across the whole width 

 of the river. This rapid, which is fifty yards in length, is 

 formed by a reef of broken rocks over which the water rushes 



