Chap. LXXIII. 
tau'tilt. 
107 
closely enveloped by climbing plants. The principal 
branch of the river is from two to three miles distant. 
We had scarcely arrived, when the cheerful little 
Woghda started from his tent with a sudden bound, 
worthy of a public exhibition, in order to receive his 
friend the Sheikh El Bakdy. We encamped in. the 
shade of the large trees, close to the border of the 
water, where we were soon visited by several Son- 
ghay people, who inhabit a small hamlet on the island 
of Kora, where they cultivate tobacco. This article 
- constituted in former times the chief branch of culti- 
vation all along the river, but at present, since the 
conquest of the country by the Fiilbe, it has become a 
contraband article, so that the people from Timbuktu 
come stealthily hither, in order to buy from these 
people their produce with cotton strips or tari. 
This chief, Woghda, had been present, when quite 
a boy, at the attack which the Igwadaren at E^gedesh 
made upon Mungo Park, whom all the old men along 
the river know very well, from his large strange- 
looking boat, with his white sail, his long coat, his 
straw hat, and large gloves. He had stopped at 
Bamba in order to buy fowls, of which he appears to 
have endeavoured to obtain a supply at every large 
place along the river. Woghda further asserted that 
it was on this occasion that the Tawarek killed two of 
the Christians in the boat; but this seems to be a 
mistake, as it appears evident that two of the four 
valiant men, who, solitary and abandoned, in their 
boat, like a little fortress, navigated this river for so 
