Chap. XLIV. THE TU'jBURI AND THEIR LA.KE. 215 
The Fiilbe, by whom this free pagan community 
was regarded with great hatred, urged the expedition 
with the greatest energy ; but the cunning vizier 
pretended afterwards, in a conversation which he 
had with Overweg and me, that it was purposely, 
from motives of policy, that he did not accede to 
this scheme, as he did not want to exterminate 
this tribe, being unwilling to pull down with his own 
hands this last barrier to the restless spirit of con- 
quest which the Fulbe or Fellata displayed. The 
usurper f Abd e' Rahm&n, evidently from a motive of 
ambition, in order to be enabled to say that he had 
penetrated further than his late rival the vizier, whom 
he had successfully crushed, in the beginning of the 
rainy season of 1854 pushed on into the very country 
of the Tuburi, and thus enabled Dr. Vogel to lay 
down that most interesting point by astronomical 
observation, although the great lake which my friend 
thought to find there was apparently nothing but a 
widening of that stagnant watercourse which forms 
the north-eastern branch of the Benuwe, namely 
the mayo Kebbi, and was laid down by me in the 
map of Central Africa, which I sent home from 
Kukawa. 
It was at a very early hour on Monday Januar 5th 
morning, a little after midnight, when the 1852, 
guide of the expedition came to my tent, and, while I 
was just dreaming of the rocky mountain of the Tu- 
buri, whispered in my ear that a distant expedition 
was to be undertaken that very day, but not into the 
p 4 
