Having passed the stream, the face of the country, and with it the mode of travelling, are changed. High mountains and narrow valleys, extensive woods and miry roads, succeed to the vast plains and sandy soil of the Zahara and its neighbouring kingdoms. Water is no longer refused or scantily given to the parched lips of the Traveller; but while the abundance of this refreshment, and of the vast variety both of vegetable and animal food that is offered in profusion for his support, diminish the hardships and remove the principal hazards of his journey, the raging heat of the Torrid Clime increases as he proceeds. Wet cloths applied to the mouth are sometimes requisite, and especially in the woods, to allay, for the purpose of respiration, the violence of the burning air; and the journey, which the fierceness of the sun suspends, is often renewed amidst the dews and comparative darkness of the night. [Sidenote: Imhammed.] From the want of camels, which are seldom seen to the South of Cashna, nor even to the West, except in higher latitudes, the conveyance of the Merchant and his goods is committed to the mules, and small horses and asses of the country. Of the first, the usual burthen is 200lbs. of the second, 150lbs. and of the last, 100lbs. Travelling through all this part of Africa is considered as so secure, that the Shereef Imhammed, with the utmost chearfulness and confidence of safety, proposed to accompany and conduct Mr. LUCAS, by the way of Fezzan and Cashna, across the Niger, to Assenté, which borders on the Coast of the Christians. ~CHAPTER VI.~ _General Remarks on the Empires of Bornou and Cashna. — Rout from Mourzouk to Bornou — Climate of Bornou — Complexion, Dress, and Food of the Inhabitants — Their Mode of Building — Their Language — Government — Military Force — Manners — and Trade._ * * * * * To the South of the kingdom of Fezzan, in that vast region which spreads itself from the river of the Antelopes westward for 1200 miles, and includes a considerable part of the Niger’s course, two great empires, those of Bornou and those of Cashna, are established. The circumstances of soil and climate, and those also which constitute political character, are nearly the same in both: for their prevailing winds are the same; their rains, which are periodical in each, though much more profuse in Bornou, begin at the same season; the same grains are cultivated; the same fruits (generally speaking) are produced; and except that no camels are bred to the westward of the City of Cashna, the capital of the empire, the same animals are reared. In both, the complexion of the inhabitants is black; their mode of building too is similar, and their manners, though in some respects more civilized in Bornou, have a general resemblance.