210 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLIV. 
up, where we shall make its acquaintance in the 
course of our further researches, it is called Ba- 
Gun and Ba-Bay, " ba" being the general name for 
river in the language of Bagirmi and the native tribes 
of the Som-ray, as well as in the language of the 
Manding or Mandingoes. 
After a short time we stood on the banks of the 
stream. It was a considerable river even at the 
present moment, although it was greatly below its 
highest level, and probably represented the mean 
depth of the whole year. At present it was about 
four hundred yards wide, and so deep that six Shiiwa 
horsemen, who, in their eager desire for spoil, had 
ventured to enter it, were carried away by the 
stream, and fell an easy prey to about a dozen cou- 
rageous pagans, who, in a couple of canoes, were 
gliding up and down the river to see what they 
could lay their hands upon. They felt that we were 
unable to follow them without canoes, although for 
any active body of men it would have been an easy 
affair to construct a few rafts for crossing over, there 
being a plentiful supply of timber. 
The banks of the river on this side were at present 
about twenty-five feet high. The opposite shore 
was not so steep, and from its rich vegetation had a 
very inviting appearance ; but I was glad, for the sake 
of the poor natives, that we were unable to reach it, and 
I think even our friend the Haj Beshir looked at this 
interesting landscape rather with a degree of scientific 
interest than with anger and disappointment. Un- 
