Chap. XXX. THE VIZIER HA'j BESHI'r. 
291 
influential man in Bornu after the sheikh, enjoyed 
all the advantages which such a position could offer 
for the cultivation of his mind, which was by nature 
of a superior cast. He had gone on a pilgrimage to 
Mekka in the year 1843, by way of Ben-Ghazi, when 
he had an opportunity both of showing the Arabs near 
the coast that the inhabitants of the interior of the 
continent are superior to the beasts, and of getting a 
glimpse of a higher state of civilization than he had 
been able to observe in his own country. 
Having thus learned to survey the world collec- 
tively from a new point of view, and with an increased 
eagerness after everything foreign and marvellous, he 
returned to his native country, where he soon had an 
opportunity of proving his talent, his father being 
slain in the unfortunate battle at Kusuri, and Sheikh 
'Omar, a fugitive in his native country, having much 
need of a faithful counsellor in his embarrassed situ- 
ation. The sheikh was beset by a powerful and vic- 
torious host, encamping in the largest of the towns of 
his kingdom, while the party of the old dynasty was 
rising again, and not only withdrawing from him the 
best forces wherewith to face the enemy, but threaten- 
ing his very existence, at the same time that a brother 
was standing in fierce rivalry to him at the head of a 
numerous army. Sheikh 'Omar was successful, the host 
of Waday was obliged to withdraw, and, abandoning 
the purpose for which they had come, namely, that of 
re-establishing the old dynasty, commenced a difficult 
retreat of many hundred miles at the beginning of the 
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