Chapter IV · JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA, ACROSS THE FERRY OF THE QUORRA, BY GUARRI AND ZEGZEG, TO THE CITY OF KANO.

Leaving the banks of that branch of the Quorra called Menai at 10.30 in the morning of the 2d of April, I travelled on the Wawa road as far as the Cambrie villages mentioned on my way to Boussa. Here we turned off south-south-west ½ west., sometimes near the banks of the river; the road winding, woody, and rocky, and cut up into deep ravines, in which there were pools of water, and near which were the traces of numerous wild beasts, but few were seen, and those were of the large species of antelope. At 2 P.M. halted at one of the rocky ravines to water the horses. I heard the Quorra roaring as if there was a waterfall close at hand. I ascended the high rocky bank of the ravine, and the rocky ridge which here formed the banks of the river, where I saw the stream rushing around two low rocky and wooded islands and among several islets and rocks, when taking a sudden short bend to the westward, the waters dashed with great violence against the foot of the rock on which I sat, and which might form a precipice of about fifty feet high above the river. Just below the islands, and nearly half way across, the river had a fall at this time of from three to four feet; the rest of the channel was studded with rocks, some of which were above water. It occurred to me that even if Park and Martin had passed Boussa in safety, they would have been in imminent danger of perishing here, most likely unheard of and unseen. When I attempted to get up and mount my horse, after finishing a rough sketch of the scene, I was taken with a giddiness, and lost the use of my limbs and sight. They carried me under the shade of a tree, where I broke into a profuse perspiration; and at 3.30 being much relieved, I mounted and rode half an hour, when I halted at a village of the Cambrie, called Songa, the inhabitants of which gave me the best hut in the village: but bad was the best; it was infested with rats, scorpions, and centipedes, and the furniture consisted of old nets, rotten wood, and broken gourds: I therefore left it, and remained on a mat in the open air all night. The head man of the village gave me a sheep and some yams, and at my request sent one of his young men to the ferry, to see if my baggage and servants had arrived. I gave the sheep and yams to the two messengers and their attendants. The young Cambrie man returned about midnight with an answer from the taya, saying that Richard would be up with the baggage at the ferry in the morning.

Monday, 3d.—Morning clear and cool. These Cambrie appear to be a lazy, harmless race of negroes; and, as I was informed, inhabit the villages in the woods near the Quorra, in the states of Boussa, Wawa, and Youri. They plant a little corn and yams, and keep a few sheep and goats. The men employ their time in hunting, fishing, and sleeping; the most laborious work falling on the women. They are apparently a mild people; in general tall; more stupid-looking than wild; go with very little clothing, seldom any thing more than a skin round the waist. The young people of both sexes go entirely naked until they have cohabited, when they put on a skin, or tobe, as their circumstances will afford. They are, from their unwarlike and mild dispositions, often very ill used and imposed upon. When any of their rulers has a sudden demand for slaves or sheep, they send and take away from the poor people their children or their flocks; and any of the slaves of the sultans passing through their villages live at free quarters. They are pagans; and their temple here was a platform raised about five feet from the ground, on which were piled the heads of the hippopotamus and the alligator. The upper and under jaws of the alligators appeared in all to be of an equal length. I took some of the teeth from one that was last offered. Their language differs from that of the surrounding inhabitants.

The Quorra at this village was in one whole stream, and not above three-fourths the breadth of the Thames at Somerset House at high water, with a current from about two to two and a half or three knots: the colour of the water red and muddy: the banks on each side the river rising to the height of forty-five or fifty feet; in some places rocky: about a quarter of a mile below, it divided into three rocky streams.

At 7.30 A.M. left Songa: the road through a woody country, cut up by deep ravines with very rocky beds: the rocks mostly of red and gray granite. At 9 A.M. passed between the east end of a rocky hill, composed of porphyry, and the river; the hills on the east side appearing of the same: the river running with great force through this natural gap, which appeared as if cut on purpose to let the waters through. The river between Songa and this is full of rocky islets and rapids. After having passed the hill about a mile, the western bank shelved away from the river, leaving a high ridge by the river side, composed of sand and clay, with occasionally ridges of clay-slate, between which and the high ground it appeared as if it had formerly been the bed of the river, and is now a swamp. The ridge close to the river was studded with villages; the river full of small rocky islands, and occasionally rapids. At 10.30 arrived at the village of Comie, or, as it is more commonly called, Wonjerque, or the king’s ferry. Here the river is all in one stream; and this place is the great ferry of the caravans to and from Houssa, Nyffé, &c. The village is built on the high ground, the bank shelving gradually down to the river side, where there is a second temporary town composed of the huts of the merchants: here and in the village all was bustle and confusion. A caravan going to Gonja was halted on the eastern bank; on the western, the goffle from Gonja, with kolla nuts, &c. The village was filled with horses and men dressed out in their gayest trappings: here merchants were offering horses for sale; there their slaves, with gay glass beads, cords of silk, unwrought silk, and tobes and turkadoes for sale; some dancing and drumming; while others, more wicked, were drinking and rioting. I was provided with a good house, and received presents of milk, honey, eggs, ducks, sheep, and goats, as soon as it was known I had arrived; but I returned the whole of them, and said I would accept of nothing until my servants and baggage arrived. Several people came and said they had left Wawa early in the morning, and that my baggage was on the road. The widow Zuma, who is at a neighbouring village, sent me boiled rice and a fowl, and also an invitation to go and stop at her house until my things came, and I should cross the river; but my anxiety for my baggage, and my being rather unwell, prevented me accepting her invitation. I had a visit from the taya, who declares the baggage will be here in the course of a short time. He has now changed his tone: he says I must buy bullocks and pay for them at once, as he will not carry my baggage: he will buy the bullocks for me, and find men to drive them; that he will sell me those which he has bought from the widow; and that he will trust to my generosity for a present when I arrive at Kano; that my baggage, he said, would be here directly, and advised me to go and stop at the widow’s until it came. Towards evening my anxiety was very great on account of my baggage, as no appearance of it, or any tidings that I could depend upon was to be learnt. The governor’s son of Wawa, who is here, offered to go to Wawa and see what was the reason they had not come.

Tuesday, 4th.—I found on his return from Wawa, to my great surprise, that my baggage would not be allowed to come until the widow Zuma went back to Wawa. “What have I to do with the widow?” I asked him. “Yes, you have,” says he, “and you must come back with me and fetch her.” “Not I,” I answered; “what have I to do with her? If I were governor of Wawa I would bring her back if I wanted her, but I am a stranger.” “Then,” says he, “I will go if you will send a token and a message, to say I come from you.” I gave him my umbrella, but no message, declaring I would not send any. The governor’s son went to the widow, and I went to Wawa, where I arrived at noon. My trusty servant Richard arrived at the same instant from Boussa, where he had been to seek me, and acquaint me of the detention of my property: his only guide, a boy whose language he did not understand, or any other but his own native English. He had seen the sultan and midaki, who understood from the little boy who accompanied him what he had come for. They treated him with great kindness, making him remain all night; and in the morning sent him with two armed men to protect him and to find me, and to desire the governor of Wawa to allow my things to go instantly: a convincing fact that the minds of men here must be much changed for the better since the days of Park and Martin. He had left Wawa yesterday, to come and inform me of the detention of my baggage, and the cause why; which was the widow Zuma’s having left Wawa about half an hour after I did, with drums beating before her, and a train after her, first calling at my house before she waited on the governor; giving Pascoe a female slave for a wife, without the governor’s permission, which I had allowed him to accept; and the widow’s declaration before she went away, that she intended following me to Kano, and come back and make war on the governor, as she had done once before.

I was glad to find all my things safe; and was more amused than vexed to think that I had been so oddly let into the politics of Wawa, and that the old governor meant me no harm, but just to let me see his consequence before I left Wawa. I certainly never would have thought that the widow Zuma would have been at the head of the malcontents in Wawa. I was now let into their politics with a vengeance; and it was believed I was taking a very great share in them. It would have been a fine end to my journey indeed, if I had deposed old Mohamed, and set up for myself, with a walking tun-butt for a queen.

I sent to the governor the instant of my arrival at Wawa, to say I was ready to wait on him. I had tea to refresh me and clear up my ideas; and went, accompanied by his head man. My servant Ali brought the rifle, which was loaded; but I ordered him back with a severe reproof, as I always make a point of going unarmed; as the least show of fear or distrust would most likely cause me to pay dearly for my unnecessary caution. The head man said, “Ah! dua, dua,” or that I had taken medicine to keep me from harm. I found the governor just roused from his noon-day nap, which was done by sound of horn. I put on as many smiles as I was master of, shook hands with him, and asked how he did, and how he had been since I last was blessed with the sight of him. I told him that I had seen the sultan of Boussa, and said what a good and generous man he was; and how well he and the midaki, his wife, and the governor’s sister, had behaved to me. I then said, I was surprised that my things had not come to the water side, according to his promise. He asked if the widow was not going to take them, as he thought she was. I said, I had nothing to do with the widow; I was a servant of the king of England, and it was to him I looked; that I did not know the widow before I came here. “Is she not going to Houssa with you? if she is greater than me, let her take them.” I said, no; it was he, and not the widow: I had nothing to say to her; and I would thank him to send me and my things off as soon as possible. “As soon as the widow comes back,” says he, “you shall go, not until then: send for her.” I said, I would not send for her; I had nothing to do with her. “You allowed your servant to take a female slave from her; send her back; and if the widow comes back to-night you shall go to-morrow.” I said, as to the widow’s coming or going, it was nothing to me: with respect to Pascoe’s returning the girl, that was his affair; and that no offence had been meant to the governor in allowing him to accept her. He said, return her, and he would give him another; and if the widow came to-night I should go in the morning: she was his enemy, and was gone to stir up war against him, as she had done once before. I said, he might blame his head man for my acquaintance with the widow: he was present when she first came to my house; and, as she was an enemy of the governor, he ought to have told me then, and I, as a stranger, and the governor’s guest, would not have allowed her to come to my house. We parted after this, and in the evening he sent me a present of one fowl, yams, milk, and honey.

Wednesday, 5th.—This morning the widow arrived in town, with a drummer beating before her, whose cap was bedecked with ostrich feathers; a bow-man walking on foot at the head of her horse; a train behind, armed with bows, swords, and spears. She rode a-straddle on a fine horse, whose trappings were of the first order for this country. The head of the horse was ornamented with brass plates, the neck with brass bells, and charms sewed in various coloured leather, such as red, green, and yellow; a scarlet breast-piece, with a bright brass plate in the centre; scarlet saddle-cloth, trimmed with lace. She was dressed in red silk trowsers, and red morocco boots; on her head a white turban, and over her shoulders a mantle of silk and gold. Had she been somewhat younger and less corpulent, there might have been great temptation to head her party, for she has certainly been a very handsome woman, and such as would have been thought a beauty in any country in Europe.

After the heat of the day was over, I went to the governor, Pascoe having previously sent back his wife to the widow. They parted without reluctance, though he declared that she had fallen in love with him at first sight. She was the second wife the old fellow has had since we left Badagry: the first he got at Jannah; she turned out to be a thief, a jade, and used to get drunk with the king’s wives at Katunga, for which I was obliged to order her out of the house; but Pascoe, with tears in his eyes, begged me to forgive her, as she really loved him, and he loved her. I was not sorry when I heard, the day we left Katunga, that she had walked off with all the coral and other little trinkets which Mrs. Belzoni had given him before he left England, as I trusted it would be a lesson to him in future. I told the governor that the widow was now arrived, and I wished he would send me off according to his promise. He said, he did not know that she had arrived, but would send for her. He again repeated what he had said yesterday, and so did I; to which I added that I should be sorry if such a foolish affair should have any effect on the good understanding that existed between him and me before I went to Boussa. The widow arrived, having stripped off her finery, and put on only a common country cloth around her, and one female slave in attendance. She saluted the governor according to the custom of the country; that is, by kneeling down on the ground on her knees and elbows, with the palms of her hands before her face. It was some time before the governor spoke: he then began, and gave her a lecture on disobedience and vanity, and asked her where she was going: she said, after some slaves of hers who had run away and gone to Nyffé: with which excuse, after his telling her she did not speak the truth, she was dismissed; and when she got outside the coozie, or hut, she shook the dust from her cloth with the greatest contempt. “That,” says he, “is a bad woman; none of the sultans like her; she will not pay duty on any thing: but you shall go to-morrow.” I went home, determined never to be caught in such a foolish affair in future, as my last journey ought to have taught me never to make friends of the opposition party in any place, for they were always sure to lead to trouble, if not mischief.

As the governor said I should go to-morrow, I took him at his word, and accordingly left Wawa the second time, determined that politics should never bring me back to the place again. We halted at a village of the Cambrie, remained here an hour, then proceeded an hour, and halted at another, where the gentlemen seized a sheep, as they had done at the former place. I gave them a severe lecture, which they listened to very quietly, but killed the sheep, lighted a fire, and roasted it with the skin on, before the poor Cambrie its owner. In the evening I arrived at the ferry, where I had an excellent house, and plenty of presents of sheep, eggs, and honey, sent to me and my friends: the carriers arriving at sunset with the baggage, and living at free quarters on the inhabitants, as they had done on the Cambrie.

Being unwell, I remained at the ferry three days; and on the 10th, about noon, having got all my baggage over, I crossed the Quorra, which at this time was about a quarter of a mile in width, running at the rate of two miles an hour, and in the middle ten or twelve feet deep. The ferry is crossed by canoes of about twenty feet long and two broad. Cattle are occasionally made to swim over.

The four rogues of slaves wanted to cheat me out of my horse, and urgently invited me to pass over first. I told them, when I saw the horses fairly over I would go, but not until then: at which they were evidently much disappointed; and as it was, they succeeded in cheating me out of one which the governor had lent me.

The master of the house in which I lived in Comie, a very respectable man, and formerly head man to the king of Nyffé, but who had fled to escape the civil war, told me that the river was full of rocks and islands nearly the whole way to the sea, which it entered at the town of Fundah; that the people of that country visited the southern parts of Nyffé; that the people of Benin came up by land, and had the river to cross, as they never travelled by water if they could avoid it, it being against their fetish; that the river farther down ran more to the eastward, until joined by the river Kadania, flowing from the east, when it turned to the west, and fell into the sea.

I now proceeded on my journey towards Kano, and having travelled about six miles, came to a walled village called Dallu; and beyond that five miles to El Wata, which appeared to be inhabited by blacksmiths. Though the village was small, I counted, on the way to where I was to lodge, four large blacksmiths’ shops with five forges in each. The blacksmiths were very civil to me; they gave me their best house, some corn for my horses, and a goat and some yams.

The natives of Borgoo, of whom I have now taken leave, and to whom the Arabs and their neighbouring nations give such a bad character for theft and robbery, always behaved honestly to me. I never lost the smallest article while amongst them. I have travelled and hunted alone with them, and myself, servants, and baggage, have been at their mercy. I ever found them cheerful, obliging, good-natured, and communicative; and the plundering of the sheep, goats, &c. from the villages, by the slaves of Yarro and Mohamed of Wawa, was not the act of natives of Borgoo, but of Houssa; as were the four messengers of Wawa, who had also formed a design to plunder me. These persons are nearly half-starved, and possessed with the idea that it is only right their masters’ subjects should feed them when on a journey, as they have no other provision but what they can catch in this manner; and therefore all they can lay their hands on is considered by them as good and lawful prize. They are more warlike than any of their neighbours; more bold and independent also: and parties of two or three will infest the roads of the neighbouring kingdoms, and carry off passengers whom they may meet, and sell them as slaves.

The kingdom, as I have already said, is divided into the petty states of Niki, Kiama, Wawa, and Boussa, of which Boussa is considered the head, Niki the next. The governors are all hereditary as long as they can keep their place. These states sometimes make war upon one another, when the sultan of Boussa interferes, and makes both parties pay. The kingdom is bounded on the east by the Quorra; on the south by Yourriba; on the west by Dahomey; and on the north by a large country called Gourma, which they assert to be inhabited by naked savages, but the Mahomedans say by a civilized people, and governed by a powerful sultan. The country is eleven days’ journey from north to south, and thirty from east to west: its rivers are the Quorra, Moussa, and Oli: its mountains are the range which passes through Yourriba, Youri, Zamfra, Guari, and Zegzeg. The face of the country is partly plain and partly mountainous, abounding in game of all the kinds common to Africa; and the inhabitants are said to be great hunters. Through Borgoo the caravans from Houssa and Bornou pass to Gonja and Yourriba. They have few cattle, but plenty of corn, yams, plantains, and limes. Their religion is paganism, but they offer no human sacrifices.

Tuesday, 11th.—Left El Wata, the country around which is well cultivated. The ant-hills here are the highest I have ever seen, being from fifteen to twenty feet high, resembling so many Gothic cathedrals in miniature. Halted at another walled village to change carriers, which, like El Wata, was also full of blacksmiths. In all the villages I passed through to-day there is a fetish-house, or pagan house of worship, in good repair; showing that the head people and the majority of the inhabitants, though pagans, have a regard for religion. Figures of human beings are painted on these houses, as are also the boa, the alligator, and the tortoise. The country is well cultivated, and planted with corn, and yams, and cotton. They have plenty of sheep and goats, a few small horses, but no cows; and large plantations of bananas and plantains are seen by the river side. The blacksmiths are still in great numbers. They get their iron ore from the hills, which they smelt where they dig it, and which is done without mining. The taya paid me a visit, wishing me to remain at this place to-morrow, as an army of the Fellatas were in Koolfu, on their return to Sockatoo. He still shuffles off his bargain, and begged hard that I would remain here until the day after to-morrow, as the Fellatas would then be gone. I said I had nothing to do with the Fellatas; they would not hurt me: that he had put me off from day to day, always making a fresh bargain, different from the one he had made before. I offered him half the money here, on his giving me proper security; but he began haggling again, and went off without coming to any certain agreement, as he has always done. I however determined to get to Koolfu to-morrow if possible, as these Fellatas are the very people I want to meet, more particularly if they are from Sockatoo.

Wednesday, 12th.—In the afternoon of this day we halted at a village, after crossing a wooden bridge over a stream called the May-yarrow. It was rudely constructed of rough branches covered with earth; long, and so narrow that two horses could not pass at one time. It is the first I have seen in Africa. I remained here only a few minutes, when I went to another village, where the carriers, after setting the baggage down, ran off. As soon as myself and servants arrived we were instantly surrounded by the whole male population of the village, all armed with bows and arrows, their knives in their hands, and bow-rings on their thumbs, perfectly ready for war. I could not help being much amused at their uncalled for alarm; and to prove to them how tranquil I felt, I dismounted from my horse, and sat quietly down on the baggage, ordering my servants to do the same. They pretended not to understand a word of the Houssa language; for that they did not understand it was next to impossible, as not a town or village between this and Badagry occurred in which we did not find one or more that could speak that language; and the Boussa messenger not having come up, we could not talk to them in the Nyffé tongue. For a little time silence prevailed, when all at once they seized on the baggage, each man taking something, until the whole was gone. I now re-mounted, with my servants, and followed. They ran along as fast as it was possible for them, and we rode after them; at length we came to another village, where the people understood Houssa, and asked what I wanted. I said, to stop all night. These voluntary carriers however took up the baggage again, and crossing the May-yarrow by a wooden bridge, entered the town of Tabra, which is in fact the same town I had reached, the river dividing it into two parts. Having also crossed, I was taken with my things in front of the head man’s house; where they questioned and cross-questioned me as to whether I was going to their king or not; but to none of their questions did I think fit to give a direct answer. When they found I was not disposed to commit myself they carried my things to a house for the night. Here for the first time I had to buy wood, grass, and corn: they always asking, “Where is the money?” before they would give me any thing. I sent Ali off to the chief of the Fellatas, with a letter addressed to Bello, as I find they leave Koolfu at day-break. I therefore missed them by being detained and humbugged on the road, through the manœuvres of the taya, who was very anxious I should not see the Fellatas.

Thursday, 13th.—The whole of this day was spent in expectation of my paying a visit to the queen of Nyffé, who is at present residing here; but in the evening I was informed she could not receive me, as the king her husband is absent, at a town called Raba, two days’ journey distant; but that I may see the king’s mother in the morning, who will inform me when and how I am to proceed to Kano. During the night thunder, lightning, and rain.

Friday, 14th.—After breakfast I went and visited the queen-mother, according to last night’s arrangement; I took with me as a present a Chinese crape shawl, part of a string of coral, and a mock gold chain, and some silk. In the outer coozie of her house I found mats spread for me, and a sheep-skin for her majesty. Her male attendants were mostly all old men, without teeth. In this company I remained for near a quarter of an hour. Then came in a number of women past their teens, and seated themselves on the mats opposite to me. They were decently dressed, in short check bed-gowns, the manufacture of the country, with a stuffing in the breast, which made them appear full-breasted. Around their loins they wore striped cotton cloths, which reached down to their ankles. Their woolly hair was dressed in the crest fashion; over which they wore a cap flowered and ornamented with red and white silk; around which there was tied a piece of check, flowered with white silk and fringed at each end, the ends hanging down: this was about the breadth of a broad riband. After sitting in profound silence for some time, they looking at me and I at them; at last her majesty made her appearance, dressed in a large white tobe or shirt. On her head she wore a coarse green cloth cap with two flaps, and trimmed with red tape. She was old, walked with a staff, and had only one eye. I rose to receive her, and shook her by the hand. She sat down on the sheep-skin, and I on the mat beside her. After asking after her health, and she doing the same, and how I had fared on my journey, I began to display my present before her, told her who I was, and where I wished to go. She appeared much gratified with the present, particularly the chain; said I ought to go and see her son the king, who was only two or three days distant, and he would forward me to where I wished, and be glad to see me. I said I would go with pleasure, but the rains had now set in; and that I wished to proceed on my journey with the taya; that I had a great number of books for Bello, and the Sheik of Bornou, and they would all be spoiled if they got wet; that this country was very sickly in the rains; and that three white men who accompanied me had died already. She said she had sent a messenger to her son the night of my arrival; that he would return to-night or to-morrow morning, and he would bring orders to say whether I was to go to Raba, or not; that if I went, they would detain the taya until my return. I said, “Very well; but I must have a horse, as both mine have sore backs.” I then took leave of her majesty, as she is called. A native of Moorzuk, named Mohamed Ben Ahmet, who has long resided in this country, served as my interpreter. He is married to one of the king’s daughters; he is styled in Nyffe El Magia. I had the following account from Ben Ahmet: that this woman was the late king of Nyffe’s relation; that her son Mohamed El Magia, who is a Mahometan, is fighting with the other, who is called Edrisi and a pagan, for the kingdom; that Mohamed is assisted by the Fellatas, and the other, who has the best right, by the people of Nyffe; that Mohamed has gained every battle this summer, and that there is no doubt of his gaining the day; that there is a cessation of hostilities during the rains; that next summer will decide the fate of Edrisi; that Mohamed can read and write Arabic; is a great drunkard, but very generous.

Tabra is on the north bank of the river May-yarrow, over which is a narrow wooden bridge, which will not bear a man and horse. This bridge connects it to a part of the town on the other side the river, which is also surrounded on the three sides by a wall. The two parts may contain from eighteen to twenty thousand inhabitants; they are the occasional residence of the Magia, who has a house here; and it is also the place of his birth. His mother during his absence is considered as governor assisted by the sirtain fada, or master of the ceremonies. There appears to be plenty of sheep and goats, and plantations of yams, plantains, calavances, millet, and limes. The river is always full of water, and may be about twenty yards broad, shaded with large trees; the banks rise with a gentle ascent from the river, and are planted with yams, millet, &c. There are only a few blacksmiths, but a great number of weavers. The inhabitants, with a few exceptions, are pagans, and they all, men and women, have the reputation of being great drunkards. The Houssa caravans pass close to the north side of the town, but seldom halt here. It was deserted last year, when Edrisi was driven here with his army; the inhabitants flying to Ingastrie in Youri, and to the province of Wawa; but are now mostly returned.

Sunday, 16th.—I was visited by the sirtain fada this morning, who had just returned from seeing the Fellatas safe out of Koolfu: he told me that the Benin people, before the civil war began, came here to trade; that the Quorra ran into the sea, behind Benin, at Fundah; that the Nyffe people and those of Benin were the same people; that Benin paid tribute to Nyffe—(this is common with all negroes, to exalt their native country above all others, in their accounts to strangers). He said they got their salt from a town called Affaga, near the sea: this is the Laro or Alaro of Yourriba, and in possession of the Fellatas. In the evening an eunuch, a messenger, arrived from the king, to take me to the Sanson, or gathering-place, where he was; and to stop the taya.

Monday, 17th.—This morning a messenger of the king of Youri arrived, bringing me a present of a camel, to assist in carrying my baggage to Kano. He said the king, before he left Youri, had shown him two books, very large, and printed, that had belonged to the white men, that were lost in the boat at Boussa; that he had been offered a hundred and seventy mitgalls of gold for them, by a merchant from Bornou, who had been sent by a Christian on purpose for them. I advised him to tell the king, that he ought to have sold them; that I would not give five mitgalls for them; but that if he would send them, I would give him an additional present; and that he would be doing an acceptable thing to the king of England by sending them, and that he would not act like a king if he did not. I gave him for his master one of the mock-gold chains, a common sword, and ten yards of silk, and said I would give him a handsome gun and some more silk, if he would send the books. On asking him if there were any books like my journal, which I showed him, he said there was one, but that his master had given it to an Arab merchant ten years ago; but the merchant was killed by the Fellatas on his way to Kano, and what had become of that book afterwards he did not know. He also told me, that the fifteen men whom I had seen at Wawa belonging to Dahomey were slave-merchants; that they had bought a hundred slaves at Youri; that they also bought small red beads that came from Tripoli; that at Wawa they were to get a hundred more slaves, when they would return to Dahomey; that these people bring cloths, earthen ware, brass and pewter dishes, and sell them in Houssa, Nyffe, and Youri, for slaves and beads.

Wednesday, 19th.—Dull and cloudy this morning. The eunuch came with his horse ready saddled, but without one for me. I told him I was all ready, but would not go until he brought me a horse. He then pretended that he was going, and asked if I had no present to send to the king. I said I had, but should give it myself when I saw him; not until then. He then departed; when a Fellata, calling himself a messenger from Bello, residing with the king, came and said he would make the eunuch stop, and removed my baggage and myself to a good and quiet house, as the one I was in was much disturbed by women and children; and it is settled that I am to go with him to the king to-morrow. I have offered two hundred thousand cowries to have my baggage carried, but I cannot even get a letter conveyed to Kano; either so jealous are they of me, or they have an eye to my baggage, about which they have formed anxious conjectures. I had a present from the king’s sister of a sheep, for which she modestly requested a dollar and some beads. My new house is very snug and comfortable. I have three rooms for myself and servants, with houses for my horse and mare, an old man and his wife to look after it, and I can keep out all idle persons.

Thursday, 20th.—Morning clear and warm. I had to remain to-day also, as my guide and messenger, the black eunuch, is gone to the Koolfu market again. At sunset he and Omar Zurmie (or Omar the Brave), the messenger of Bello, waited on me, and told me that they would leave this for the Sanson, or camp, in the course of the night, if I was ready, and that Zurmie had a horse ready for me. I said I was ready at a moment’s notice, and had been the last four days. In the night we had a tornado, with thunder, lightning, and rain.

Friday, 21st.—This morning I left Tabra in company of Omar the Brave, a black eunuch, and Mohamed Ben Ahmet, the Morzukie, as my interpreter and servant; and having travelled twenty-seven miles, came to a village called Kitako, where we passed the night.

Saturday, 22d.—At 1.30 A.M. left Kitako. The moon through the thick clouds just enabling us, by the assistance of two Amars (spearmen) who went a-head, to thread our way through the thick woods, and over some of the most ticklish wooden bridges that ever man and horse passed over. The morning was raw and cold, and the path slippery and wet. At 4.30 I got so unwell and unable to bear the motion of the horse, that I dismounted, and lay down on the wet ground without covering, or any thing underneath me; for there are times when a man, to get rid of his present sickness, will try any remedy, whatever may be the after consequences: this was my case, and I lay until six, when I rose much better of my sickness, but with severe pains in the bones. A short while after starting, I crossed over the wall of a ruined town called Jinne, or Janne, through plantations of indigo and cotton, choked up with weeds. The morning was raw and cloudy. A few of the ragged inhabitants were up; two or three of the most miserable starved horses I ever saw were tied to stakes close to the few huts that were rebuilt, their backs dreadfully lacerated, the skin being nearly off from the shoulder to the rump, and their eyes running with matter. Only for the verdure of the trees at this season, and a beautiful stream of clear water, whose banks were planted with plantain and palm-oil trees, this would have been one of the most miserable scenes I ever saw in my life. After passing the stream twice, without bridges, whose banks were very steep and slippery, with several deep round holes, as man traps, on each side the road, I ascended the plain above, from whence I saw the ruins of several other towns and villages along the banks of the ravine. At eight passed the ruins of another town; and at nine I met, attended by a great rabble, armed with pickaxes, hoes, and hatchets, Mohamed El Magia, or the would-be king, mounted on horseback, and halted under a tree. When they told me there was the Magia waiting to receive me, I rode up and shook hands with him. He asked me after my health, and how I had fared on the road, and then told the eunuch who was with me to take me to his house; he then rode past, as I was informed, to complete the ruin of the last, as I thought already ruined, town I had passed through. He was mounted on a good bay horse, whose saddle was ornamented with pieces of silver and brass; the breastpiece with large silver plates hanging down from it, like what is represented in the prints of Roman and eastern emperors’ horses. He is a tall man, with a sort of stupid expression of countenance, having a large mouth and snagged teeth, with which he makes himself look worse when he attempts to smile, and looks indeed like any thing but a king or a soldier. He wore a black velvet cap, with two flaps over the ears, and trimmed with red silk, a blue and white striped tobe, red boots, part of leather and part red cloth, in rags; in his hand he had a black staff, with a silver head; his slaves were carrying a coast-made umbrella and his sword. I paid him every decent respect, and put on as many smiles as I was able, as I know that those ragged and dirty rogues, when they have power, have more pride than a real king, and expect a great deal more respect, and cannot bear a man to look serious. At ten I arrived at the Sanson, or camp, where I was lodged in the eunuchs’ part, having a small unoccupied hut separated from the rest allotted for me to live in. Here I was left to myself until 3 P.M., when the eunuch came and told me the king had arrived, and wished to see me. I went directly, taking a present, which I displayed before him. When the articles were taken away by an eunuch, I told him who and what I was, where I was going, and that I wanted his assistance and protection to the governors of Guari or Zegzeg, in Houssa; that I had been well treated by every king and governor between Badagry on the sea-coast, to Tabra in his dominions, and I hoped for the same favourable reception from him. He said it was easy to do all that I had asked, and he would do it.

Sunday, 23d.—This morning I was much better, having shut my little straw hut up as close as possible, so that I was as if in a steam bath all night. I have ever found this and fasting a good cure for most disorders.

The king went through the camp, attended by a great rabble, a slave carrying the umbrella I had given him over his head. He paid me a visit, and began, as soon as he had seated himself, to show me his staff of authority, a black stick, about four feet long, with a silver head. He said I had got some of the same kind, and he wanted one. I said I could not indulge him with one, unless I gave him that intended for Bello. He then begged my travelling knife and fork. I said, “What, then, I am to go without, and eat with my fingers! he had better go to Tabra, and take all I had.” He observed he would certainly not do that; that he would send me to Kano, and that I should go in five or six days after this. He then went home, and sent me, as a present, a small country horse, which will do well enough for Pascoe to ride. I have now two horses and a mare.

The Sanson, or camp, is like a large square village, built of small bee-hive-like huts, thatched with straw, having four large broad streets, and with a square or clear place near the huts of the king. Only for the number of horses feeding, and some picketed near the huts, and the men all going armed, and numbers of drums beating, it would pass for a well-inhabited village. Here are to be seen weavers, taylors, women spinning cotton, others reeling off, some selling foo-foo and accassons, others crying yams and paste, little markets at every green tree, holy men counting their beads, and dissolute slaves drinking roa bum.

Monday, 24th.—Morning cool and cloudy. In the early part of the morning I went to take leave of the king, whom I found in his hut, surrounded by Fellatas, one of whom was reading the Koran aloud for the benefit of the whole; the meaning of which not one of them understood, not even the reader. This may seem odd to an Englishman; but it is very common for a man, both in Bornou and Houssa, to be able to read the Koran fluently, and not understand a word in it but “Allah,” or able to read any other book. They left off reading when I came in; and as soon as the compliments of the morning were over, the king begged me to give him my sword, which I flatly refused, but promised to give him the five dollars, the staff, and the pistol, whenever I was permitted to leave this for Kano, which he promised I should do, and pointed out a person whom he said he would send with me as a messenger; and that a merchant from Koolfu would come and agree about the price he was to have for carrying my baggage. I thanked him, and took my leave. He is one of the most beggarly rogues I have yet met with; every thing he saw or heard that I was possessed of he begged, not like a person that wished to have them because they were scarce or rare, but with a mean greediness that was disgusting. Though I had given him a better present than he had ever got in his life before, he told me that I said “No, no,” to every thing he asked for. He has been the ruin of his country by his unnatural ambition, and by calling in the Fellatas, who will remove him out of the way the moment he is of no more use to them; even now he dares not move without their permission. It is said that he has put to death his brother and two of his sons. Through him the greater part of the industrious population of Nyffé have either been killed, sold as slaves, or fled from their native country. To remove him now would be charity; and the sooner the better for his country.

At 8.30 in the morning I left the Sanson, and riding on ahead of old Malam Fama, the Morzukie, I halted under a tree at eleven to let the horses feed, and the Malam to come up with the sheep. At noon, Mahomed having joined, I started with a plundering party who were going the same road. They told me they were going to seize some villagers who had returned to build up their ruined huts and sow a little millet without first praying for leave to the Magia. On crossing one of the small rivers and ascending the steep and slippery bank, the chief of this band checked his horse, and both horse and rider fell souse into the water. He was close behind me, but I left his companions to pick him up. On the 25th we once more reached Tabra.

I have observed more people with bad teeth and the loss of the front teeth in Nyffé than any other country in Africa, or indeed any other country. The males mostly are those who lose their teeth. Whether it may arise from the universal custom of chewing snuff mixed with natron or not, I do not pretend to say. The white of the eye in the black population is in general bilious-looking and bloodshot. There is scarcely one exception, unless it be in those below eighteen or twenty years of age.

Tuesday, May 2.—This morning I left Tabra, and travelling along the banks of the May-yarrow, passed the walled village of Gonda. Having crossed a stream coming from the north, and running into the May-yarrow, I entered the walled town of Koolfu, the greatest market town in this portion of Nyffé, and resorted to by trading people from all parts of the interior. I was provided with a good house; and the head man of the town, a plausible fellow, was very officious, but at the same time giving broad hints for a present. Mohamed Kalu, the madagoo or head man of the goffle from Bornou, has to remain here until after the Rhamadan. I was visited by all the principal people in the place, as a matter of curiosity, though many of them had seen me at Tabra.

Monday, 8th.—Clear and cool. The house in which I live is one of the best in Koolfu. I have three separate coozies parted off from the rest of the house, and a place for my stud, which now amounts to two horses and a mare. My landlady is a widow, large, fat, and deaf, with an only child, a daughter, about five years old; a spoiled child. The widow Laddie, as she is called, is considered to be very rich. She is a merchant; sells salt, natron, and various other articles: but what she is most famed for is her booza and roa bum, as the palm wine is called; and every night the large outer hut is filled with the topers of Koolfu, who are provided with music as well as drink, and keep it up generally until the dawn of morning separates them. Their music consists of the drum, erbab, or guitar of the Arabs, the Nyffé harp, and the voice. Their songs are mostly extempore, and allude to the company present. The booza is made from a mixture of doura, or Guinea corn, honey, Chili pepper, the root of a coarse grass on which the cattle feed, and a proportion of water: these are thrown in equal proportions into large earthen jars, open at top, and are allowed to ferment near a slow fire for four or five days, when the booza is fit to drink, and is put into earthen jars. It is a very fiery and intoxicating beverage; but, whether Mohamedan or pagan, they all drink, and agree very well together when in their cups. At first neither I nor my servants could sleep for their noise, but now I have got used to it. This night the new moon was seen, and Mohamedan and pagan joined in the cry of joy. My landlady had thirteen pieces of wood, on each of which was written by the Bornou malem the word “Bismillah,” the only word he could write. These boards she then washed and drank the water, and gave to her family to drink. She offered some of it to me; but I said I never drank dirty water: and I thought that if she and her servants had taken a comfortable cup of booza or bum it would have done them more good than drinking the washings of a board written over with ink; for the man was a rogue who had made her pay for such stuff. “What!” says she, “do you call the name of God dirty water? it was good to take it.” These rogues, who call themselves malems, impose on the poor ignorant people very much; and the pagans are as fond of having these charms as the Mohamedans. These dirty draughts are a cure for all evils, present and to come, and are called by the people dua. Some of their fighting men will confine themselves to their houses for thirty or forty days, fasting during the day, and only drinking and washing with this dirty stuff. If a man is fortunate, or does any feat above the common, it is attributed to the dua, or medicine: neither his wit nor the grace of God gains a man any thing.

Tuesday, 9th.—Clear and warm. The new moon having been seen last night put an end to the fast of the Rhamadan; and this day is kept throughout the northern interior by Mohamedan and Kafir. Every one was dressed in his best, paying and receiving visits, giving and receiving presents, parading the streets with horns, guitars, and flutes; groups of men and women seated under the shade at their doors, or under shady trees, drinking roa bum or booza. I also had my share of visitors: the head man of the town came to drink hot water, as they call my tea. The chief of Ingaskie, the second town in Youri, only a day’s journey distant, sent me a present of a sheep, some rice, and a thousand gora nuts, for which he expects double the amount in return. The women were dressed and painted to the height of Nyffé perfection; and the young and modest on this day would come up and salute the men as if old acquaintances, and bid them joy on the day; with the wool on their heads dressed, plaited, and dyed with indigo; their eyebrows painted with indigo, the eyelashes with khol, the lips stained yellow, the teeth red, and their feet and hands stained with henna; their finest and gayest clothes on; all their finest beads on their necks; their arms and legs adorned with bracelets of glass, brass, and silver, their fingers with rings of brass, pewter, silver, and copper; some had Spanish dollars soldered on the back of the rings. They, too, drank of the booza and roa bum as freely as the men, joining in their songs, whether good or bad. In the afternoon, parties of men were seen dancing: free men and slaves all were alike; not a clouded brow was to be seen in Koolfu; but at nine in the evening the scene was changed from joy and gladness to terror and dismay; a tornado had just began, and the hum of voices and the din of people putting their things under cover from the approaching storm had ceased at once. All was silent as death, except the thunder and the wind. The clouded sky appeared as if on fire; each cloud rolling towards us as a sea of flame, and only surpassed in grandeur and brightness by the forked lightning, which constantly seemed to ascend and descend from what was now evidently the town of Bali on fire, only a short distance outside the walls of Koolfu. When this was extinguished a new scene began, if possible worse than the first. The wind had increased to a hurricane; houses were blown down; roofs of houses going along with the wind like chaff, the shady trees in the town bending and breaking; and, in the intervals between the roaring of the thunder, nothing heard but the war-cry of the men and the screams of women and children, as no one knew but that an enemy was at hand, and that we should every instant share in the fate of Bali. I had the fire-arms loaded when I learned this, and stationed Richard and Pascoe at the door of each hut, and took the command of my landlady’s house, securing the outer door, and putting all the fires out. One old woman roasting ground nuts, quite unconcerned, made as much noise as if she had been going to be put to death when the water was thrown over her fire. At last the rain fell: the fire in Bali had ceased by its being wholly burnt down. In our house we escaped with the roof blown off one coozie, and a shed blown down. All was now quiet; and I went to rest with that satisfaction every man feels when his neighbour’s house is burnt down and his own, thank God! has escaped.

Sunday, 14th.—Mohamed, the Fezzanie, whom I had hired at Tabra, and whom I had sent to the chief of Youri for the books and papers of the late Mungo Park, returned, bringing me a letter from that person, which contained the following account of the death of that unfortunate traveller: that not the least injury was done to him at Youri, or by the people of that country; that the people of Boussa had killed them, and taken all their riches; that the books in his possession were given him by the Imam of Boussa; that they were lying on the top of the goods in the boat when she was taken; that not a soul was left alive belonging to the boat; that the bodies of two black men were found in the boat chained together; that the white men jumped overboard; that the boat was made of two canoes joined fast together, with an awning or roof behind; that he, the sultan, had a gun, double-barrelled, and a sword, and two books that had belonged to those in the boat; that he would give me the books whenever I went to Youri myself for them, not until then.

Monday, 15th.—I am still very weak; Richard worse. I had a letter from the learned Abdurahman, of Kora, a noted chief of banditti, and who once, with his followers, overran Nyffé, and held possession of the capital six months. He now keeps the town of Kora, a day’s journey to the north-east, and is much feared by Mohamedan and Kafir. He is a native of Nyffé. He is particularly anxious that I should visit him, as he wants my acquaintance, and begs I will give him the Psalms of David in Arabic, which he hears I have got. His letter was written on part of the picture of the frontispiece of an European book, apparently Spanish or Portuguese. He says he has something to communicate to me, which cannot be done but by a personal interview; but unless he come to Koolfu I told his messenger, I could not see him.

Tuesday, 23d.—Cool and cloudy. A large caravan arrived from Yourriba. They had come through Borgoo, where they sold what natron they had remaining after they left Yourriba. They were in Katunga when I was there; but were forbidden to hold any communication with us, on pain of having their throats cut. They told me that my friend the fat eunuch had endeavoured to hire a man to assassinate me, but that they were all afraid. There are strong reports of a war between the Sheik El Kanami and the Fellatas. They say the sheik has taken the city of Hadija, and that the governor of Kano is gone out to meet him, as he is advancing upon Kano. Whether it is a report to please the Nyffé people, who cannot bear the Fellatas, or not, I do not know. We had a number of such reports when in Bornou last journey. In the evening a messenger from the sultan of Boussa arrived, bringing me a present of a beautiful little mare. The messenger of the sultan was accompanied by another person from the midaki, a female slave, bringing me rice, yams, and butter. He brought a message from the sultan desiring me to kill a she-goat, and distribute the flesh amongst the inhabitants of Koolfu the day before I left it; that he had distributed gora nuts and salt for me at Boussa, which would do for Koolfu. I was also desired not to eat any meat that came cooked from the west, and which would be sent by the Magia’s female relations from Tabra, as they intended to take away my life by poison. Through the night continual rain, thunder, and lightning.

Thursday, 25th.—Sent Sheeref Mohamed to Raba, a town possessed by the Fellatas, three days south of this, on the banks of the Quorra, with a message to the late Imam of Boussa, who, he says, has got some of the books belonging to the late Mungo Park: one, he tells me, was carried to Yourriba by a Fellata, as a charm and preservative against musket balls. He is either to buy them, or I will give him Arabic books for them in exchange.

Friday, June 17th.—This evening I was talking with a man that is married to one of my landlady’s female slaves, called her daughter, about the manners of the Cumbrie and about England; when he gave the following account of the death of Park and his companions, of which he was an eye-witness: He said that when the boat came down the river, it happened unfortunately just at the time that the Fellatas first rose in arms, and were ravaging Goober and Zamfra; that the sultan of Boussa, on hearing that the persons in the boat were white men, and that the boat was different from any that had ever been seen before, as she had a house at one end, called his people together from the neighbouring towns, attacked and killed them, not doubting that they were the advance guard of the Fellata army then ravaging Soudan, under the command of Malem Danfodio, the father of the present Bello; that one of the white men was a tall man with long hair; that they fought for three days before they were all killed; that the people in the neighbourhood were very much alarmed, and great numbers fled to Nyffé and other countries, thinking that the Fellatas were certainly coming among them. The number of persons in the boat was only four, two white men and two blacks: that they found great treasure in the boat; but that the people had all died who eat of the meat that was found in her. This account I believe to be the most correct of all that I have yet got; and was told without my putting any questions, or showing any eagerness for him to go on with his story. I was often puzzled to think, after the kindness I had received at Boussa, what could have caused such a change in the minds of these people in the course of twenty years, and of their different treatment of two European travellers. I was even disposed at times to flatter myself that there was something in me that belonged to nobody else, to make them treat me and my people with so much kindness; for the friendship of the king of Boussa I consider as my only protection in this country.

Koolfu, or, as it is called by many, Koolfie, is the principal town for trade in Nyffé at present; and at all times a central point for trade in this part of the interior. It is situated on the north bank of the river May-yarrow; and it is surrounded by a clay wall about twenty feet high, and has four gates. It is built in the form of an oblong square, having its longest diameter from east to west; there is a long irregular street runs through it, from which lead a number of smaller streets. There are two large open spaces near the east and west ends of the town, in which are booths, and large shady trees, to protect the people from the heat of the sun, when attending the markets, which are daily held in those places: there are, besides the daily markets, two weekly markets on Mondays and Saturdays, which are resorted to by traders and people inhabiting the sea coast. Ajoolly and the other towns in Yourriba, Cubbi, Youri, Borgoo, Sockatoo, and Zamfra on the north, Bornou and Houssa on the east, and, before the civil war, people from Benin, Jabbo, and the southern parts of Nyffé, used to resort to this town as a central point of trade, where the natives of the different countries were sure to get a ready sale for their goods; either selling them for cowries, or exchanging them for others by way of barter. Those who sold their goods for cowries attend the market daily, and when they have completed their sale, buy at once the goods or wares they want, and return home. Such is the way of the small traders, who are nine out of ten women, and are principally from the west part of the Quorra, even as far off as Niki: they carry their goods on their heads in packages, from sixty to eighty and a hundred pounds weight. The goods these people bring from the west are principally salt, and cloths worn by the women round their loins, of about six yards in length and two in breadth, made of the narrow striped cloth, in which red silk is generally woven, and a great deal of blue cotton; this is called Azane, and the best are worth about three thousand to five thousand cowries, or two dollars:—Jabbo cloths, which are about the same length as the others, and about the breadth of our sail-cloth, are worn by slaves, and have a stripe or two of blue in them; the poor classes also wear them, men and women:—Peppers, called monsoura, shitta, and kimba; monsoura is like our East India pepper; shitta is the malagetta pepper of the coast; kimba is a small thin pepper, growing on a bush, near the sea coast, in Yourriba, of a red colour, like Chili pepper:—Red wood from Benin, which is pounded to a powder and made into a paste; women and children are rubbed with this, mixed with a little grease, every morning; and very frequently a woman is to be seen with a large score of it on her face, arms, or some part of her body, as a cure for some imaginary pain or other:—A small quantity of calico or red cloth is sometimes brought, which is of European manufacture. They take back principally natron, beads made at Venice of various kinds, and come by the way of Tripoli and Ghadamis, and unwrought silk of various colours, principally red, of about one ounce in weight, and is sold here at three thousand cowries; it and natron are as good as cowries.

The caravans from Bornou and Houssa, which always halt here a considerable time, bring horses, natron, unwrought silk, beads, silk cords, swords that once belonged to Malta, exchanged for bullocks at Bengazie, in the regency of Tripoli, sent to Kano and remounted, and then sold all over the desert and the interior; these swords will sell for ten or twenty dollars a piece or that value, and sometimes more; cloths made up in the Moorish fashion; looking-glasses of Italian manufacture from about a penny a piece to a shilling in Malta; tobes or large shirts undyed, made in Bornou; khol or lead used as blacking for the eye-lids; a small quantity of ottar of roses, much adulterated; sweet smelling gum from Mecca; a scented wood also from the East; silks the manufacture of Egypt; turbans; red Moorish caps with blue silk tassels; and sometimes a few tunics of checked silk and linen made in Egypt: the last are generally brought by Arabs. A number of slaves are also brought from Houssa and Bornou, who are either sold here or go further on. The Bornou caravans never go further than this place, though generally some of their number accompany the Houssa merchants to Agolly in Yourriba, Gonja, and Borgoo, from which they bring Kolla or Gora nuts, cloth of woollen, printed cottons, brass and pewter dishes, earthenware, a few muskets, a little gold, and the wares mentioned before as brought from Yourriba. They carry their goods on bullocks, asses, and mules; and a great number of fine women hire themselves to carry loads on their heads; their slaves, male and female, are also loaded. The Bornou merchants, during their stay, stop in the town in the houses of their friends or acquaintances, and give them a small present on their arrival and departure, for the use of the house. The Houssa merchants stop outside the walls in little straw huts or leathern tents, which they erect themselves. They sell their goods and wares in their houses or tents; the small wares they send to the market and round to the different houses by their slaves to sell; there are also a number of male and female brokers in the town, whom they also intrust. The pedlers or western merchants always live in the houses of the town, and attend the markets daily, employing their spare time in spinning cotton, which they provide themselves with on their arrival, and support themselves by this kind of labour. There have been no fewer than twenty-one of these mercantile women living in my landlady’s house at one time, all of them from Yourriba and Borgoo: these women attend the markets at the different towns between this and their homes, buying and selling as they go along. The caravans from Cubbi, Youri, and Zamfra, bring principally slaves and salt, which they exchange for natron, Gora nuts, beads, horses, tobes dyed of a dark blue, having a glossy and coppery tinge. The slaves intended for sale are confined in the house, mostly in irons, and are seldom allowed to go out of it, except to the well or river every morning to wash; they are strictly guarded on a journey, and chained neck to neck; or else tied neck to neck in a long rope of raw hide, and carry loads on their heads consisting of their master’s goods, or his household stuff; these loads generally from fifty to sixty pounds weight. A stranger may remain a long time in a town without seeing any of the slaves, except by accident, or making particular inquiry. The duties which traders pay here are collected by the people of Tabra, who take twenty cowries from every loaded person, forty for an ass, and fifty for a loaded bullock.

The inhabitants may amount to from twelve to fifteen thousand, including all classes, the slave and the free; they are mostly employed in buying and selling, though there are a great number of dyers, tailors, blacksmiths, and weavers, yet all these are engaged in buying and selling; few of these descriptions ever go on distant journeys to trade, and still fewer attend the wars, except it be to buy slaves from the conquerors. I have seen slaves exposed for sale here, the aged, infirm, and the idiot, also children at the breast, whose mothers had either fled, died, or been put to death. The domestic slaves are looked upon almost as the children of the family, and if they behave well, humanely treated: the males are often freed, and the females given in marriage to freemen, at other times to the male domestic slaves of the family; when such is the case a house is given to them, and if he be a mechanic, he lives in the town, and works at his trade; if not, in the country, giving his owner part of the produce, if not made free; in both cases they always look upon the head of such owner’s family as their lord, and call him or her father or mother.

The food of the free and the slave is nearly the same; perhaps the master or mistress may have a little fat flesh, fish, or fowl, more than their slaves, and his meat is served in a separate place and dish; but the greatest man or woman in the country is not ashamed at times to let their slaves eat out of the same dish, but a woman is never allowed to eat with a man. Their food consists of ground maize, made into puddings or loaves, and about half a pound each, sold at five cowries each in the market; of flummery, or, as they call it in Scotland, sowens, made from the ground millet, which is allowed to stand covered with water, until it gets a little sour; it is then well stirred and strained through a strainer of basketwork into another vessel, when it is left to settle, and the water being strained off, it is dried in the sun; when perfectly dry, it is broken into lumps and kept in a sack or basket; when used it is put into boiling water, and well stirred, until of a sufficient thickness; this makes a very pleasant and healthy breakfast with a little honey or salt, and is sold in the market at two cowries a pint every morning, and is called Koko. They have a pudding made of ground millet, boiled in the ley of wood ashes, which gives a red colour; this is always eaten with fat or stewed meat, fish, or fowl. They always stew or grill their meat: when we have it in any quantity it is half grilled and smoked, to preserve until it is wanted to be used. Boiled beans made up in papers of a pound or a half pound each, and wrapped in leaves, sold for two cowries each, and called waki. Beans dried in the sun sold at one cowrie a handful. Small balls of boiled rice, mixed with rice flower, called Dundakaria, a cowrie a piece, mixed with water, and serves as meat and drink. Small balls of rice, mixed with honey and pepper, called Bakaroo, sold at five cowries each. Small balls made from bean flowers, fried in fat, like a bunch of grapes. Their intoxicating draughts are the palm wine called roa bum, bouza, and aquadent, very much adulterated and mixed with pepper.

At daylight the whole household arise: the women begin to clean the house, the men to wash from head to foot; the women and children are then washed in water, in which the leaf of a bush has been boiled called Bambarnia: when this is done, breakfast of cocoa is served out, every one having their separate dish, the women and children eating together. After breakfast the women and children rub themselves over with the pounded red wood and a little grease, which lightens the darkness of the black skin. A score or patch of the red powder is put on some place where it will show to the best advantage. The eyes are blacked with khol. The mistress and the better looking females stain their teeth and the inside of the lips of a yellow colour with gora, the flower of the tobacco plant, and the bark of a root: the outer part of the lips, hair, and eye-brows, are stained with shuni, or prepared indigo. Then the women who attend the market prepare their wares for sale, and when ready go. The elderly women prepare, clean, and spin cotton at home and cook the victuals; the younger females are generally sent round the town selling the small rice balls, fried beans, &c. and bringing a supply of water for the day. The master of the house generally takes a walk to the market, or sits in the shade at the door of his house, hearing the news, or speaking of the price of natron or other goods. The weavers are daily employed at their trade; some are sent to cut wood, and bring it to market; others to bring grass for the horses that may belong to the house, or to take to the market to sell; numbers, at the beginning of the rainy season, are employed in clearing the ground for sowing the maize and millet; some are sent on distant journeys to buy and sell for their master or mistress, and very rarely betray their trust. About noon they return home, when all have a mess of the pudding called waki, or boiled beans, and about two or three in the afternoon they return to their different employments, on which they remain until near sunset, when they count their gains to their master or mistress, who receives it, and puts it carefully away in their strong room. They then have a meal of pudding and a little fat or stew. The mistress of the house, when she goes to rest, has her feet put into a cold poultice of the pounded henna leaves. The young then go to dance and play, if it is moonlight, and the old to lounge and converse in the open square of the house, or in the outer coozie, where they remain until the cool of the night, or till the approach of morning drives them into shelter.

Their marriages are the same amongst the Mohamedans as they are in other countries, where they profess that faith. The pagan part first agree to go together, giving the father and mother a present, and, if rich, the present is sent with music, each separate article being borne on the head of a female slave. The Mohamedans bury in the same manner as they do in other parts of the world. The pagans dig a round hole like a well, about six feet deep, sometimes in the house, sometimes in the threshold of the door, and sometimes in the woods: the corpse is placed in a sitting posture, with the wrists tied round the neck, the hams and legs close to the body: a hole is left at the mouth of the grave, and the relations and acquaintances leave tobes, cloth, and other articles at the small round hole, and telling the dead persons to give this to so and so: these things are always removed before the morning by the priest. The majority of the inhabitants of Koolfu profess to be Mahometans, the rest Pagans, whose mode of worship I never could learn, except that they, like the inhabitants of the other towns in Nyffé, attended once a year in one of the southern provinces, where there was a high hill, on which they sacrificed a black bull, a black sheep, and a black dog. The figures on their houses of worship are much the same as in Yourriba: the lizard, crocodile, the tortoise, and the boa-serpent, with sometimes men and women. Their language is a dialect of the Yourriba, but the Houssa tongue is the language of the market. Their houses and court are kept very clean, as also the court-yard, which is sprinkled every morning with water, having the shell of the bean of the mitta tree boiled in it, which stains it of a dark brown colour; and each side of the doors of the coozies or huts are stained with indigo and ornamented with figures. The women have the stone for grinding the corn, pepper, &c. raised on a clay bench inside the house, so that they can stand upright while they grind the corn; an improvement to be seen in no other part of the interior, or in Fezzan, the women having to sit on their knees when grinding corn. Their gourd dishes are also of the first order for cleanliness, neatness, and good carving and staining, as also their mats, straw bags, and baskets.

They are civil, but the truth is not in them, and to be detected in a lie is not the smallest disgrace, it only causes a laugh. They are also great cheats. The men drink very hard, even the Mahometans; and the women are generally of easy virtue. Notwithstanding all this against them, they are a people of a natural good disposition; for when it is considered that they have been twice burnt out of the town by the enemy within the last six years, and that they have had a civil war desolating the country for the last seven years, and been subject to the inroads of the Fellatas during twenty years, and having neither established law nor government but what a present sense of right and wrong dictates, I am surprised that they are as good as they are.

I witnessed while here several acts of real kindness and goodness of heart to one another. When the town of Bali was burnt down, every person sent next day what they could spare of their goods, to assist the unfortunate inhabitants. My landlady, who has given away a number of her female slaves to freemen for wives, looks upon them as her own children, attending them when sick; and one who had a child while I was here, at the giving it a name, she sent seventy different dishes of meat, corn, and drink, to assist at the feast on that occasion. In all my dealings with them they tried and succeeded in cheating me, but they had an idea that I was possessed of inexhaustible riches; and besides, I differed with them in colour, in dress, in religion, and in my manner of living. I was considered therefore as a pigeon for them to pluck. Had they been rogues, indeed, they might have taken all I had; but, on the contrary, I never had an article stolen, and was even treated with the most perfect respect and civility they were masters of.

I believe it is generally considered in England, that when a negro slave is attached to his master, he will part with his life for him. Instances of this kind are not so common as they ought to be, when it is considered that all of these slaves are brought up from their childhood, and know no other parent or protector; and if they were to run away, or behave so ill as to cause him to sell them, they would never be so well off as they were before. Those who are taken when grown-up men or women, and even boys and girls, run whenever an opportunity offers, and, whenever they can, take their owner’s goods or cattle to assist them on their journey. Instances of this kind happened every night.

They have very few bullocks, sheep, or goats, in the country; but that is owing to the desolating war. Corn they have in abundance, as that cannot be driven away by plundering parties. The surrounding country is a level plain, well cultivated, and studded with little walled towns and villages, along the banks of the May-yarrow, and another little river running into it from the north. It is subject to the Majia, but never visited by him or his people, except to attend the market, or collect the duties from the traders. The town of Kufu, at a short distance (not a mile), has a quarrel with another little town about half a mile from it, called Lajo, the latter having taken the wife of a man, whom they thought they had killed and left for dead, and selling her; hence arose a regular system of retaliation; and they take and sell one another whenever they have an opportunity. Every other night almost the war-cry was raised about stealing asses, oxen, or murder; and sometimes the inhabitants of Koolfu would join in the fray, always siding with Kufu.

Monday, 19th.—Having been detained thus long at Koolfu, by my own and my servant Richard’s illness, we left it this morning, accompanied by the head man and the principal inhabitants of Koolfu, who went with me as far as the walled and warlike village of Kufu, where I stopped for the night. Here the head man of Koolfu introduced me to the head man of Kufu, who provided me with a good house, and made me a present of a sheep and some cooked meat. I had also presents of meat sent me by the principal inhabitants. The people of Kufu, not satisfied with having frequently seen me and my servants at Koolfu, are in the habit of mounting some trees growing on a small hill close to and overlooking my house and court-yard, to get another and a last look: party came after party until sunset, when they went away.

My landlady, the widow Laddie, also accompanied me to Kufu, where she remained all night. I thought it had been out of a great regard for me; but I was soon let into the secret, by five of her slaves arriving with booza and bum, which she began selling in my court-yard to the different merchants, bullock-drivers, and slaves assembled here, who are going to the eastward.

The village of Kufu is walled, and only about two musket shots from the other walled village, which is to the south, and with whom they are at heavy war. The space between is generally occupied by the caravans bound to the eastward, who usually halt here for a week to complete their purchases at the market of Koolfu before they start. The country around has a rich and clay soil, planted with indigo, cotton, Indian corn, and yams.

Tuesday, 20th.—Having given the head man of Kufu thirty Gora nuts, with which he was well pleased, and loaded the bullocks, horse, ass, and camel, at 6 A.M. left Kufu. The path, or road, through a woody country: the trees consisting mostly of the micadania, or butter tree, which does not grow to a large size; the largest only about the size of our apple trees in Europe, and this only seldom: their girth is not above two or three feet. The path was winding; the soil a deep red clay, covered with a thin layer of sand.

Wednesday, 21st.—After passing a great number of towns and villages, we arrived at a walled town called Bullabulla, where we encamped outside. As soon as my tent was pitched, I was surrounded by the inhabitants. They were quite amused with my hat; and the women soon found that I was a stranger, and no Moslem, and charged me three times as much for any thing I wanted to buy as they would any body else. They brought boiled beans, fowls, pudding, goats, sheep, wood, and water, for sale. The young men were dressed in a very fanciful manner, with a bandeau of beads, red and white; the wool cut short, and shaved in circles and straight lines; round the neck strings of red and white beads, with pendants of white beads attached to the lowest string, and reaching to the upper part of the breast; round the loins a tanned sheep or goat’s skin, cut into thongs, to the ends of which were attached beads or cowrie shells. Those who pretended to be Mahometans wore a tobe or large loose shirt; but these were few in number, not more than two or three.

The young women wore a string of large beads round the loins; where they had not beads they had pieces of bone, round which was twisted a piece of narrow brown or blue cloth; the beads, bone, or cloth, showing alternately, and hanging down about a foot before and behind, fringed at the end, with cowries or beads attached to the ends of the fringe. They appeared a good looking active set of people, but suspicious. Every two or three women had an armed man to attend them, and to see that they got paid for what they sold. By all accounts they are very ill used, both by their rulers and those who are not. Their wives and children are stolen and made slaves by every one who can seize them; and rulers, whenever a demand is made on them, take them by force and sell them as slaves.

Thursday, 22d.—Left Bullabulla, and travelled through plantations of grain, indigo, and cotton; the soil and clay mixed with sand, and here and there large blocks of sandstone, in which were nodules of iron, and veins of clay ironstone; the face of the country diversified with hills and dales; some of the hills to the south rising into table-topped mounts; the country open and clear; every thing at this season looking green and gay. Halted at the walled town of Rajadawa, the head man of which wished me to stop in the town, but I preferred halting outside. He sent me a present of cooked meat, rice, and honey. I gave him in return three yards of silk, a pair of scissors, and fifty Gora nuts. At this town they take, for the chief of Youri, from every loaded bullock 500 cowries, and from every loaded ass 300 cowries. The inhabitants are Cumbrie and pagans, except the head man and about a dozen others, who profess to be Mahometans. They say the governor, like his master of Youri, is a great rogue; and invites people within his walls to detain them, and screw as much out of them as he can. Rajadawa is walled (a clay wall and ditch), and may contain from 6000 to 7000 inhabitants. The environs are clear of wood, and planted with grain, yams, gaza (a kind of potatoe, yellow inside, and very watery, leaving an unpleasant taste in the mouth after eating), indigo, and cotton. We had a plentiful market in the camp. The principal articles for sale were raw bullocks’ flesh, fowls, millet, boiled yams, pudding, &c.

At noon on the 24th, after passing numerous villages, we arrived at the town of Wazo, or Wazawo, the first town in the province of Kotongkora, where the merchants had to pay 250 cowries for every loaded ass, bullock, horse, or mule: of course I passed free, being a white man, and went through the town with my baggage, and encamped about a mile to the eastward of the town. The town of Wazo is built on the shelving side of a rocky mount: on the south-east side is a wall with two gates; the steep sides of the mountain serving as a wall on the other side. The inhabitants are all Cumbrie and pagans; and to-day they are holding a festival, so that we can get nothing to buy. After my tent was pitched, I engaged one of the natives for a few cowries to accompany me to hunt. I saw very little game, except five antelopes, out of gunshot. On my return to the tent I found the head man of Wazo had sent me one fowl, and some millet for the horses, for which he expects nine or ten times the value in return. The value of his present altogether, at the highest price, is not above 200 cowries. I had to make my dinner of raw flour, water, and an onion, reserving the fowl for my sick servant. During the night heavy rain, but without thunder or lightning.

Monday, 26th.—Morning dull and cloudy. The chief servant of Wazo’s head man came to my tent early in the morning in a great fright, saying his master was going to hang him, as he thought he had stole part of the present I had sent him. He said he wished that Moussa or myself would go into the town and bear witness that he had delivered all I gave him. I thought it was only a trick to cause further delay, or to catch something else; I therefore sent Moussa, and on his return had the bullocks loaded; and at 9.30 A.M. left the place of our encampment near Wazo. Our path was rocky and very winding, having high rocky mounts to the east, with steep perpendicular sides, the tops of most occupied by villages and little walled towns. The inhabitants came into the valleys with millet, boiled beans, yams, and cashew nuts, &c. to sell; the sellers were all women, every two or three having an armed male protector. In a narrow pass in the valley, as I had lingered behind the caravan, I fell in with a very interesting group, consisting of about a dozen of the natives, all young men, gaily dressed in their beads and tasselled skins, armed with bows and arrows and a light spear, some sitting and others standing; in the midst of them were three Fitakies, and a jackass without a load. The north side of the pass was formed by a high mount, rising perpendicular for about thirty feet above the path, over which hung trees, and on the top of the mount a little village, to which the young men belonged; the south side was formed by a large block of granite, on which the party were seated, the Fitakies looking as grave as the poor ass. At first I thought it was a robbery, and began to prepare my gun, but as I drew close and inquired what was the matter, before I intended to fire, it proved to be the Fitakies selling a sick jackass, which was unable to carry its load to the natives, to kill for food, as they consider its flesh as medicine, and good for coughs and pains in the chest. At noon arrived at the town of Wazo, which is situated in a narrow part of the valley, partly built on the shelving side of a mountain, which forms the south side of the pass and valley, the other part of the town and wall, on the north side; here the Fitakies had to pay ninety cowries for each loaded ass or bullock; I, of course, passed without payment. After passing Worm, or Wormzou, as it is sometimes called, the valley opened out to the south as far as the eye could reach; the mountains on the left bending more to the north. At 3 P.M. crossed a small stream running to the south, whose bed, when covered with water, is dangerous to man and beast, owing to the sharp rocks in its bed, which, from the muddiness of its waters, are not seen. We halted at a short distance from its eastern bank. Our place of encampment was soon filled by the inhabitants of the neighbouring little towns, having raw goat’s flesh, boiled beans, millet, and pudding for sale; as usual all Cumbrie, and every two or three women attended by an armed companion to see fair play; the men and women dressed in the same gay style as usual; upon the whole they were a fine, active, clean-looking people: most of the men had a bastard kind of greyhound following them, whose necks were ornamented with colours and strings of cowries. Every man working in the plantations, as I came along, was armed, owing, they say, to the frequent inroads of the Fellatas. At sunset all our visitors left us, and we had a severe storm of rain, thunder, and lightning.