Chap. XXX. AHMED THE TRAVELLER. 
287 
him some general information, the most interesting 
part of which had reference to Mosi or rather More, 
a large and populous country known by name al- 
ready, from Sultan Bello's curious communications to 
Captain Clapperton, but always misplaced in the maps, 
and its capital W6ghodogh6. 
This enterprising man, who generally travelled as 
a dervish, had gone from Sofara on the Mayo balleo 
or Niger, between Hamdallahi and Sego, across a 
most unsettled country, to W6ghodogh6 ; but he 
was unable to give me any precise details with re- 
gard to it, and I never met another person who had 
travelled this dangerous route. He had also tra- 
velled all along the pagan states to the south of Ba- 
girmi and Waday, and advised me strongly, if it 
were my plan to penetrate to the upper Nile (as, 
indeed, I then intended, notwithstanding my total 
want of means), to adopt the character of a dervish, 
which he deemed essential for rny success. But 
while such a character might, indeed, insure general 
success, it would preclude the possibility of making 
any accurate observations, and would render neces- 
sary the most painful, if not insupportable, privations. 
And on the whole this poor fellow was less fortunate 
than I ; for in the year 1854 he was slain on that 
very route from Yola to Kiikawa which I myself had 
twice passed successfully. He was a native of Bagh- 
dad, and called himself Sherif Ahmed el Baghdadi. 
There was another singular personage, a native of 
Sennar, who had been a clerk in the Turkish army, 
