Chap. LVIII. AH'MED BA'BA"S WORK. 
201 
which, in former times, I here found set forth in very- 
clear and distinct outlines, and I only lamented that 
I had not time enough to copy the whole. 
As for the town of Gando itself, there was not 
much to be seen ; and the situation of the place, 
hemmed in as it is in a narrow valley, did not ad- 
mit of long excursions ; moreover, the insecurity of 
the neighbourhood was so great that it was not pos- 
sible, at least in a northerly direction, to proceed 
many yards from the wall. Several times during 
my stay the alarm was given that the enemy was 
approaching ; and the whole political state of the 
place was plunged into the most terrible disorder, 
the enemy being established in several strong places 
at scarcely half a day's journey distance, Argiingo 
being the residence of Daud the rebellious chief 
of the independent Kabawa. A numerous foray 
("yaki," or, as the Fulbe say, "konno") left early in 
the morning of the 29th of May, but returned the 
same evening amid the noisy manifestations of the 
inhabitants. They had however only given an ad- 
ditional proof of their cowardly disposition, inas- 
much as they had not even dared to attack the 
enemy, who had just succeeded in ransacking the 
town of Yara, and were carrying all the unfortu- 
nate inhabitants into slavery. 
The interior of the place was not quite without 
its charms, the whole of the town being intersected, 
from north to south, by the broad and shallow bed 
of a torrent, which exhibited fine pasture-grounds of 
