The men of Traita, with their chief, Eskou-ben-Coglu, came in the evening to welcome us: the well Kofei belongs to them; and greatly enraged they appeared to be at the conduct of the Wandelas. This chief returned to Boo-Khaloom his letters, which, he said, “the chief of the Wandelas had sent him that morning, begging that he would meet the kafila at the well, and deliver them to Boo-Khaloom: had he known then what had taken place, the slave,” he said, “should have been stabbed at his father’s grave before he would have delivered them.” Boo-Khaloom was greatly enraged; and I was almost apprehensive that he would have revenged himself on the Traita chiefs. However, the Tibboo courier was again clothed and mounted, and once more started for Bornou. The Traita Tibboos are more important-looking fellows than the Gunda, but they want their quickness and activity: they are said not to be more than eight hundred strong in males. Feb. 3.—Our course, during the early part of the day, was due south, and through a country more thickly planted by the all-tasteful hand of bounteous Nature. We disturbed a flock of what we at first thought were deer, but they were only a large species of antelope; they are of a deeper fawn colour, and have black and white stripes under the belly. The Guinea fowl were in great numbers, but extremely shy. The whole day our route lay through most pleasing forest scenery. It was near sunset when we arrived at Mittimee, which, in the Bornou language, means warm, tepid: the wells exceed fifty in number, and lie in a woody hollow, where there are clumps of the tulloh and other species of the mimosa tribe, encircled by kossom and various parasitical and twining shrubs, which, embracing their stems, wind to the extremities of their branches, and climb to the very tops, when, falling over, they form weeping bowers of a most beautiful kind: it was indeed a lovely and a fair retreat. Boo-Khaloom, myself, and about six Arabs, had ridden on in front: it was said we had lost the track, and should miss the well: the day had been oppressively hot, my companions were sick and fatigued, and we dreaded the want of water. A fine dust, arising from a light clayey and sandy soil, had also increased our sufferings: the exclamations of the Arab who first discovered the wells were indeed music to our ears; and after satisfying my own thirst, with that of my weary animals, I laid me down by one of the distant wells, far from my companions; and these moments of tranquillity, the freshness of the air, with the melody of the hundred songsters that were perched amongst the creeping plants, whose flowers threw an aromatic odour all around, were a relief scarcely to be described. Ere long, however, the noisy kafila, and the clouds of dust which accompanied it, disturbed me from the delightful reverie into which I had fallen.