AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF TEE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 125 
hear him. They turned out to be Barca Gana and Boo- 
Khaloum, with some Arabs. Mounted on a sorry steed, 
with no other clothing than an old blanket swarming 
with vermin, Denham travelled thirty-seven miles. The 
pain of his wounds was greatly aggravated by the heat, 
the tiiermometer being at 32°. 
The only results of the expedition, which was to have 
brought in such quantities of booty and numerous slaves, 
were the deaths of Boo-Klialoum and thirty-six of his 
Arabs, the wounding of nearly all the rest, and the loss 
or destruction of all the horses. 
The eighty miles between Mora and Kouka were 
traversed in six days. Denham was kindly received in 
the latter town by the sultan, who sent him a native 
garment to replace his lost wardrobe. The major had 
hardly recovered from his wounds and fatigue, before he 
took part in a new expedition, sent to Munga, a province 
on the west of Bornou, by the sheikh, whose authority 
had never been fully recognised there, and whose claim 
for tribute had been refused by the inhabitants. 
Denham and Oudney left Kouka on the 22nd May, 
and crossed the Yeou, then nearly dried up, but an im¬ 
portant stream in the rainy season, and visited Birnie, 
with the ruins of the capital of the same name, which 
was capable of containing two hundred thousand inhab¬ 
itants. The travellers also passed through the ruins of 
Gambarou with its magnificent buildings, the favourite 
residence of the former sultan, destroyed by the Fel- 
latahs, Kabsliary, Bassecour, Bately, and many other 
towns or villages, whose numerous populations submitted 
without a struggle to the Sultan of Bornou. 
The rainy season was disastrous to the members of 
the expedition, Clapperton fell dangerously ill of fever, 
and Oudney, whose chest was delicate even before he 
left England, grew weaker every day. Denham alone 
kept up. On the 14th of December, when the rainy 
season was drawing to a close, Clapperton and Oudney 
started for Kano. We shall presently relate the par¬ 
ticulars of this interesting part of their expedition. 
Seven days later, an ensign, named Toole, arrived at 
