Chap. XL VIII. ORDERED TO WAIT AT BU'GOMA'n. 327 
ingly have shared the company of the sultan in the 
expedition, although the news which arrived from 
the camp was not altogether of a satisfactory cha- 
racter. The pagan inhabitants of Gogoml, against 
whom he was waging war, were reported to have 
descended from their mountain strongholds, and to 
have slain a considerable number of his people, and 
amongst them a well-known Arab from Morocco, 
who accompanied him on this expedition. 
It was about noon, when to my great Thursdav 
delight my trooper Grema c Abdu returned March 25th - 
from his errand. He was accompanied by two 
attendants of the Zerma, or rather Kadamange, 
the lieutenant-governor whom the sultan had left 
during his absence in command of the capital. I 
was disappointed, however, in my expectation that I 
should now be allowed, without further delay, to reach 
the capital myself, for the messengers produced a 
document provided with a large black seal, to the 
effect that I was to await the answer of the sultan in 
Biigoman, a place higher up the river, the inhabitants 
of which, together with those of a neighbouring town, 
called Miskin, were to provide me with fresh fish and 
milk during my stay there. Although anxious to 
join the sultan himself, I had nothing to object 
to such an arrangement, and was glad to move 
on, if it were only a little. Our path on leaving the 
village kept along the steep north-easterly bank of 
the river, which here separates into two branches, of 
which the eastern one has more the nature of a creek. 
Y 4 
