I was much surprised, after entering the gate, to see only clusters of huts here and there, and no regular town, as I had been led to expect. I remained under the shade of a tree until the messenger went and acquainted the sultan of my arrival. On his return I accompanied him up to the sultan, whom I found sitting under a small projection of the verandah of one of his coozies: his midaki, or principal wife, sitting alongside of him. To this personage I had been advised by the widow Zuma to pay particular attention, as she was every thing with the sultan. He received me very kindly, and said the sultan of Youri had kept seven boats waiting for me for these last seven days to take me up the river to Youri. I said I was much obliged to the sultan of Youri, but that I did not intend going that way, as the war with the Fellatas had shut up the communication between Bornou and Youri; that with his permission I would go by the way of Koolfu and Nyffé, where there was no war. He said I was right, and that it was good for me that I had come to see him; that I should take what path I chose.
We then parted, he ordering his head man to take me to a house. He would have come with me himself, but the midaki pulled him back; she had acted, during the time I was there, as prompter. The sultan is a fine looking young man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years of age, five feet ten inches high, with a high forehead, large eyes, Roman nose, decent lips, good teeth, short chin covered with about an inch and a half of beard, more of a spare than robust make. He was dressed in a white tobe, striped Moorish kaftan, with a red Moorish cap on his head. The midaki appears somewhat older, below the middle size, with nothing remarkable about her but her voice, and a winning womanish way, sitting on his left side, a little behind him, with her arm half around his neck. His house does not differ from those of other people, except the huts being a little larger, and surmounted by ostrich eggs. I found my house a very good one, with three rooms or huts, and a shade for the heat of the day; and the sultan and midaki sent me a sheep, yams, fish, milk, honey, and eggs.
Friday, 31st.—This morning I waited on the sultan with my present, which consisted of eight yards of red cloth, eight yards of blue, eight yards of silk, a blue silk umbrella, an African sword, three pair of white cotton stockings, three pair of gloves, two phosphorus boxes, three clasp-knives, and three pair of scissars, a mock-gold chain, beads, and coral; for the midaki, pictures of the king, and royal family, &c. I displayed my present to the best advantage, and explained the uses of the different articles. The sword he was delighted with, and the chain, I saw, had won the midaki’s heart. She first put it around her own neck, then taking it off, and putting it around the sultan’s, looked up in his face with as sweet an expression of countenance as ever I saw. Upon the whole, my present appeared to have the effect I wished. After giving me a great many thanks, and the presents were taken away, he began again about Youri: said, that Yarro of Kiama had informed him that I was going there. I said, I meant to have gone there, but that I should now defer my visit until my return; that the rains were now at hand; that by the way of Youri there was war, and I could not get to Bornou before the rains; that remaining in Youri or Houssa during that season would kill me, and they had better put a sword through me at once than detain me. He said there was no sultan between Koolfu and Guari. I told him the taja had engaged to find me bullocks to carry my baggage to Kano. He then asked me when I wished to go away. I replied, “To-morrow.” “Well,” says he, “you shall go in the afternoon.” I said I would prefer daybreak, as I wished to make observations at the river side, and see my baggage safely over. I had some apprehension that the king of Youri, should he hear that I am going by the way of Koolfu, might outwit me; on which account I mentioned my preferring to travel in the morning. “Well,” says he, “you shall go when you please.”
This point being settled, I asked him to lend me a horse and saddle, which he promised to do. I next inquired of him after some white men who were lost in the river near this place twenty years ago. 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. In the afternoon the sultan came galloping up in front of my house, a man running after him, holding the umbrella I had given him; but the bearer could not keep up with the horse, or hold it over his head.
In the evening I was visited by the sultan and midaki, and the king of Youri’s messenger with them. The messenger said his master had sent provisions and every thing for my voyage up the river to Youri. I told him I could not but feel much obliged to the king of Youri for his kindness; but that the rains were close at hand, and the road between Youri and Bornou shut up by the war; that on my return, after the rains, I should certainly visit the king, for his kindness on this occasion. The sultan of Boussa said I should be making an enemy of the king of Youri if I went away without seeing him or sending him a present. I said I really had nothing here to give; that if the messenger of the king of Youri would accompany me to the ferry where my baggage was, I would give him as good a present as I was able; but that I had now very little to give. The Youri messenger was very anxious that I should go with him; but the midaki, whose heart the gold chain has won, fairly beat him off the field, and it was decided that I am not to go to Youri. The sultan made a great many inquiries about England, and asked me two or three times if I had not come to buy slaves. I laughed in his face, and told him there was nothing we so much abhorred in England as slavery; that the king of England did every thing to prevent other nations buying slaves; that the slave trade was the ruin of Africa; that Yourriba presented nothing but ruined towns and deserted villages, and all caused by the slave-trade; that it was very bad to buy and sell men like bullocks and sheep. It was now nearly dinner-time, and he said he would come and see me at night.
At eight in the evening the sultan came, accompanied by the midaki, and one male slave. He began again about Youri; but I repeated what I had said before. He then asked me if the king of England was a great man. “Yes,” I said, “the greatest of all the white kings.” “But,” says he, “you live on the water?” “Oh no,” I said, “we have more land than there is between Boussa and Badag (as they call Badagry), and more than five thousand towns.” “Well,” says he, “I thought, and always have heard, that you lived on the water. How many wives has the king?” “Only one wife,” I said. “What!” says he, “only one wife?” “Yes,” says I; “no man is allowed more than one wife, and they hang a man if he has two at one time.” “That is all very good for other men,” says he; “but the king having only one wife is not good.” When I told him, if the king had a daughter and no son, she would rule the kingdom at her father’s death, he laughed immoderately, as did the midaki, who was apparently well pleased with the idea of only one wife, and a woman ruling. I asked him who were the first people who inhabited this part of the country. He said the Cambrie; that his ancestors were from Bornou; that the sultan of Niki was descended from a younger branch of his family; that his ancestors and people had come into this country a long time ago; that his family were descended from the sultans of Bornou; and that they had paid the latter tribute until, of late years, the road had been shut up; but that he would pay it all up whenever the road was open; that the sultans of Youriba, Niki, Kiama, Wawa, and Youri, paid tribute to Bornou. I then asked him at what place the river entered the sea. He replied he did not know: but he had heard people say it went to Bini, which is the name they give to Bornou. I asked if he had ever seen any of the Bini people, or if they come up as far as this by the river. He said, no, he had never seen any of them; that he understood they never came higher up the river than Nyffe or Tappa (as they call Nyffe). He remained with me until near morning, and when he was gone, finding I could not sleep, and hearing the sound of sweet-toned instruments, I sent for the musician, and made him play and sing to me. On sending him away, I desired him to call in the morning and I would pay him, and to bring his instrument with him.
Saturday, 1st April.—Morning cool and cloudy, with a little rain. The Houssa musician came to his appointment, and I made him play and sing. I made a sketch of his instrument, which I asked him to sell to me; but he said he had played on it to his father and mother, and they were pleased with it; they were now dead, and he would not part with it. My servant Ali was cooking a fowl for my breakfast, and having occasion to call him, he came with a knife in his hand; on seeing which, the musician started, and ran as if he had been going to be put to death instantly. The women in the house, when they saw him run, rolled on the ground, and laughed at the poor man’s fright. After breakfast I visited the sultan, and asked him to be allowed to depart, as my baggage was to have been at the river-side yesterday. He said I must not leave him to-day, and that when I came back I must stay forty days with him. I was visited by a great number of people, amongst which were many Fellatas, the chief of whom sent me a sheep, honey, and milk. The sultan, when I inquired of him again to-day about the papers of my unfortunate countrymen, said that the late imam, 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.
The place pointed out to me, where the boat and crew were lost, is in the eastern channel: the river being divided into three branches at this place, not one of which is more than a good pistol-shot across. A low flat island, of about a quarter of a mile in breadth, lies between the town of Boussa and the fatal spot, which is in a line, from the sultan’s house, with a double-trunked tree with white bark, standing singly on the low flat island. The bank is not particularly high at present, being only about ten feet above the level of this branch, which here breaks over a gray slate rock, extending quite across to the eastern shore: this shore rises into gentle hills, composed of gray slate, thinly scattered with trees; and the grass at this season gives it a dry and withered appearance.
The city of Boussa is situated on an island in the river Quorra, and is in latitude 10° 14′ north, longitude 6° 11′ east. The course of the Quorra here is from north-north-west to south-south-east by compass; and, as they informed me, is full of islands and rocks as far up the river as they were acquainted with it, and the same below. Boussa stands nearest the westernmost branch, which is called by the natives the river Menai; the other two branches have no other name than the Quorra. The Menai’s stream is slow and sluggish; those of the other two strong, with eddies and whirlpools breaking over rocks, which in some places appear above water. Boussa island, as I shall call it, is about three miles in length from north to south, and a mile and a half in breadth at the broadest part. A ridge of rock, composed of gray slate, runs from one end of the island to the other, forming a precipice from twenty to thirty feet high on the eastern side, and shelving gently down on the west: below this precipice extends a beautiful holm or meadow, nearly the whole length of the island, and about three hundred yards broad, to the banks of the river, where there are several rocky mounds, on which villages to the number of four are built. The wall of Boussa is about a quarter of a mile from the banks of the Menai, and unites with the two extremities of the rocky precipice, where they fall in with the banks of the river; and may be about three quarters of a mile or a mile in length. The houses are built in clusters, or forming small villages, inside the wall, not occupying above one-tenth of the ground enclosed. Outside the walls, on the same island, are several villages, with plantations of corn, yams, and cotton. The language of the people of Boussa is the same as the other states of Borgoo, and appears to be a dialect of the Yourriba: but the Houssa language is understood by all classes, even by the Cambrie. I should not think that the whole of the inhabitants living between the wall and the river amounted to more than ten or twelve thousand; but I was informed that the state of Boussa was more populous than all the other provinces of Borgoo; and that, next to Houssa, the sultan of Boussa, from that state alone, could raise more horse than any other prince between Houssa and the sea. The inhabitants, with a very few exceptions, are pagans, as is the sultan, though his name is Mohamed. Milk is his fetish, and which he, therefore, does not taste. This I learnt when he drank tea with me. They eat monkeys, dogs, cats, rats, fish, beef, and mutton; the latter only on great occasions, or when they sacrifice. This morning when I was with the sultan, his breakfast was brought in, which I was asked to partake of. It consisted of a large grilled water-rat with the skin on, some very fine boiled rice, with dried fish stewed in palm oil, and fried or stewed alligators’ eggs, and fresh Quorra water. I eat some of the stewed fish and rice, and they were much amused at my not eating the rat and the eggs. Their arms are, the bow, sword, spear, and a heavy club of about two feet and a half in length, bent at the end and loaded with iron: their defensive armour is a tanned leather shield, of a circular form, and the tobe or large shirt gathered in folds round the body, and made fast round the waist with a belt.
From the front of the Sultan’s house they pointed out to me a high table-topped mountain, bearing by compass north-north-east, distant from twenty-five to thirty miles. On the south-west side of this mountain they say Youri lies; and the Quorra runs past the west end of the mountain.