March 20.—I returned the visit of Mahomed Gomsoo, the chief of the Arabs; taking him a present of a scarlet bornouse, jacket and breeches, two white turbans, two razors, two knives, two snuff-boxes of paper, and two of tin, a pound of cinnamon, and two cases of gunpowder, with some balls and flints. I was warned at Kano of his excessive greediness; but at the same time recommended to make him a handsome present, and to endeavour by all means to keep him in good humour, on account of his great influence. On receiving the presents, Gomsoo promised to give me a letter to the sultan of Youri, who was his particular friend, and with whom he had lived many years. He also said he was there when the English came down in a boat from Timbuctoo, and were lost; which circumstance he related in the following manner:—They had arrived off a town called Boosa, and having sent a gun and some other articles as presents to the sultan of Youri, they sent to purchase a supply of onions in the market. The sultan apprised them of his intention to pay them a visit, and offered to send people to guide them through the ledges of rock which run quite across the channel of the river a little below the town, where the banks rise into high hills on both sides. Instead of waiting for the sultan, however, they set off at night, and by day-break next morning, a horseman arrived at Youri, to inform the sultan that the boat had struck on the rocks. The people on both sides of the river then began to assail them with arrows, upon which they threw overboard all their effects; and two white men arm in arm jumped into the water, two slaves only remaining in the boat, with some books and papers and several guns: one of the books was covered with wax-cloth, and still remained in the hands of the sultan of Youri. He also told me, and his account was confirmed by others, that the sultan of Youri was a native of Sockna in the regency of Tripoli, and prided himself extremely on his birth; but that he was such a drunkard, whenever any person of consequence came to visit him, that nothing proved so acceptable a present as a bottle of rum.
I learned, besides, from Gomsoo, that he had been detained a prisoner three years, in a country called Yoriba, on the west side of the Quarra; which, he said, entered the sea at Fundah, a little below the town of Rakah. The latter is opposite to Nyffee; is a place of great trade between the interior and the coast, and all kinds of European goods, such as beads, woollen and cotton cloth, pewter and copper dishes, gunpowder, rum, &c., are to be had there in exchange for slaves. The inhabitants of Yoriba he represented to be extremely ill disposed. I may here mention, that during my stay in Sackatoo, provisions were regularly sent me from the sultan’s table on pewter dishes, with the London stamp; and one day I even had a piece of meat served up in a white wash-hand basin, of English manufacture.
On my return home from Gomsoo’s, I found a message had been left for me to wait on the sultan, with which I complied immediately after breakfast. He received me in an inner apartment, attended only by a few slaves: after asking me how I did, and several other chit-chat questions, I was not a little surprised when he observed, without a single question being put by me on the subject, that if I wished to go to Nyffee, there were two roads leading to it—the one direct, but beset by enemies; the other safer, but more circuitous: that by either route I should be detained, during the rains, in a country at present in a state of open rebellion, and therefore that I ought to think seriously of these difficulties. I assured him I had already taken the matter into consideration, and that I was neither afraid of the dangers of the road nor of the rains. “Think of it with prudence,” he replied, and we parted. From the tone and manner with which this was spoken, I felt a foreboding that my intended visit to Youri and Nyffee was at an end. I could not help suspecting the intrigues of the Arabs to be the cause; as, they know well, if the native Africans were once acquainted with English commerce by the way of the sea, their own lucrative inland trade would from that moment cease. I was much perplexed the whole day how to act, and went after sunset to consult Mohamed Gomsoo: I met him at the door of his house on his way to the sultan, and stopped him, to mention what had passed, and how unaccountably strange it appeared to me that the sultan, after having repeatedly assured me of being at liberty to visit every part of his dominions, should now, for the first time, seem inclined to withdraw that permission; adding, that before I came to Sackatoo, I never heard of a king making a promise one day, and breaking it the next. All this, I knew, would find its way to the sultan. Gomsoo told me I was quite mistaken; for the sultan, the gadado, and all the principal people, entertained the highest opinion of me, and wished for nothing so much as to cultivate the friendship of the English nation. “But it is necessary for me to visit those places,” I remarked, on leaving him; “or how else can the English get here?” As I anticipated, he repeated to the sultan every word I had said; for I was no sooner at home than I was sent for by the sultan, whom I found seated with Mahomed Gomsoo, and two others. He received me with great kindness, and Mahomed Gomsoo said he had made the sultan acquainted with our conversation. I thanked him, and expressed my earnest hope I had neither said nor done any thing to offend him. The sultan assured me that my conduct had always met with his approbation, and that, although he was freely disposed to show me all the country, still he wished to do so with safety to myself. An army, he added, was at this moment ravaging the country through which I had to pass, and, until he heard from it, it would be unsafe to go; but he expected farther information in three or four days. He drew on the sand the course of the river Quarra, which he also informed me entered the sea at Fundah. By his account the river ran parallel to the sea coast for several days’ journey, being in some places only a few hours’, in others a day’s journey, distant from it. Two or three years ago the sea, he said, closed up the mouth of the river, and its mouth was at present a day or two farther south; but, during the rains, when the river was high, it still ran into the sea by the old channel. He asked me if the King of England would send him a consul and a physician, to reside in Soudan, and merchants to trade with his people; and what I had seen among them, which I thought the English would buy? Here again I enforced the discontinuance of the slave trade on the coast, as the only effectual method of inducing the King of England to establish a consul and a physician at Sackatoo; and that, as the sultan could easily prevent all slaves from the eastward passing through Haussa and Nyffee, it would be the consul’s duty to see that engagement faithfully fulfilled. With respect to what English merchants were disposed to buy, I particularized senna, gum-arabic, bees’ wax, untanned hides, indigo, and ivory. I also endeavoured to impress on his mind that Soudan was the country best situate in all Central Africa for such a trade, which would not only be the means of enriching himself, but, likewise, all his subjects; and that all the merchandise from the east and from the west would be conveyed through his territories to the sea. “I will give the King of England,” says he, “a place on the coast to build a town: only I wish a road to be cut to Rakah, if vessels should not be able to navigate the river.” I asked him if the country he promised to give belonged to him? “Yes:” said he, “God has given me all the land of the infidels.” This was an answer that admitted of no contradiction.
He then spoke of Mungo Park, and said, that had he come in the rainy season, he would have passed the rocks; but that the river fell so low in the dry season, boats could only pass at a certain point. He told me, that some timbers of the boat, fastened together with nails, remained a long time on the rocks; and that a double-barrelled gun, taken in the boat, was once in his possession; but it had lately burst. His cousin, Abderachman, however, had a small printed book taken out of the boat; but he was now absent on an expedition to Nyffee. The other books were in the hands of the sultan of Youri, who was tributary to him. I told the sultan, if he could procure these articles for the King of England, they would prove a most acceptable present, and he promised to make every exertion in his power.
March 21.—Confined to my bed all day with headach and bilious vomiting. In the afternoon I was visited by Mahomed Gomsoo, who was going on a journey to Kano. He casually mentioned, that it was a fortunate circumstance we did not accompany Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom, when he brought the bashaw’s present last year; as the rogue had opened the bashaw’s letter before presenting it to Bello, and erased out of the list several of the presents named in it, which he embezzled, and substituted for them some of inferior quality. The news of his brother’s wanton inroad into the sultan’s territories, with the bashaw’s forces arriving at the same time, Bello sent Hadje Ali back without any present, and would not even admit him into his presence. His conduct, he assured me, had exasperated the sultan against all the Arabs in the bashaw’s dominions. Both Bello and his father have, it seems, been much cheated by the Arabs in all their dealings, twenty sometimes coming at a time on a begging excursion, with the story of being poor shreefs; and, if not presented with thirty or forty slaves, besides food and camels, they were sure to bully the Felatahs, telling them they were not Mussulmans, and would never see paradise, on account of the number of the faithful they had put to death in the conquest of Soudan.
March 22.—Clear and warm. My fever a little abated. In the afternoon the sultan sent for me again, to discuss the advantages and best method of establishing a permanent intercourse with England. I expressed myself exactly in the same terms I had done before, carefully avoiding the mention of any thing which might awaken the jealousy of the Arabs.
The direct road to Youri is only five days’ journey; but, on account of the rebellious state of the country, it was necessary to take a circuitous route of twelve days. Numbers of the principal people of Sackatoo came to me, to advise me to give up the idea of going; all alleging that the rains had already commenced at Youri, and that the road was in the hands of their enemies. They repeated the same tales to the servants who were to accompany me, and threw them all into a panic at the prospect of so dangerous a journey.
March 23.—Very ill all day. I discovered that the Arabs were also tampering with my servants. One of them, named Absalom, was accosted to-day in the market by one of the merchants of that nation, who told him, if ever he arrived at Youri, without meeting with disasters by the way, the sultan there would assuredly sell him, and that he would never be allowed to return.
March 24.—I felt much better. The sultan sent for me this forenoon about the guide who was to accompany me to Youri. One man had already refused, and I had to tempt another with a promise of 40,000 cowries, unknown to the sultan; who kindly took much pains to impress upon me the necessity of my return within twenty-six days, on account of the capricious character of the people of that place. From every person here dissuading me from the attempt, I had too good reason to fear that a regular plan was laid to obstruct my further progress. Even El Wordee went so far as to say, that it was contrary to the wishes of the sheikh that we should either go to Youri or Nyffee, and complained sadly of being afflicted with a dysentery, which very opportunely made its attack the instant I expressed a wish to visit Youri; and, although I protested against his accompanying me, I have no doubt he both practised on my servants, and used his influence with the gadado to oppose my departure. At last El Wordee, and Mahomed Sidi sheikh, a native of Tuat, and fighee to the sultan, came to tell me, that no person would venture to accompany me, from the road to Youri being infested with Kafirs, and that it was impossible to travel in safety without an army. I remained silent; for had I once begun to give vent to my feelings, I might have committed myself. I thank God I had never once lost my temper amid all these crosses and vexations, and in spite even of this deathblow to all my hopes of reaching Youri. The whole tissue of dangers, however, I believed to be a mere fabrication; for the Arabs, having learned what the sultan said with respect to the English opening a trade with his people by the way of the sea, and well knowing how fatal this scheme would prove to their traffic in the interior, probably now attempted to persuade both the sultan and the gadado that the English would come and take the country from them: by which insinuations they induced the sultan to embrace this disingenuous expedient to disengage himself from his promise.
March 25.—Clear and warm. Early this morning I was sent for by the sultan, and, although suffering from fever, I went immediately. He was seated in an inner coozee, with only one eunuch in attendance. The conversation again commenced concerning the projected trade with England, when I repeated the same arguments. He inquired if the King of England would give him a couple of guns, with ammunition and some rockets? I assured him of His Majesty’s compliance with his wishes, if he would consent to put down the slave trade on the coast. I further pointed out to him that Sackatoo was the best situate town in all Northern Africa for commerce, without which a nation was nothing; that rich merchants make rich kings; and that it was in the power of the King of England to make him one of the greatest princes in Africa, when all the trade from the east and west of that continent would centre in his dominions: at the same time advising him strongly to have a port on the sea coast, where he might have ships, and where his people would be taught by the English the art of ship-building, unless he preferred to send some of them to our settlements on the coast to learn to work as carpenters or blacksmiths, where their religion would be respected, and, after learning these trades from us, they would be enabled to instruct their countrymen. By weighing these important considerations in his mind, he would see that it was both his own interest, and the interest of his people, to form a strict friendship with the English; for when once he had ships, his people might trade to every part of the world, and could even make the pilgrimage to Mecca by a much safer route than at present by land, being able to go there and return in six months; and, at the same time, bring with them all the produce of the East.