During the whole of the 28th we went rapidly down the wide river, here unencumbered with obstacles, as fast as ever we could row.
About nine o’clock we passed Gomba, inhabited by Fulahs, and the capital of the district. Our guide Amadu evidently thought we should stop there to see the chief, and showed great surprise at our pressing on without a halt. To his discreet suggestions I turned a deaf ear, and our interpreter seemed suddenly to have forgotten all the Fulah language he knew. In the end our guide resigned himself to the inevitable.
We had to make haste, for, reflecting on the causes of the check we had received at Ilo, I was led to think that the English might have had something to do with it, or, at least, that people who had been amongst them—for the English themselves have no political influence in these parts—had had intelligence enough to understand and look after their interests. In the suite of the chief there was a native of Bidda, who asked me to let him accompany me back to his native place, but he too disappeared. In any case, however, as Amadu told me, the news of our stay at Say had not yet reached Gomba, still less Bussa, we might still, by pushing on rapidly, circumvent the plans of those who were anxious to make mischief. Forward then as rapidly as possible!
OUR GUIDE AMADU.
We soon passed the mouth of the Ngubi-Sokoto, of anything but imposing appearance, but, as we were told, navigable at high water for canoes until nearly up to the village from which it takes its name. In the evening we had made more than 32 miles, the longest distance achieved yet by the expedition in one day. We anchored a little beyond Lanfaku.
Here we were visited by two parties of fishermen, who came to us in canoes from the villages, such as are scattered about near all important Fulah centres of population. The young men had their heads shaved, but for a kind of tuft of hair left on the middle of the upper part of the head, which was really not at all unbecoming. Amadu told me that the Grunner expedition had been attacked on its return from Gando at the village of Gesero, which was at war with Gando. The inhabitants had tried to stop the guides of the Germans by firing at them. Grunner had therefore burnt their village.
At ten o’clock we were overtaken by a tornado. We were back again in the winter in fact, and every night there was a storm, or at least a downpour of rain.
On the 29th we continued our forced march, passing several fine villages surrounded by tatas. Kundji seemed a very big, strong place.
At about eleven o’clock we passed three rocks which probably form part of a bar across the river when the water is low, marking the beginning of the difficult and broken course below. At four o’clock we anchored opposite Tchakatchi, on an island at the foot of a group of magnificent baobabs. At the end of this island is a great mass of flint, and the banks were strewn with the big rocks of polished granite we knew so well. We were back again amongst the rapids, and had once more to encounter difficulties such as we had conquered at Ayoru and Kendadji. The whole village turned out to see us, and the chief himself offered to act as pilot. I accepted his suggestion, for our old Amadu had rather exaggerated his hydrographical knowledge. The only garment of most of the men of the village was a little leather apron worn behind, but some few wore drawers made of blue Haussa cotton. The faces of the women were scarred in the same way as those of their sisters of Kebbi, and they wore as ornaments in the lobes of the ear, little pieces of white stick about a quarter of an inch in diameter by seven inches long.