200 IBRAHIMAWA ; OR, SINE AD TER SAILOR, [chap. viii. 
Among Ibrahim’s people, there was a black named 
Ibrahimawa. This fellow was a native of Bornu, and 
had been taken when a boy of twelve years old and 
sold at Constantinople; he formerly belonged to 
Mehemet Ali Pasha; he had been to London and 
Paris, and during the Crimean war he was at Kertch. 
Altogether he was a great traveller, and he had a 
natural taste for geography and botany, that marked 
him as a wonderful exception to the average of the 
party. He had run away from his master in Egypt, 
and had been vagabondizing about in Khartoum in 
handsome clothes, negro-like, persuading himself that 
the public admired him, and thought that he was a 
Bey. Having soon run through his money, he had 
engaged himself to Koorshid Aga to serve in his 
White Nile expedition. He was an excellent example 
of the natural instincts of the negro remaining in¬ 
tact under all circumstances. Although remarkably 
superior to his associates, his small stock of knowledge 
was combined with such an exaggerated conceit, that 
he was to me a perpetual source of amusement, while 
he was positively hated by his comrades, both by 
Arabs and blacks, for his overbearing behaviour. 
Having seen many countries, he was excessively fond 
of recounting his adventures, all of which had so 
strong a colouring of the “ Arabian Nights/' that he 
might have been the original “ Sinbad the Sailor." 
His natural talent for geography was really extra¬ 
ordinary; he would frequently pay me a visit, and 
spend hours in drawing maps with a stick upon the 
sand, of the countries he had visited, and especially of 
the Mediterranean, and the course from Egypt and 
Constantinople to England. Unfortunately, some long 
story was attached to every principal point of the 
voyage. The descriptions most interesting to me were 
those connected with the west bank of the White 
Nile, as he had served for some years with the 
trading party, and had penetrated through the Mak- 
karika, a cannibal tribe, to about two hundred miles 
