284 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXX. 
Mohammed el Amm, the energetic prince of Fiita- 
T6ro. Ahmed had travelled over almost the whole 
of Western Africa, from Argum on the ocean as far as 
Bagirmi, and had spent several years in Adamawa, of 
which country he first gave me an exact description, 
especially with regard to the direction of the rivers. 
He was a shrewd and very intelligent man ; yet he 
w r as one of those Arabs who go round all the courts of 
the princes of Negroland, to whatever creed or tribe 
they may belong, and endeavour to obtain from them 
all they can by begging and by the parade of learning. 
I esteemed him on account of his erudition, but not in 
other respects. 
Quite a different person was the Pullo Ibrahim — a 
very proud young man, fully aware of the ascendancy, 
and strongly marked with the distinguishing character, 
of the nation to which he belonged. He had per- 
formed the pilgrimage to Mekka, crossing the whole 
breadth of Africa from west to east, from warm reli- 
gious feeling mixed up with a little ambition, as he 
knew that such an exploit would raise him highly in 
the esteem of his countrymen, and secure to him a 
high position in life. He had been two years a hostage 
in Nder (St. Louis), and knew something about the 
Europeans. It had struck him that the French were 
not so eager in distributing bibles as the English, 
while he had truly remarked that the former were 
very sensible of the charms of the softer sex, and 
very frequently married the pretty daughters of the 
Dembasega. He obtained from me, first the Zabur, 
