98 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLI. 
and experienced friends. Falling in with them, we went 
together to a place a little further down this wide 
flat valley, where there were a small harnlet and 
stubble-fields. Here at length I hoped to get a little 
rest, and lay down in the scanty shade of a talha ; 
but unfortunately there was no well here, and after a 
very short halt and a consultation, the order was 
given to proceed. I was scarcely able to mount my 
horse again and to follow the troop. The Arabs 
called this valley, which was very flat and produced 
no date-trees, Wadi el Ghazal, but what its real name 
is I did not learn ; it has of course nothing to do with 
the celebrated and larger valley of this name. The 
well was not far off, in another fine valley, or 
rather hollow, deeper than Wadi el Ghazal but 
much flatter than either Siggesi or Gesgi, and called 
Msallat or Amsallat. It was adorned with a wild 
profusion of mimosa, and in its deepest part provided 
with " khattatir " or draw-wells, irrigating a fine 
plantation of cotton, the first we had yet seen in 
Kanem. 
The Arabs had not made a very considerable booty, 
the Woghda having received intelligence of their ap- 
proach and saved what they could. The whole result of 
the expedition was fifteen camels, a little more than 
three hundred head of cattle, and about fifteen hundred 
sheep and goats. The Arabs were for some time in 
great anxiety about Ghet, and a party of horsemen 
who had gone with him to a greater distance ; but 
he joined us here, driving before him a large flock 
