8 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXVIII. 
the warlike, and at present homeless, tribe of the 
Welad Simian, in the attempt to recover the eastern 
districts of Kanem from his eastern rival ; or at least 
to prevent the latter from obtaining a sure footing in 
them ; for this object he had made a sort of treaty with 
these Arabs, undertaking to supply them with horses, 
muskets, powder and shot. Thus, in order to visit 
those inhospitable regions, which had attracted a great 
deal of attention in Europe, we were obliged to em- 
brace this opportunity. Under these circumstances, 
on the 16th of August, I sent the vizier word that 
I was ready to join the Welad Sliman in Burgu ; 
whereupon he expressed a wish that Mr. Overweg 
might likewise accompany us ; the stay in Kukawa 
during the rainy season being very unhealthy. 
Mr. Overweg had returned on the 9th to Madu- 
wari from his interesting voyage on the Tsad, of 
which everyone will deeply regret that he himself 
was not able to give a full account.* Traversing 
that shallow basin in the English boat, which we had 
carried all the way through the unbounded sandy wastes 
and the rocky wildernesses of the desert, he had visited 
a great part of the islands, which are dispersed over 
its surface, and which, sometimes reduced to narrow 
sandy downs, at others expanding to wide grassy 
lowlands, sustain a population in their peculiar na- 
tional independence, the remnant of a great nation 
which was exterminated by the Kaniiri. It was a 
* I shall return to the subject of Mr. Overweg* s voyage. 
