194 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

the natural consequence of the comparative state of civiUzation to which they have attained.

About forty years previous to the time we visited Bondoo, Abdoolghader, a Mahomedan priest, and chief of a tribe of Foolahs that had come from Massina, and settled in Toro (then ruled by the Dileankey family), made so many converts to this faith among the people of that country, and acquired such influence with them, that he succeeded in leading them to dethrone that family, and proclaim him king or almamy.

At the time Karta was invaded by the Sego Barabarras, and its chiefs, and many of the inhabitants obliged to leave it for a short time, a large detachment of them, under the command of a prince, arrived at Galam, where they were well received, and whence they despatched messengers to Abdoolghader to apprize him of their intention to put his hospitality to the test, but which they were prevented from doing by his assembling his army, and marching to attack them. They, having received early information of his intentions, left Galam, and, on their return to Karta, destroyed some towns belonging to Gedumah, in revenge upon the inhabitants of that country for having refused to assist them against their Sego enemies.

The chief of one of those towns, an Iman, of