Chap. XXVII. 
gha'mbaru'. 
225 
connected with the komadugu and fed by it, were 
artificial basins, and seem to have considerable depth ; 
else they could scarcely have presented such a mag- 
nificent sheet of water at this season of the year. 
But at present all this district, the finest land of 
Bornu in the proper sense of the word, which once 
resounded with the voices and bustle of hundreds of 
towns and villages, has become one impenetrable 
jungle, the domain of the elephant and the lion, and 
with no human inhabitants except a few scattered 
herdsmen or cattle-breeders, who are exposed every 
moment to the predatory inroads of the Tawarek. This 
condition of the finest part of the country is a disgrace 
to its present rulers, who have nothing to do but to 
transfer hither a few hundreds of their lazy slaves, 
and establish them in a fortified place, whereupon 
the natives would immediately gather round them and 
change this fine country along the komadugu from 
an impenetrable jungle into rich fields, producing not 
only grain but also immense quantities of cotton and 
indigo. 
The town of Ghambaru was taken and destroyed 
by the Jemaa of the Fiilbe or Fellata at the same 
time with Ghasreggomo, or Birni, in the year of the 
Hejra 1224, or 1809 of our era, and has not been 
since reoccupied, so that the ruins are thickly 
overgrown and almost enveloped in the forest. Al- 
though I had not leisure to survey attentively the 
whole area of the town, I could not help dismounting 
and looking with great interest at a tolerably well 
VOL. II. Q 
