When the heat of the day had passed by, the Arabs pursued their march, and we followed them, re-ascending the higher level and marching over a pleasant country well adorned with trees and bushes, while we left a hollow called Núkko on our left, one of the three vales of Shitáti which bear this name, and further on crossing another one called Arnánko. When night approached, our companions began to put their horses into a gallop in order to arrive betimes, while we preferred going on more slowly.
The country here became more undulating, and afterwards even rugged, and we made our way as well as we could in the dark, stumbling along over a rugged ground in a north-westerly direction, and were not a little delighted when at length we saw the fires of the encampment, which this time had not been pitched on the highest level, but rather in a hollow not far from the well. Its name is Bír el Hamésh, or Yégil, or, as it is generally pronounced, Yíggeli. We were the more delighted to reach it, as we found here, not only all our people and luggage, but also provisions, and we were nearly famished. Of course, we were most cheerfully hailed by those of our servants whom, with the remainder of the Arabs, we had left at the Bír el Kúrna, and who had felt the greatest anxiety about our safety, on account of the many unfavourable rumours which had reached them with regard to the proceedings and sufferings of our party. They had transported the camp from Bír el Kúrna to this place several days previously, and were looking forward to our return most anxiously. We immediately attacked a bowl of camel’s milk, and, thus materially comforted, rested outside our tents enjoying the freshness of the evening. The camp or dowar was rather narrow, being encumbered by the booty which had been taken from the enemy; and the people, dreading lest the enemy might follow them, all huddled closely together, and kept strict watch. In such circumstances the wailings of the women over the dead, which sounded through the night, accompanied by loud, mournful strokes on the great drum, could not fail to make a deep impression. However, we passed here tranquilly the following day, and enjoyed rest and repose the more as the weather was very oppressive.
We received here the positive news that the body of Wadáy horsemen who had come to the assistance of the Woghda, and had caused the Arabs so much fear and anxiety the day before, had returned to Mʿawó; and a very curious story was told with regard to them, which at once shows how highly these horsemen of Wadáy are respected by the Arabs, and the esteem which they themselves entertain for the latter. Thirty Wadáy horsemen were said to have arrived with the Woghda in consequence of their entreaties, and to have followed with them the traces of our friends, the Woghda representing to them that many of the latter had been killed. Thus they arrived in the morning when we had just left the camp at Áláli, and the dust raised by our host was plainly visible in the distance; but when the Woghda instigated the Wadáy people to go and attack that host, they wanted to assure themselves how many of the Arabs had fallen in the last battle, in which thirty-four of the Woghda were said to have been slain, and when they found only two tombs, the latter told them that in each there were ten bodies; but the Wadáy people, being anxious to make sure of the valour of their friends, had the tombs dug up, and found only two buried in each. Whereupon they stigmatized the Woghda as liars, and felt little inclined to follow the valiant robbers who had killed so many of the enemy, while they had lost so few of their own. But this story may have been adorned by our friends the Welád Slimán, who could not even deny that, besides a great deal of other booty from their own camp, which the enemy had succeeded in carrying away, the chief of the Woghda could pride himself on the red bernús which we had given as a present to Sheikh Ghét; nay, he could even boast of four horses taken from the Arabs.
Sunday, Oct. 26.—This and the following day the Arabs were all busy in writing, or getting letters written, to Kúkawa, as a courier was to leave. I myself was almost the only person who did not get a note ready; for I could not muster sufficient energy to write a letter. Had I been strong enough, I should have had sufficient leisure to make up the whole journal of my excursion to the eastern parts of Kánem; but I was quite unable, and the consequence was, that this part of my diary always remained in a very rough state. Sheikh Ghét, who thought that we were greatly indebted to him for having seen so much of the country, sent for a variety of things; but we were only able to comply with very few of his wishes. On our telling him that we were not at all satisfied with what we had seen, and that, in order not to waste more time, we had the strongest wish to return to Kúkawa as soon as possible, he wanted to persuade us that he himself was to leave for the capital of Bórnu in five or six days. But we prudently chose to provide for ourselves, and not rely upon his promise.
Monday, Oct. 27.—The courier for Kúkawa left in the morning, and in the evening a party of freebooters made an attack upon the camels of the Arabs, but, being pursued by the horsemen, whose great merit it is to be ready for every emergency, they were obliged to leave their booty, and be contented to escape with their lives. The vale in which the well is situated is rather more exuberant than is the case generally, and there were several pools of stagnant water, from which the cattle were watered. There was even a real jungle, and here and there the den of a ferocious lion, who did not fail to levy his tribute on the various species of animal property of our friends, and evinced rather a fancy for giving some little variety to his meals; for a horse, a camel, and a bullock became his prey.
Tuesday, Oct. 28.—Seeing that there was a caravan of people forming to go to Kúkawa, while the Arabs intended once more to return to Burka-drússo, we at once went to the chief to inform him that we had made up our minds to go with the caravan. A chief of the Haddáda, or rather Búngo, arrived with offerings of peace on the part of the Shíri, and came to see us, together with the chief mentioned above, Kédel Batrám who was the father-in-law of the khalífa of Mʿawó; Kóbber, or rather the head man of the Kóbber, and other great men of the Fugábú; and I amused them with my musical box. Overweg and I, disappointed in our expectations of penetrating further eastward, prepared for our return journey, and I bought a small skin of tolerable dates for half a túrkedí; while to ʿAbdallah, who had been our mediator with the chief, I made a present of a jeríd, in order not to remain his debtor.
All this time I felt very unwell, which I attribute principally to the great changes of atmosphere, the nights being cool and the days very warm.
Friday, Oct. 31.—Though we were determined to return to Kúkawa, we had yet once more to go eastward. The Arabs removed their encampment to Arnánko, the hollow which we passed on our way from Burka-drússo to Yégil. There had been a great deal of uncertainty and dispute amongst them with reference to the place which they were to choose for their encampment; but though, on the following day, very unfavourable news was brought with regard to the security of the road to Bórnu, the departure of the caravan nevertheless remained fixed for the 2nd November; for in the morning one of the Welád Slimán arrived from Kúkawa, accompanied by two Bórnu horsemen, bringing letters from the vizier, requesting the Arabs, in the most urgent terms, to remove their encampment without delay to Késkawa, on the shore of the lake, whither he would not fail to send the whole remainder of their tribe who at that time were residing in Kúkawa; for he had positive news, he assured them, that the Tuarek were meditating another expedition against them on a large scale.
The report seemed not without foundation; for the three messengers had actually met, on their road between Bárrowa and Ngégimi, a party of ten Tuarek, three on foot, and the rest on horseback, and had only escaped by retreating into the swamps formed by the lake. This news, of course, spread considerable anxiety amongst the Arabs, who were still more harassed the same day by information received to the effect that a party of fifteen Wadáy horsemen were lying in ambush in a neighbouring valley; and a body of horsemen were accordingly sent out to scour the country, but returned without having seen anybody.
Sunday, Nov. 2.—The day of our departure from Kánem at length arrived. Sorry as we were to leave the eastern shore of the lake unexplored, we convinced ourselves that the character of our mission did not allow us to risk our fate any longer by accompanying these freebooters. The camels we had taken with us on this expedition were so worn out that they were unable to carry even the little luggage we had left, and Sheikh Ghét made us a present of two camels, which, however, only proved sufficient for the short journey to Kúkawa; for the one fell a few paces from the northern gate on reaching the town, and the other a short distance from the southern gate on leaving it again on our expedition to Músgu.