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Immediately after the ceremony the travellers took their departure for Angornou, a town containing at least thirty thousand inhabitants. The market-place was crowded with people, and there were a number of beggars.
Their journey was commenced on the 23rd of January, 1824. After leaving Angornou, they proceeded east, along the borders of the lake, to Angala, where resided Miram, the divorced wife of the sheikh, El Kanemy, in a fine house her establishment exceeding sixty persons.
Denham heard of people called Kerdies, who inhabited islands far away in the eastern part of the lake. They frequently make plundering excursions even close up to Angornou, and carry off cattle and people in their canoes, no means being taken to oppose them. The sheikh was very unwilling that his white visitor should cross the Shary, for fear of the danger he would run.
The travellers passed Angornou and Angola, and arrived at Showy, where they saw the river, which really proved to be a magnificent stream, fully half a mile broad, and flowing at the rate of two or three miles an hour. They descended it through a succession of noble reaches, bordered with fine woods and a profusion of variously tinted and aromatic plants.
Surrounded by three hundred of these great men, sat the sultan, enclosed in a species of cane basket covered with silk, his features scarcely discernible beneath his huge turban. The presents were received in silence. The travellers departed for Kouka, passing Angornou, a city containing thirty thousand inhabitants.
The party then set out for Kouka, passing on their way through Angornou, the largest city in the kingdom, containing at least thirty thousand inhabitants.
Angornou is the chief market, and the crowd there is sometimes immense, amounting to eighty or one hundred thousand individuals. All the produce of the country is bought and sold in open market, for shops and warehouses do not enter into the system of African traffic.
Angornou is the largest and most populous town of Bornou; it is situated a few miles from Lake Tchad, and contains 30,000 inhabitants. Major Denham gives a very good account of an interview with the Sultan of Bornou.
The market of Angornou is held in the open air, and is attended by immense crowds; the principal articles sold are grain, bullocks, sheep, and fowls, together with amber, coral, and brass; also young lions, which are kept as domestic pets. The kingdom of Bornou is of great extent.
During his residence at Kouka and Angornou, Major Denham frequently attended the markets, where besides the proper Bornouese, he saw the Shouass, an Arab tribe, who are the chief breeders of cattle; the Kanemboos from the north, with their hair neatly and tastefully plaited, and the Musgow, a southern clan of the most savage aspect.
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