Chap. XLI. DEPARTURE FROM KA'NEM. 
113 
The report seemed not without foundation ; for 
the three messengers had actually met, on their road 
between Barrowa and Ngegimi, a party of ten Ta- 
warek, three on foot, and the rest on horseback, and 
had only escaped by retreating into the swamps formed 
by the lake. This news, of course, spread considerable 
anxiety amongst the Arabs, who were still more ha- 
rassed the same day by information received to the 
effect that a party of fifteen Waday horsemen were 
lying in ambush in a neighbouring valley ; and a 
body of horsemen were accordingly sent out to scour 
the country, but returned without having seen any- 
body. 
The day of our departure from Kanem at Sund 
length arrived. Sorry as we were to leave November 2nd, 
the eastern shore of the lake unexplored, we con- 
vinced ourselves that the character of our mission did 
not allow us to risk our fate any longer by accom- 
panying these freebooters.* The camels we had taken 
* The information which, in the weak and exhausted state I 
was then reduced to, and under the unfavourable circumstances 
in which I was placed as an hostile intruder, I was able to collect 
with regard to this country, once the mighty and populous kingdom 
of Kanem, and now reduced to the desolate abode of the scanty 
remnants of the former native population preyed upon every day 
by roving and lawless tribes from different quarters, I shall put 
together in an Appendix (I.) at the end of this volume, as well as 
the interesting geographical details with regard to Kanem in its 
flourishing state, as they are to be gleaned from the historical work 
of Imam Ahmed (Appendix II.). The dates of the earlier history 
of Kanem, as far as they have come to our knowledge, have been 
detailed in a former chapter, Vol. II. 
VOL. III. I 
