26 WADAI — PROFITS OF SOUDAN COMMERCE. 
fresh weather, no doubt, accounts for my good 
health. 
According to a Tibboo merchant now here, and 
going with our caravan, the people of Wada'i would 
receive a Christian well, and allow him to visit their 
country. He represents Wadai as a very rocky 
region, like Aheer, with two large rivers in it run- 
ning from south to north — not season streams, but 
continual. He says that the people are all blacks, 
and a very tall race. They have a language of their 
own, which is difficult to learn. Warrah is the 
capital. The natives drink a great deal of bouza, 
and are nearly always intoxicated. Such is a sum- 
mary account of Wadai' from the mouth of a Tibboo 
geographer. 
This morning, Madame En-Noor sent me by 
Zangheema a pair of pewter earrings, in exchange 
for some rings. It is extremely difficult to make a 
good bargain with these people. With respect to 
our merchandise, it all sells lower here than we paid 
for it at Mourzuk. The profits come from the 
purchase of slaves. A burnouse of forty mahboubs 
will sell in Soudan for little more than its cost, if 
dollars or money is to be given ; but if slaves are 
taken in exchange, three slaves, perhaps, may be 
obtained, which, in Tripoli, may be sold at forty or 
fifty dollars each. Hence the profit of the Soudan 
commerce. The article which yields the greatest 
profit is loaf sugar, which, costing half a dollar in 
Mourzuk, is said to sell for a full dollar in Bornou. 
