Chap. XXIX.     HISTORY OF BO'RNTJ.
 

253
 

                   CHAP. XXIX.

 AUTHENTICITY AND GENERAL CHARACTER OE THE HISTORY OS1

                       BORNU.



Any writer who attempts to recall from obscurity and

oblivion the past ages of an illiterate  nation, and to

lay before the public even the most elementary sketch

of its history, will probably have to contend  against

the strong  prejudices  of numerous critics, who are

accustomed to refuse belief to whatever is incapable

of bearing the strictest inquiry.

   The documents upon which  the  history of Bornu

is based, besides the scanty information  contained  in

the narratives of recent explorers, are —

   1.   A chronicle (" div&n "), or rather the dry and

sterile  abridgment  of a  chronicle, comprising the

whole history of Bornu, from the earliest  time down

to Ibrahim, the last unfortunate offspring of the royal

family,  who had just ascended  the crumbling throne

of the  Bornu empire when the last English expedi¬

tion arrived in that country.   6 pp. 4to.^



  * Of this  document I  have sent a copy from Kiikawa to the

Leipsic Oriental Society ; and a translation of it has been published

in the Journal (Zeitschrift) of that  society in  the year 1852, p,

305. fl% with notes by M. Blau.