altogether of a warlike character, the horses being
well caparisoned, and the riders well clothed for personal defence; and
though their equestrian evolutions be somewhat wild, the lance or spear
is doubtless a formidable weapon in their hands. The savage splendour of
their dress, together with the pawing and snorting of their fiery
steeds, render them appropriate auxiliaries to royalty, in countries
where such attributes of power are requisite to impress the people with
the importance of their rulers, and where the milder aids of
civilization and refinement are wanting to protect the sovereign from
violence.

The second engraving, copied from the same authentic source as that
preceding it, is a somewhat grotesque portraiture of one of the _Lancers
of the Sultan of Begharmi_, described, in an historical and geographical
account by a native prince, as an extensive country, containing woods
and rivers, and fields fit for cultivation; but now desolated, as the
inhabitants say, by the "misconduct of the king, who, having increased
in levity and licentiousness to such a frightful degree, as even to
marry his own daughter, God Almighty caused Saboon, the prince of
Wa-da-i, to march against him, and destroy him, laying waste, at the
same time, all his country, and leaving the houses uninhabited, as a
signal chastisement for his impiety."

Major Denham having applied for the covering of the above warrior and
his horse, in his journal thus describes their arrival:--"Aug. 11. Soon
after daylight, Karouash, with Hadgi, Mustapha, the chief of the
Shouaas, and the Sheikh's two nephews, Hassein and Kanemy, came to our
huts. They were attended by more than a dozen slaves, bearing presents
for us, for King George, and the consul at Tripoli. I had applied for a
_lebida_, (horse-covering,) after seeing those taken from the Begharmis;
the sheikh now sent a man, clothed in a yellow wadded jacket, with a
scarlet cap, and mounted on the horse taken from the Begharmis, on which
the sultan's eldest son rode. He was one of the finest horses I had
seen, and covered with a scarlet cloth, also wadded. 'Every thing,'
Hadgi Mustapha said, 'except the man, is to be taken to your great
king.'"

The Begharmis, it will be seen, were conquered by the people of Kanem;
and Major Denham has translated, and given in the appendix to his
_Travels_, a song of thanksgiving on the triumphant return of the
governor, full of the characteristic beauty and simplic