This Monarch Is Too Distinguished To Fight In Person; But His Guards, The Swollen And Overloaded Figures Formerly Described, Enveloped In Multiplied Folds, And Groaning Beneath The Weight Of Ponderous Amulets, Produced Themselves As Warriors, Though Manifestly Unfit To Face Any Real Danger.

The route lay along the banks of the river Yeou, called also Gambarou, through a country naturally fertile and delightful, but presenting a dismal picture of the desolation occasioned by African warfare.

The expedition passed through upwards of thirty towns, completely destroyed by the Fellatas in their last inroad, and of which all the inhabitants had been either killed or carried into slavery. These fine plains were now overgrown with forests and thickets, in which grew tamarind and other trees, producing delicate fruits, while large bands of monkeys, called by the Arabs "enchanted men," filled the woods with their cries. Here, too, was found old Birnie, the ancient but now desolate capital, evidently much larger than any of the present cities, covering five or six miles with its ruins. They passed also Gambarou, formerly the favourite residence of the sultans, where the remains of a palace and two mosques gave an idea of civilization superior to any thing that had yet been seen in interior Africa. There were left in this country only small detached villages, the inhabitants of which remained fixed to them by local attachment, in spite of constant predatory inroads of the Tuaricks, who carried off their friends, their children, and cattle. They have recourse to one mode of defence, which consists in digging a number of blaquas, or large pits; these they cover with a false surface of sods and grass, into which the Tuarick with his horse plunges before he is aware, and is received at the bottom upon sharp-pointed stakes, which often kill both on the spot.

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