A few straggling parties of Kanemboo infantry had occasionally crossed our path, for several days, on their way to join the sheikh, but here we found about a hundred and fifty Shouaas, or Arabs of Beni Wah’l. After our tents were pitched, and we had refreshed ourselves by a mess of ducks and rice, we determined on riding to visit the remains of Old Birnie[30], which extended nearly to this lake. We proceeded by the high road to Soudan, and after about two miles came to the spot on which once stood the capital of Bornou, and the ruins of the city certainly tended more strongly to convince us of the power of its former sultans than any of the tales we had heard of their magnificence: we had seen upwards of thirty large towns which the Felatahs had completely razed to the ground at the time they destroyed the capital, and we were now arrived at the ruins of that capital itself[31]. Old Birnie covered a space of five or six square miles, and is said to have had a population of two hundred thousand souls: the remains of the walls were in many places still standing, in large masses of hard red brick-work, and were from three to four feet in thickness, and sixteen to eighteen feet in height. From the top of one of these we obtained a sight of the river Gambarou, running nearly east, notwithstanding its windings, and only a few miles distant. At sunset we returned to our huts. Crossing the head of the lake Muggaby, we took a north-westerly direction, for the purpose of seeing the remaining ruins of this once populous district, and particularly those of a favourite residence of the former sultan, called Gambarou, situated on the banks of the river, four miles distant, which comes from Soudan: this district gave its name to the waters during their passage through it. After wading through low grounds, occasionally overflowed, where the wild grass was above our horses’ heads, and disturbing a herd of fourteen elephants, whose retired haunts were seldom so broken in upon, we came to the river, which is here a very noble stream, nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth, and situated between two high banks thickly overgrown with jungle, bushes, and bamboo[32]: we endeavoured to ascertain if there was any current, but the water appeared perfectly stationary. Omar Gana, however, and the Shouaas who had accompanied us, were unanimous in declaring that after the rains a very strong current from west to east constantly flowed.