Chap. XXXVII. 
U'BA. 
529 
It seemed almost as if we were destined Tuesday? 
to stay another day in this place ; for Jul ^ 8th - 
just when we were about to start, a most violent 
shower came down, and lasted full two hours. 
When at length we were able to set out on our road 
to U'ba, it was excessively wet, the streams greatly 
swollen, and the weather still anything but bright 
and clear. At U'ba, again, we remained much longer 
than I wished. In the evening, after our arrival, the 
governor went on an expedition against the Kilba- 
Gaya. Falling suddenly upon the poor pagans at 
early dawn, he captured a good many slaves ; but 
the persecuted natives rallied, and, taking advantage 
of a defile through which he had to pass on his return 
to his residence, suddenly attacked him, and suc- 
ceeded in rescuing all their countrymen from the 
hands of their relentless enemies. 
During my absence the corn had almost ripened ; and 
the fields afforded a spectacle of the utmost exuberance. 
Almost all the grain here is sorghum, and mostly of 
the white kind ; the average height of the stalks was 
from nine to ten feet. The whole area of the town 
was clothed in the richest vegetation, of great variety, 
where a botanist might have made a numerous 
collection. 
Ibrahim a, the principal of the two men Thursday 
whom Mohammed Lowel had appointed to Jul ^ 10th - 
escort me to the frontier of his province, accompanied 
me a short distance when we left U'ba. This man, 
who, perhaps because he was not well treated in 
VOL. II. M M 
