Barca Gana had about two thousand of the sheikh's soldiers under his command. He was himself, however, only a slave, but from his bravery had been raised by his master to the rank of Governor of Angala and all the towns on the Shary, as well as that of commander-in-chief of his troops. He was accompanied by several guards of horse and foot, and a band of five men, three of whom carried a sort of drum, who sang extemporary songs while they beat time; another carried a pipe made of a reed, and a fifth blew on a buffalo's horn loud and deep-toned blasts. As he advanced through the forest he was preceded by twelve pioneers, who carried long forked poles, with which they kept back the branches as the party moved forward; at the same time they pointed out any dangers in the road. The heat was intense. Into a lake at which they arrived the horses rushed by hundreds, making the water as thick as pea-soup. As the major's camel had not come up, he could not pitch his tent, and he was compelled to lie down in the best shade he could find, and cover himself completely with a cloth and a thick woollen bournous, to keep up a little moisture, by excluding all external air. After several days' march they arrived near the capital of Mandara, whose sultan sent out several of his chiefs to meet them. Near the town of Delow the sultan himself appeared, surrounded by about five hundred horsemen. Different parties of these troops charged up to the front of Barca Gana's forces, and, wheeling suddenly round, galloped back again. They were handsomely dressed in Soudan _tobes_ of different colours-- dark blue and striped with yellow and red; bournouses of coarse scarlet cloth, with large turbans of white or dark-coloured cotton. Their horses were really beautiful--larger and more powerful than any seen in Bornou. They managed them with great skill. A parley was now carried on. This sultan was an ally of the sheikh, but the people who were to be attacked were his own subjects, though, as they were pagans, that mattered nothing. Boo-Khaloum was, as usual, very sanguine of success. He said he should make the sultan handsome presents, and that he was quite sure a Kerdie or pagan town full of people would be given him to plunder. The Arabs eyed the Kerdie huts, now visible on the sides of the mountains, with longing eyes, and, contrasting their own ragged condition with the appearance of the Sultan of Mandara's people in their rich _tobes_, observed to Book-Haloum that what they saw pleased them; they would go no further; this would do. They trusted for victory to their guns--though many were wretched weapons, and their powder was bad--declaring that arrows were nothing, and ten thousand spears of no importance. "We have guns! we have guns!" they shouted. They were soon to find that they made a fearful mistake.