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days by the governor's daughter, who used to come several times in a day, painted and bedizened in the highest style of Wawa fashion, but always half tipsy; I could only get rid of her by telling her that I prayed and looked at the stars all night, and never drank any thing stronger than roa-in-zafir, which they call my tea, literally hot water she always departed in a flood of tears. Notwithstanding their want of chastity and drunkenness, they are a merry people, and have behaved well to me. They appear to have plenty of the necessaries of life, and a great many of the luxuries, some of which they would be better without-this being the direct road from Bornou, Houssa, and Nyffe, to Gonja, Dahomey, and Jannah." -p. 93.

They are, notwithstanding, said to be honest, cheerful, good-natured, and hospitable. The women good-looking, and the men strong and well made, partly Mahomedans and partly Pagans.

From hence it was settled that our traveller should proceed across the Quorra, to a city called Koolfu; but as Boussa was higher up the river than the common ferry of Comie, and he was determined to visit the spot where Mungo Park perished, the governor promised to forward his servant and baggage to the former place, where he was to meet them after his visit to Boussa. This town he found, on his arrival, to be situated on an island formed by two branches of the Quorra, the smaller and more westerly one named the Menai, which he crossed by a canoe, the horses swimming over. On waiting on the sultan, by whom, as usual, he was kindly received, his first inquiry was concerning some white men, who were lost in the river some twenty years ago, near this place.

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"He seemed rather uneasy at this question, and I observed that he stammered in his speech. He assured me he had nothing belonging to them; that he was a little boy when the event happened. I said I wanted nothing but the books and papers, and to learn from him a correct account of the manner of their death; and that with his permission, I would go and visit the spot where they were lost. He said no, I must not go; it was a very bad place. Having heard that part of the boat still remained, I asked him if it was so he replied that such a report was untrue; that she did remain on the rocks for some time after, but had gone to pieces and floated down the river long ago. I said if he would give me the books and papers it would be the greatest favour he could possibly confer on me: He again assured me that nothing remained with him, every thing of that kind had gone into the hands of the learned men; but that if any were now in existence he would procure them and give them to me. I then asked him if he would allow me to inquire of the old people in the town the particulars of the affair, as some of them must have seen it. He appeared very uneasy, gave me no answer, and I did not press him further."-pp, 100,101.

Not satisfied with this, Clapperton returned to the subject:

"The sultan, when I inquired of him again to-day about the papers of my unfortunate

countryman, said that the late Iman, a Fellata, had had possession of all the books and papers, and that he had fled from Boussa some time since. This was a death-blow to all future inquiries here; and the whole of the information concerning the affair of the boat, her crew, and cargo, which I was likely to gain here, I have already stated. Every one, in fact, appeared uneasy when I asked for information, and said it had happened before their remembrance, or that they did not see it. They pointed out the place where the boat struck, and the unfortunate crew perished. Even this was done with caution, and as if by stealth; though in every thing unconnected with that affair, they were most ready to give me what information I asked; and never in my life have I been treated with more hospitality or kindness."-p. 104.

The place where the vessel was sunk is in the eastern channel, where the river breaks over a grey slate rock extending quite across it. A little lower down, the river had a fall of three or four feet. Here, and still farther down, the whole united streams of the Quorra were not above three-fourths the breadth of the Thames at Somerset-house. On returning to the ferry, Clapperton found a messenger from the king of Youri, who had sent him a present of a camel.

"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."-pp. 122, 123.

Upon this, Clapperton sent a person with a letter to Youri

"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." pp. 132, 133.*

The last account of this unfortunate traveller, is stated to be from an eye-witness.

"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 of his companions, of which he was an eye-witness. He said that when the boat came down the river, it happened unfortunate. ly 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 Malam 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 Nyffe 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

This is not exactly what the sultan says in his letter, of which the following is a translation by Mr. Salamé :

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"This is issued from the prince or lord of Yaoury to Abdallah, the English captain salutation and esteem. Hence your messenger has arrived and brought us your letter, and we understand what you write. You inquire about a thing that has no trace with us. The Prince or Lord of Boossy is older (or greater) than us, because he is our grandfather. Why did you not inquire of him about what you wish for? You were at Boossy, and did not inquire of the inhabitants what was the cause of the destruction of the ship and your friends, nor what happened between them of evil; but you do now inquire of one who is far off, and knows nothing of the cause of their (the Christians') destruction.

"As to the book which is in our hand, it is true, and we did not give it to your messenger, but we will deliver it to you, if you come and show us a letter from your lord. You shall then see it and have it, if God be pleased; and much esteem and Sàlàm be to you, and prayer and peace, unto the last of the apostles.

MOHAMMED."

yet got; and was told to me 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."-pp. 134, 135.

This is by far the most probable, and all of them corroborate the story generally disbelieved at the time, which Isaaco brought back from Amadoo-Fatima. There is yet a chance, we think, though but a slender one, that the journal of Park may be recovered.

Clapperton found, on reaching the ferry at Comie, that so far from his baggage having gone on to Koolfu, it had been stopped at Wawa by the governor; and that, to his great surprise, the widow Zuma was at a neighbouring village, from whom he presently received some boiled rice, and a fowl, with an invitation to go and stop at her house. The governor's son informed him, that his baggage would not be allowed to leave Wawa, till the widow was sent back. "What have I to do with the widow?" asked Clapperton. "You have," he replied, "and you must come back with me and take her." Clapperton, however, positively refused to have any thing to do with or say to her. His servant Richard at this moment returned from Boussa, whither he had followed his master, to acquaint him with the detention of his baggage; told him that it was owing to the widow's having left Wawa, about half an hour after he did, with drums beating before her, and a train after her, first calling at his lodgings before she waited on the governor; that she had given old Pascoe a female slave for wife, without the governor's permission; and that she had declared, she intended following him to Kano, from whence she would return to make war on the governor, as she had done once before." This," says Clapperton, "let me into their politics with a vengeance: 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." Clapperton, however, determined to go back to Wawa to release his baggage, and scarcely had he got there, when the arrival of the jolly widow was announced, whose appearance and escort we must let our traveller describe.

"This morning the widow arrived in town, with a drummer beating before her, whose cap was bedecked with ostrich feathers; a bowman 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 breastpiece, with a 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."-pp. 113, 114.

The widow was summoned before the governor, went on her knees, and, after a lecture on disobedience and vanity, was dismissed; but, on turning her back, she shook the dust off her feet, with great indignation and contempt; and "I went home," says Clapperton, " determined never to be caught in such a foolish affair in future."

than Kano, a city which is estimated by Clapperton to contain from thirty to forty thousand inhabitants. Many of them are from Foota Bonda and Foota Torra, and seem to know and to have had dealings with the French and English on the coast, and as our author says, have not improved by the acquaintance. The environs of this city are said to be beautiful-like some of the finest parts of England in the month of April, and grain and fruits of various kinds are cultivated both within and without the walls. The beauty and fertility of the country continued all the way to Kano, which our traveller entered on the 20th July, 1826.

Here Clapperton met his former friend and acquaintance, Hadje Hat Sala, who informed him of the state of the war between Bello and the Sheik of Bornou. Though still in bad health, he determined to proceed at once to Bello, and to leave his servant Richard and old Pascoe at Kano, under the protection of Hadje, who was authorized to grant them whatever money they might want. At Jaza he met his old friend the Gadado, or prime minister; who greeted him with great kindness; told him that Bello had received his letter from Koolfu, and had sent a messenger to conduct him to Soccatoo. It seems, however, that the gadado prevailed on him to remain for some time in Kano, where he was plundered of several articles, and, among others, of his journal and remark book, a circumstance which has occasioned an hiatus in his narrative from July to October, on the 12th of which month we find him, with a part of the Sultan's army, near Zurmie, on the borders of a large lake, or rather chain of lakes, on the plain of Gondamie, approachnearly to Soccatoo.

He now proceeded to the ferry, crossed the Quorra, which was about a quarter of a mile in width, running about two miles an hour, and from ten to fifteen feet deep. The canoes were about twenty feet long and two wide. He was now in the province of Nyffe; the country well cultivated, and the ant-hills near Ell Wata were the largest he ever saw, being from fifteen to twenty feet high, resembling so many Gothic cathedrals in miniature. In this part of the country, the natives smelt iron ore, and every village had three or four blacksmiths' shops in it. The houses are generally painted with figures of human beings, huge snakes, alligators, or tortoises. On arriving at Koolfu, our traveller took up his abode with a widow Laddie, huge, fat, and deaf, very rich, sells salt, natron, booza, and roa bum, or palm wine. The booza is made from guinea corn, honey, Chili pepper, and the root of a coarse grass, and is a very fiery and intoxicating beverage. The whole night was passed in singing, dancing ing, and drinking booza. The women, too, dressed in all their finery, joined the men, danced, sang and drank booza with the best of them. These scenes are exactly similar to those which Burckhardt describes to have taken place among the booza-drinkers of Berber and Shendy.

Koolfu is a sort of central market, where traders meet from every part of Soudan and western Africa. It is a walled town, with four gates, and may contain from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants, including all classes, the slave and the free, who live together and eat together without distinction, the men slaves with the men, and the women with the women; for, in the true style of all orientals, the two sexes eat their meals apart, and never sit down to any repast together. They are represented as a kind-hearted people, and affectionate towards one another, but they will cheat, if they can-and who is there, we may ask, that does not, in the way of trade? From Koolfu to Kufu the country was woody, the trees along the path consisting mostly of the butter tree. The villages were numerous, and cultivation extensive; but so insecure did the inhabitants consider themselves, that every man, working in the fields, was armed to defend himself against the inroads of the Fellatas.

Zaria, the capital of Zeg-zeg, is a large city, inhabited almost wholly by Fellatas, who have their mosques with minarets, and their houses flat roofed. It is said to be more populous

The borders of these lakes are the resort of numbers of elephants and other wild beasts. The appearance at this season, and at the spot where I saw it, was very beautiful; all the aeacia trees were in blossom, some with white flowers, others with yellow, forming a contrast with the small dusky leaves, like gold and silver tassels on a cloak of dark green velvet. I observed some fine large fish leaping in the lake. Some of the troops were bathing; others watering their horses, bullocks, camels, and asses: the lake as smooth as glass, and flowing around the roots of the trees. The sun, on its approach to the horizon, throws the shadows of the flowery acacias along its surface, like sheets of burnished gold and silver. The smoking fires on its banks, the sounding of horns, the beating of their gongs or drums, the braying of their brass and tin trumpets, the rude huts of grass or branches of trees rising as if by magic, every where the calls on the names of Mohamed, Abdo, Mustafu, &c., with the neighing of horses and the braying of asses, gave animation to the beautiful scenery of the lake, and its sloping green and woody banks."-p. 181.

He now learned from the gadado that the Sultan Bello was encamped before Coonia, the capital city of Goobur, which had rebelled against him, and which he was determined to subdue before he returned to Soccatoo. The Kano troops therefore moved forwards, and Clapperton along with them. They soon reached the main army; Bello received him

most kindly; told him he had sent two messengers, one of whom went as far as to Katunga; said he would receive the king's letter and present at Soccatoo, as he intended to make his attack on the city the following day. We cannot omit Clapperton's description of this curious assault.

"After the mid-day prayers, all, except the eunuchs, camel drivers, and such other servants as were of use only to prevent theft, whether mounted or on foot, marched towards the object of attack; and soon arrived before the walls of the city. I also accompanied them, and took up my station close to the Gadado. The march had been the most disorderly that can be imagined; horse and foot intermingling in the greatest confusion, all rushing to get forward; sometimes the followers of one chief tumbling amongst those of another, when swords were half unsheathed, but all ended in making a face, or putting on a threatening aspect. We soon arrived before Coonia, the capital of the rebels of Goobur, which was not above half a mile in diameter, being nearly circular, and built on the bank of one of the branches of the rivers, or lakes, which I have mentioned. Each chief, as he came up took his station, which I suppose had previously been assigned to him. The number of fighting men brought before the town could not, I think, be less than fifty or sixty thousand, horse and foot, of which the foot amounted to more than nine-tenths. For the depth of two hundred yards, all round the walls was a dense circle of men and horses. The horse kept out of bow-shot, while the foot went up as they felt courage or inclination, and kept up a straggling fire with about thirty muskets, and the shooting of arrows. In front of the sultan, the Zeg-zeg troops had one French fusil: the Kano forces had forty-one muskets. These fellows, whenever they fired their pieces, ran out of bow-shot to load; all of them were slaves; not a single Fellata had a musket. The enemy kept up a sure and slow fight, seldom throwing away their arrows, until they saw an opportunity of letting fly with effect. Now and then a single horse would gallop up to the ditch, and brandish his spear, the rider taking care to cover himself with his large leathern shield, and return as fast as he went, generally calling out lustily, when he got among his own party, Shields to the wall!' You people of the Gadado, or Atego,' &c. why don't you hasten to the wall?' To which some voices would call out, Oh! you have a good large shield to cover you! The ery of Shields to the wall,' was constantly heard from the several chiefs to their troops; but they disregarded the call, and neither chiefs nor vassals moved from the spot. At length the men in quilted armour went up 'per order.' They certainly cut not a bad figure at a distance, as their helmets were ornamented with black and white ostrich feathers, and the sides of the helmets with pieces of tin, which glittered in the sun, their long quilted cloaks of gaudy colours, reaching over part of the horses' fails, and hanging over the flanks. On the neck, even the horse's armour was notched, or vandyked, to look like a mane; on his forehead and over his nose, was a brass or tin plate, as

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also a semicircular piece on each side. The rider was armed with a large spear; and he had to be assisted to mount his horse, as his quilted cloak was too heavy; it required two men to life him on; and there were six of them belonging to each governor, and six to the sultan. I at first thought the foot would take advantage of going under cover of these unwieldy machines; but no, they went alone, as fast as the poor horses could bear them, which was but a slow pace. They had one musket in Coonia, and it did wonderful execu-. tion, for it brought down the van of the quilted men, who fell from his horse like a sack of corn thrown from a horse's back at a miller's door; but both horse and man were brought off by two or three footmen. He had got two balls through his breast; one went through his body and both sides of the robe: the other went through and lodged in the quilted armour opposite the shoulders."-p. 185-187.

Nor must the services of the old picturesque nurse be overlooked.

"The most useful, and as brave as any one of us, was an old female slave of the sultan's, a native of Zamfra, five of whose former governors she said she had nursed. She was of a

maux.

dark copper colour: in dress and countenance, very like one of Captain Lyon's female EsquiShe was mounted on a long-backed bright bay horse, with a scraggy tail, crop-eared, and the mane as if the rats had eaten part of it; and he was not in high condition. She rode a-straddle; had on a conical straw dishcover for a hat, or to shade her face from the sun, a short, dirty, white bedgown, a pair of dirty, white, loose and wide trowsers, a pair of Houssa boots, which are wide, and come up over the knee, fastened with a string round the waist. She had also a whip and spurs. At her saddle-bow hung about half a dozen gourds, filled with water, and a brass basin to drink out of; and with this she supplied the wounded and the thirsty. I certainly was much obliged to her, for she twice gave me a basin of water. The heat and the dust made thirst almost intolerable."-p. 188.

At the conclusion of this memorable battle, in which nothing was concluded, the whole army set off in the greatest confusion, men and quadrupeds tumbling over each other, and upsetting every thing that fell in their way. Clapperton made his way to Soccatoo, where he found the same house he had formerly inhabited prepared for his reception. Here, and in the neighbourhood, he resided nearly six months, in the course of which time he collected much information respecting the first irruption of the Fellatas, or Foulahs, from Foota Torra, Foota Jella, &c., on the western side of Africa, under Othman Danfodio, the father of Bello; the manner in which he succeeded in subjugating the greater part of Houssa; the manners of these Mahommedans; the state of society, of their agriculture, commerce, and manufactures: for an account of all which we must refer our readers to the volume itself, contenting ourselves with briefly running over the author's transactions with the present ruler, who certainly did not treat him with that kindness he had a right to expect, though

some palliating circumstances may be pleaded | in excuse, on account of the peculiar situation in which he was then placed with regard to the Sheik of Bornou.

wards. The rest is supplied by his faithful servant, Lander.

On the same day it appears he was attacked with dysentery, which he told Lander had been brought on by a cold, caught by lying on the ground which was soft and wet, when heated and fatigued with walking. "Twenty days," says Lander, "my poor master remained in a low and distressed state. His body, from being robust and vigorous, became weak and emaciated, and indeed was little better than a skeleton." Lander himself was in a fever, and almost unable to stir; but he was assisted in taking care of his master by Pascoe and an old black slave. Towards the beginning of April, Clapperton became alarmingly ill. "His sleep was uniformly short and disturb.

them he frequently reproached the Arabs with much bitterness, but being an utter stranger to that language, I did not understand him. I read to him daily some portions of the New Testament, and the ninety-fifth Psalm, to which he was never weary of listening; and on Sundays added the Church service, to which he invariably paid the profoundest attention."-p. 273.

At length, calling honest Lander to his bedside, Clapperton said

A very few days after Clapperton's arrival in Soccatoo, he was visited by Sidi Sheik, Bello's doctor, and one of his secretaries, who, after some preamble, told him, that by whatever road he might choose to return home, he should be sent, under an escort, were it even by Bornou, though it was right to inform him that, on his former visit, the Sheik of Bornou had written, advising Bello to put him (Clapperton) to death. This, Clapperton observed, was very extraordinary, after the kind manner in which the sheik had behaved to him, to the very last hour of his departure, and insisted on seeing the letter. For this purpose he lost noted, and troubled with frightful dreams. In a moment in repairing to the gadado, who affected ignorance, and said there must be some mistake, as he was sure there was no such letter. The next day the gadado took him to the sultan, who told him that such a letter had certainly been written with the sheik's sanction, by Hadje Mohamed, who therein said he was a spy, and that the English had taken possession of India by first going there by ones and twos, until they got strong enough to seize upon the whole country. A few days after this it was announced to Clapperton that the sultan had sent for his servant and all his baggage to be brought from Kano to Soccatoo, and in a day or two afterwards Lander actually arrived with it. The next step was to seize the baggage, under pretence that Clappertonit is the will of the Almighty; it cannot be was conveying guns and warlike stores to the sultan of Bornou; and lastly, he ordered Lord Bathurst's letter to the sheik to be given up to him. This conduct of the sultan had such an effect on Clapperton's spirits, that his servant Richard says he never saw him smile afterwards; but he found it in vain to remonstrate. He told the gadado that the conduct of Bello was not like that of a prince of the Faithful; that he had broken his faith, and done him all the injury in his power. The gadado now assured him that not only the sheik but the two hadjis of Tripoli, had written letters to Bello, denouncing him as a spy, and observing that the English wanted to take Africa as they had done India. "I told the gadado they were acting like robbers towards me, in defiance of all good faith." In short, their jealousy proceeded so far as to seize every thing that could be supposed to be any part of the present intended for the Sheik of Bornou.

6

"Richard, I shall shortly be no more; I feel myself dying. Almost choked with grief, I replied, God forbid, my dear master: you will live many years yet.' Don't be so much affected, my dear boy, I entreat you,' said he:

helped. Take care of my journal and papers after my death; and when you arrive in London, go immediately to my agents, send for my uncle, who will accompany you to the Colonial Office, and let him see you deposit them safely into the hands of the secretary. After I am buried, apply to Bello, and borrow money to purchase camels and provisions for your journey over the desert, and go in the train of the Arab, merchants to Fezzan. On your arrival there, should your money be exhausted, send a messenger to Mr. Warrington, our consul at Tripoli, and wait till he returns with a remittance. On reaching Tripoli, that gentleman will advance what money you may require, and send you to England the first opportunity. Do not lumber yourself with my books; leave them behind, as well as the barometer, boxes, and sticks, and indeed every heavy article you can conveniently part with; give them to Malam Mudey, who will take care of them. The wages I agreed to give you my agents will pay, Not long after this, intelligence was received as well as the sum government allowed me for at Soccatoo, of the total defeat of the Bornou a servant; you will of course receive it, as Co. army, which put the sultan in such good spi- lumbus has never served me. Remark what rits, that he began to resume his former kind towns or villages you pass through; pay atten conduct towards Clapperton, discussing with tion to whatever the chiefs may say to you, and him which would be the best and safest way put it on paper. The little money I have, and for his return to England; but it was now too all my clothes, I leave you: sell the latter, and late; Clapperton's health had never been re- put what you may receive for them into your stored since the first night's fatal sleeping on pocket; and if, on your journey, you should be the reedy banks of a stagnant ditch; and his obliged to expend it, government will repay you spirits were now completely broken down by on your return.' I said, as well as my agitation disappointment and ungenerous treatment. would permit me, 'If it be the will of God to His journal about this time, the 12th of March, take you, you may rely on my faithfully per terminates abruptly in the midst of a conver- forming, as far as I am able, all that you have sation as to the best route to be taken home-desired; but I trust the Almighty will spare

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