whose inhabitants are living here, as they do in most parts of Soudan, a quiet and harmless pastoral life, unmolested by the black natives, and not interfering with any of the negro customs."

From this place to the capital of Yourriba, named Eyeo or Katunga, were many villages, but mostly laid waste, by the incursions of the Fellatahs of Soccatoo. The town of Tshow is in a beautiful valley, planted with large shady trees and bananas, having green plots and sheets of water running through the cenHere our traveller was met by a large escort from Katunga, who had been sent to conduct him to the king.

tre.

"The road through which we passed was wide, though woody, and covered by men on horseback, and bowmen on foot. The horsemen, armed with two or three long spears, hurrying us on as fast as they could get us to go, horns and country drums beating and blowing before and behind; some of the horsemen dressed in the most grotesque manner; others covered all over with charms. The bowmen also had their little hats and feathers, with the jebus or leathern pouch hanging by their side. These men always appear to me, to be the best troops in this country and Soudan, from their lightness and activity. The horsemen, however, are ill mounted; the animals are small and badly dressed, their saddles so ill secured, and the rider sits so clumsily on his seat, that an Englishman who ever rode a horse with an English saddle, would upset one of them the first charge, with a long stick.

"They soon arrived at the gate of Katunga, which is said to be delightfully situated at the point of a granite range of hills; a band of music accompanied them, followed by an immense multitude of men, women and children. They proceeded about five miles within the city, before they reached the residence of the king, who was seated under a verandah, with two red and two blue umbrellas, supported on long poles held by slaves. The chiefs were observed to be holding a parley with the king, which Clapperton conjectured to relate to his being desired to perform the usual ceremo. ny of prostration.

"I told them,' says he, 'if any such thing was proposed, I should instantly go back; that all the ceremony I would submit to, would be to take off my hat, make a bow, and shake hands with his majesty, if he pleased.' This being granted, 'We accordingly,' says our author, 'went forward; the king's people had a great deal to do to make way amongst the crowd, and allow us to go in regular order. Sticks and whips were used, though generally in a good natured manner; and I cannot help remarking on this, as on all other occasions of this kind, that the Yourribas appear to be a kind and mild people-kind to their wives and children, and to one another, and that the government, though absolute, is conducted with the greatest mildness.' The ceremony of prostration before the king, is required from all.

The

"The king of Yourriba made a point of our travellers staying to witness the theatrical entertainments. They were exhibited in the king's park, in a square space, surrounded by clumps of trees. first performance was that of a number of men dancing and tumbling about in sacks having their heads fantastically decorated with strips of rags, damask silk, and cotton of variegated colours; and they performed to admiration. The second exhibition was hunting the boa snake, by the men in the sacks. The huge snake, it seems, went through the motions of this kind of reptile 'in a very natural manner, though it appeared to be rather full in the belly, opening and shutting its mouth in the most natural manner imaginable.' A running fight ensued, which lasted some time, till at length the chief of the bag-men contrived to scotch his tail with a tremendous sword, when he gasped, twisted up, and seemed in great torture, endeavouring to bite his assailants, who hoisted him on their shoulders, and bore him off in triumph. The festival of one day concluded with the exhibition of the white devil, which had the appearance of a human figure in white wax, looking miserably thin, and as if starved with cold, taking snuff, rubbing its hands, treading the ground as if tender-footed, and evidently meant to bur lesque and ridicule a white man, while his sable majesty frequently appealed to Clapperton whether it was not well performed. After this, the King's women sang in chorus, and were accompanied by the whole crowd.

"The city of Eyeo, called in the Houssa language, Katunga, has a thick belt of wood round the walls, which are built of clay, about twenty feet high, and surrounded by a dry ditch; they are fifteen miles in circumference, and are entered by ten gates. The houses are made of clay, with thatched roofs. The posts that support the verandahs and the doors, are carved in bas-relief, with the figures of the boa killing an antelope or a hog, with warriors accompanied by their drummers, &c. It has seven markets held every evening, in which are exposed for sale yams, corn, calavances, bananas, vegetables, butter, seeds of the colocynth, goats, fowls, sheep, cotton cloths, and various implements of agriculture. The country produces small horses, but fine horned cattle, many of them with humps on their shoulders like those of Abyssinia, sheep, hogs, muscovy ducks, fowls, pigeons and turkeys. They have various kinds of fruit, such as oranges, limes, and, so Clapperton says, pears and apples. The cotton plant and indigo are extensively cultivated, but the commerce with the coast is almost exclusively in slaves, which are given in exchange for rum, tobacco, European cloths and cowries. The intercourse, which is constant, is entirely by land, either from Badagry, Lagos or Dahomey. The price of a slave at Jannah, as nearly as could be calculated, was from 31. to 41. sterling; their domestic slaves, however, are never sold, except for misconduct. In fact, the whole population may be considered in a state of slavery, either to the king or to his caboocers. The features of the Yourriba people, are described as being less characteristic of the negro than those of Badagry, the lips

less thick, and the nose inclined to the aquiline; the men well made, and of an independent carriage; the women of a more coarse appearance, probably from drudgery and exposure to the sun.

"Though Clapperton remained at Katunga, from the 23d January to the 7th March, and though the river Quorra, the mysterious and miscalled Niger, was not more than thirty miles to the eastward, he was not able to prevail on the King of Yourriba to allow him to visit it. Whenever he asked for permission to do so, he was always put off with some frivolous excuse; and in this too, the old gentleman appears to have been as cunning and as cautious as a Chinese mandarin-observing at one time, that the road was not safe-at another, that the Fellatahs had possession of the country; and what would the King of England say, if any thing should happen to his guest? It was with some difficulty, after all, that Clapperton could prevail on him to let him depart on his journey-offering if he would stay, to give him a wife; of wives, he said he himself had plenty-he did not exactly know how many, but he was sure that, hand to hand, they would reach from Katunga to Jannah.

"On departing from Katunga to Kiam, a city of Borgho, Mr. Houston tock his leave of our traveller, and returned to the coast, where he shortly afterwards died. Clapperton continued his route among ruined villages, that had been sacked by the Fellatahs. These marauders, it seems, have a mode of setting fire to walled towns, by tying combustibles to the tails of pigeons, which, on being let loose, fly to the tops of the thatched houses, while they keep up showers of arrows, to prevent the inhabitants from extinguishing the flames. Having crossed the river Moussa, a considerable stream which falls into the Quorra, an escort appeared to conduct our traveller to Yarro, the sultan, as they called him, of Kiam. They were mounted on remarkably fine horses, but were a lawless set of fellows, who plundered the villages as they went along, without mercy or remorse.

"Kiam is one of the largest cities in Borgho. Clapperton estimates it to contain at least 30,000 inhabitants; but, like the rest of the people of this kingdom, they are represented as great robbers. Yarro, however, behaved very well to our traveller, supplied him at once with horses and bearers, and advised him to go by Boussa, and not by Yourri, as the latter was at war with the Falletahs. Profiting by this advice, he proceeded towards the former, and in the way, he fell in with a caravan from Ashantee and Gonja, on their road to Houssa."

This caravan occupied a long line of march; bullocks, horses, asses, men and women, all in a line, and forming a very curious and motley groupe. At Wawa, a city of Borgho, Clapperton was hospitably received. This place being near to that part of the Quorra, where Park lost his life; concerning this melancholy event, the following was the story of the head man.

"That the boat stuck fast between two rocks; that the people in it laid out four anchors ahead; that the water falls down with great rapidity from the rocks, and that the white men, in attempting to get on shore, were drowned; that crowds of people went to look at them, but the white men did not shoot at them as I had heard; that the natives were too much frightened either to shoot at them, or to assist them; that there were found a great many things in the boat, books and riches, which the sultan of Boussa has got; the beef cut in slices and salted, was in great plenty in the boat; and the people of Boussa who had eaten of it, all died, because it was human flesh, and that they knew we white men eat human flesh. I was indebted to the messenger of Yaro for a defence, who told the narrator that I was much more nice in my eating, than his countrymen were. But it was with some difficulty I could persuade him that if his story was true, it was the people's own fears that had killed them; that the meat was good beef or mutton; that I had eaten more goat's flesh since I had been in this country, than I had ever done in my life; that in England we eat nothing but fowls, beef and mutton."

Wawa is supposed to contain from 18 to 20,000 inhabitants. They appeared to be honest, cheerful, good-natured, and hospitable, but the virtues of chastity and temperance are scarcely known. From this place, Clapperton resolved to proceed across the Quorra, to a city called Koolfu, but as Boussa was higher up the river, and he was anxious to visit the spot where Park perished, his servant was sent forward to the former place, at which he was to join him 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.

" "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.""

With this statement Clapperton was by no means satisfied. The people were, however, unwilling to give information on the subject. The following extracts contain, we believe, all the intelligence which could be gathered in relation to this afflictive event.

"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 threefourths 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 he ought to have sold them; that I would not give him 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.'

"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 Imaum of Boussa; that they were lying on the top of the goods in the boat when she was taken; that not a