After all the delay was overcome, I at length became aware what had been the cause of it; for in the afternoon of that day my noble companion Gréma ʿAbdú, who had left me so unceremoniously before I reached the capital, and who altogether had been of so little use to me, came to inform me that all was now ready for our departure, he having received the five slaves whom he was to take to Kúkawa, partly for his own benefit, and partly for the benefit of his master Mestréma, who, as I have stated before, held a situation something like a consul of Bagírmi in the capital of Bórnu. Indeed there were now unmistakable signs that I was at length to leave this place, for the following day I was treated with a large dish of rice and meat, swimming in a rich abundance of butter, from the sultan, and another dish from my niggardly host the zérma or kadamánge; and on the 10th of August I really left the capital of Bagírmi, where I had certainly stayed much longer than I had desired, as I was not allowed to move freely about in the country, but where, nevertheless, I was enabled to collect a great deal of valuable information, of which that part relating to the history and general condition of the country I shall detail in the following chapter, in order to inspire the reader with a greater degree of interest in these little-known regions, while other matter will be given in the Appendix. [Footnote 44: There is another ruin of baked bricks outside the town, on the road to Ábú-Gher.] [Footnote 45: See the Despatch in the Appendix, No. V.] CHAP. LI. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF BAGÍRMI. — GENERAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY AND ITS INHABITANTS. With regard to the history of the eastern part of Negroland, we are still worse off than with regard to the western countries, however scanty the documents relating to the latter regions may be, although I may hope that, by my labours, a great deal more light has been shed upon the history of these quarters than was even suspected to exist before. But while for the kingdom of Songhay, with its celebrated towns Gógó and Timbúktu, we have now obtained an almost continuous historical account, by the taríkh of Áhmed Bábá, and while for Bórnu tolerably rich materials have likewise come to our hands, by means of the chronicles of that empire, and of the relation of Imám Áhmed, for this eastern part of Negroland (which comprises the countries of Bagírmi, Wádáy, or Dár Suláy and Dár-Fúr) no such documents have as yet been found, and, besides the information to be gathered from the natives, only a few detached and obscure statements have been handed down to us by the Arab writers of the middle ages.