Feb. 27.—The camels were still missing; and had it been otherwise, I could not have continued my journey, for I found myself excessively weak. In the evening El Wordee offered a reward of two dollars to a Tuarick to bring back the camels, to which I added two dollars more. Kadania is very thinly peopled, the inhabitants, as in most other captured towns, having been sold by the Felatahs. The houses are scattered up and down; but there is a good daily market, supplied by the people of the adjoining country. The soil around is a strong red clay. The trees were higher here than in Bornou; and the fields of Indian corn, gussub, cotton, and indigo, were neatly enclosed with fences, and kept free of weeds.
Feb. 18.—No news of the lost camels. I determined to proceed, and had my camels loaded with the baggage of El Wordee and the shreef; the former remaining behind, to await the return of the Tuarick. The country was still thickly wooded, with a few cultivated patches of land. The soil was a red and white clay, mixed with gravel, and traversed by ridges of schistus. We crossed the dry beds of several rainy-season streams, whose banks were lined with rocks, and covered with majestic trees. In the little glens and nooks, there were small plots of onions and tobacco; which the inhabitants water from holes dug in the dry channel of the river, by means of a bucket and long bar or lever. At noon we halted at the walled town of Faniroce or “White Water,” the walls of which are extensive, but the houses few and mean. I was shown into one of the best of them; but my servants had much ado to render it habitable. Soon after El Wordee arrived, but without the camels. In the evening I was visited by the governor, a very good-natured fellow, who, when he saw that I was ill, went and brought some fine trona, of which he recommended me to take a little every evening. On inquiring about the course of the streams whose dry channels I had passed, he informed me that all between this place and Kano run eastward; but that to-morrow I should cross the first that runs to the west, and divides the provinces of Kano and Kashna. At eight in the evening, the Tuarick brought back the camels of El Wordee and the shreef.
Feb. 29.—The governor and some of his friends accompanied us a short distance out of the town. The country was still very woody, and the road extremely crooked. At eleven in the forenoon we crossed the bed of the stream that separates Kano from Kashna, the channel being here about twenty feet broad, and perfectly dry; and at noon we halted at the town of Duncamee. The stream near this town assumes the same name, and, after passing Zirmie, the capital of Zamfra, it bends northward, and traverses the province of Goobeer; then, turning again to the west, it washes the city of Sackatoo, and, at the distance of four days’ journey, is said to enter the Quarra at Kubby.
March 1.—At six in the morning we left Duncamee, and travelled through a thickly wooded country; and at noon we passed a walled town, of considerable size, called Geoza, after which we came to ridges of granite, running in a north-easterly direction. At three in the afternoon we halted at the town of Ratah, whose site is very remarkable. It is built amidst large blocks of granite, which rise out of the earth like towers, and form its only defence on the northern side, some of the houses being perched like bird-cages on the top of the rocks. The south side is enclosed by a wall about twenty feet high, but in bad repair. The inhabitants are numerous, and the women are the tallest and fattest I ever saw.
March 2.—We rode through a beautiful and well cultivated country, rendered extremely romantic by ledges of rocks, and clumps of large shady trees. We passed a number of villages, the inhabitants of which are mostly Felatahs, who, when they knew I was going to visit the sultan, presented me with new milk. At noon we halted at the town of Bershee, which is situate amongst large blocks of granite, and is the first town with suburbs I had seen in Haussa, although, from the ruinous state of the walls, this was no very important distinction. The governor of Ongooroo was here, on his way from Sackatoo to his province; but, through the care of my guide, Mohammed Jollie, this circumstance did not prevent me from obtaining the best house in the town, and abundance of provisions for myself and servants.
March 3.—The weather clear and fine: we rode to-day through little valleys, delightfully green, lying between high ridges of granite; and, to add to the beauty of the scenery, there were many clear springs issuing out of the rocks, where young women were employed drawing water. I asked several times for a gourd of water, by way of excuse to enter into conversation with them. Bending gracefully on one knee, and displaying at the same time teeth of pearly whiteness, and eyes of the blackest lustre, they presented it to me on horseback, and appeared highly delighted when I thanked them for their civility: remarking to one another, “Did you hear the white man thank me?” After leaving this beautiful spot, the land rose gently into hill and dale, and we had to cross the dry bed of the same rainy-season stream no less than four times in the course of three hours. The country also became more wooded, and worse cultivated; and the soil in most places was of a strong red and blue clay. There were numerous herds of cattle. At two in the afternoon we halted at the village of Kagaria, situate on the brow of a sloping hill, and inhabited by Felatahs. Here, for the first time, I found some difficulty in procuring lodgings. The chief of the village, an old venerable-looking Felatah, told my guide, that when they went to Kano, the governor turned up his nose at them, and, if ever he came there, they were determined not to receive him. Then, addressing me, he said, “You are a stranger, from a far distant country; you and your servants shall have a house, but none of the others.” I was accordingly conducted to a very excellent house, but took my fellow travellers with me; and, in due time, provisions were sent, with the usual attention.
March 4.—At six in the morning left Kagaria, but not without giving the old Felatah a present of a turkadee, of which he was very proud. Our road lay through a beautiful country, highly cultivated. At nine o’clock we passed through many villages, romantically situate amongst ridges of granite. From the fertility and beauty of the country, it appeared like an ornamental park in England, shaded with luxuriant trees. We now entered a forest, where the road became both difficult and dreary. Here our guide enjoined my servants not to stray from the caravan, as the woods were infested with banditti, who murdered every one they seized too old for the slave market. The soil was composed of clay and gravel: in the hollows I frequently saw rocks of granite, and mica slate. The trees upon the high grounds were low and stunted, amongst which I remarked several wild mangoes. We halted at the Felatah village of Bobaginn, where the country is again open. The inhabitants were kind and attentive in procuring me a house and provisions.
Mar. 5.—The country was now highly cultivated. The road was crowded with passengers and loaded bullocks, going to the market of Zirmie; which town we passed a little to the southward, about noon, when the country became more woody. At two in the afternoon we entered an opening in a range of low hills; this proved to be the dry bed of the river we had crossed at Duncamee, which is here joined by another watercourse from the southward. The land rises into hills on each side, and, as our road lay at some distance to the west, we had a beautiful view along the red sandy bed of the river, which formed a striking contrast with the green hills on each side. The banks were planted with onions, melons, cotton, indigo, and some wheat; and watered, by means of a basket and lever, out of holes dug about two feet deep in the bed of the river, in which water is always found in abundance. On the eastern bank there is a town called Kutri, apparently large and populous, with a number of dye-pots in its outskirts. At four in the afternoon we crossed the bed of another small river, coming from the south-west, and falling into the forementioned river, a mile and a half to the east of a town, on its northern bank, called Quari, or Quoli, where we halted. I waited on the governor, who was an aged Felatah: after the usual compliments, he anxiously inquired for Dr. Oudney, and was much disappointed when I informed him of his death. He complained of being grievously afflicted with rheumatic pains; and said he had already outlived most of the people of this country, having attained the age of seventy-two years. We remained with him until houses were prepared for us; and he told me that the river, which flows to the eastward (mentioned before as dividing the provinces of Kano and Kashna), after the junction of some other streams, takes the name of Quarrama.
March 6 and 7.—The weather clear and warm. This morning I exchanged a turkadee, worth about two dollars and a quarter, for a sheep, and gave a feast to El Wordee and the shreef, along with all our servants. About a hundred Tuaricks came to see me, having learned I had visited Ghraat, and was acquainted with their countrymen. The women and children of the town every where peeped at me through the matting of their houses, with eager curiosity: although some of the Tuaricks were nearly as white as myself. The Tuaricks here have a beautiful breed of horses, full of fire; but they do not stand so high as the barbs of Tripoli. In the evening I despatched a courier with a letter to Sultan Bello, as I had been recommended by the governor of Kano to remain here until a guard was sent from Sackatoo to conduct me through the provinces of Goober and Zamfra, which were in a state of insurrection. I found by observation the town of Quarro to be in lat. 13° 7′ 14″ north.
I was unluckily taken for a fighi, or teacher, and was pestered, at all hours of the day, to write out prayers by the people. My servants hit upon a scheme to get rid of their importunities, by acquainting them if I did such things, they must be paid the perquisites usually given to the servants of other fighis. To-day my washerwoman positively insisted on being paid with a charm, in writing, that would entice people to buy earthen-ware of her; and no persuasions of mine could either induce her to accept of money for her service, or make her believe that the request was beyond human power. In the cool of the afternoon, I was visited by three of the governor’s wives, who, after examining my skin with much attention, remarked, compassionately, it was a thousand pities I was not black, for I had then been tolerably good-looking. I asked one of them, a buxom young girl of fifteen, if she would accept of me for a husband, provided I could obtain the permission of her master the governor. She immediately began to whimper; and on urging her to explain the cause, she frankly avowed she did not know how to dispose of my white legs. I gave each of them a snuff-box, with a string of white beads in addition, to the coy maiden. They were attended by an old woman, and two little female slaves, and during their stay made very merry, but I fear their gaiety soon fled on returning to the close custody of their old gaoler.