On Their Arrival At Kofei, The Tibboo Only, Who Had Been Despatched, Was Found Alone And Naked, Some Tibboo Arabs

Of a tribe called Wandela, had met them near the well, on the preceding evening, and robbed him even to

His cap, and taking from him the letters, saying they cared not for the sheik or Boo Khaloom, tied him to a tree and there left him. In this state he was found by Major Denham's party, and Mr. Clapperton coming up soon afterwards, gave him from his biscuit bag, wherewithal to break his fast, after being twenty-four hours without eating. Eighteen men had stripped him, he said, and taken off the camel and Mina Tahr's man, who, they also said, should be ransomed, or have his throat cut. Mina Tahr represented these people as the worst on the road, in every sense of the word. "They have no flocks," said he, "and have not more than three hundred camels, although their numbers are one thousand and more; they live by plunder, and have no connexion with any other people. No considerable body of men can follow them; their tents are in the heart of the desert, and there are no wells for four days in the line of their retreat. Geddy Ben Agah is their chief, and I alone would give fifty camels for his head: these are the people, who often attack and murder travellers and small kafilas, and the Gundowy, who respect strangers, have the credit of it."

The men of Traita, with their chief Eskou Ben Cogla, came in the evening to welcome them; the well Kofei belongs to them, and greatly enraged they appeared to be at the conduct of the Wandelas.

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