When I went to take leave of the sultan and midaki, the latter made me a present of a fine young native horse; his brother, a fine young man, accompanied me; the head man, or, as he is called, the avoikin sirka and the principal people of Boussa, also accompanied me to the banks of the Menai, when I crossed and took leave of them; the messenger of the sultan of Boussa, and a messenger of the king of Youri, to whom I had promised to deliver a present for his master when I got to the ferry, attending me. Thus ended my visit to Boussa.
CHAPTER IV.
JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA, ACROSS THE FERRY OF THE QUORRA, BY GUARRI AND ZEGZEG, TO THE CITY OF KANO.
Leaving the banks of that branch of the Quorra called Menai at 10.30 in the morning of the 2d of April, I travelled on the Wawa road as far as the Cambrie villages mentioned on my way to Boussa. Here we turned off south-south-west ½ west., sometimes near the banks of the river; the road winding, woody, and rocky, and cut up into deep ravines, in which there were pools of water, and near which were the traces of numerous wild beasts, but few were seen, and those were of the large species of antelope. At 2 P.M. halted at one of the rocky ravines to water the horses. I heard the Quorra roaring as if there was a waterfall close at hand. I ascended the high rocky bank of the ravine, and the rocky ridge which here formed the banks of the river, where I saw the stream rushing around two low rocky and wooded islands and among several islets and rocks, when taking a sudden short bend to the westward, the waters dashed with great violence against the foot of the rock on which I sat, and which might form a precipice of about fifty feet high above the river. Just below the islands, and nearly half way across, the river had a fall at this time of from three to four feet; the rest of the channel was studded with rocks, some of which were above water. It occurred to me that even if Park and Martin had passed Boussa in safety, they would have been in imminent danger of perishing here, most likely unheard of and unseen. When I attempted to get up and mount my horse, after finishing a rough sketch of the scene, I was taken with a giddiness, and lost the use of my limbs and sight. They carried me under the shade of a tree, where I broke into a profuse perspiration; and at 3.30 being much relieved, I mounted and rode half an hour, when I halted at a village of the Cambrie, called Songa, the inhabitants of which gave me the best hut in the village: but bad was the best; it was infested with rats, scorpions, and centipedes, and the furniture consisted of old nets, rotten wood, and broken gourds: I therefore left it, and remained on a mat in the open air all night. The head man of the village gave me a sheep and some yams, and at my request sent one of his young men to the ferry, to see if my baggage and servants had arrived. I gave the sheep and yams to the two messengers and their attendants. The young Cambrie man returned about midnight with an answer from the taya, saying that Richard would be up with the baggage at the ferry in the morning.
Monday, 3d.—Morning clear and cool. These Cambrie appear to be a lazy, harmless race of negroes; and, as I was informed, inhabit the villages in the woods near the Quorra, in the states of Boussa, Wawa, and Youri. They plant a little corn and yams, and keep a few sheep and goats. The men employ their time in hunting, fishing, and sleeping; the most laborious work falling on the women. They are apparently a mild people; in general tall; more stupid-looking than wild; go with very little clothing, seldom any thing more than a skin round the waist. The young people of both sexes go entirely naked until they have cohabited, when they put on a skin, or tobe, as their circumstances will afford. They are, from their unwarlike and mild dispositions, often very ill used and imposed upon. When any of their rulers has a sudden demand for slaves or sheep, they send and take away from the poor people their children or their flocks; and any of the slaves of the sultans passing through their villages live at free quarters. They are pagans; and their temple here was a platform raised about five feet from the ground, on which were piled the heads of the hippopotamus and the alligator. The upper and under jaws of the alligators appeared in all to be of an equal length. I took some of the teeth from one that was last offered. Their language differs from that of the surrounding inhabitants.
The Quorra at this village was in one whole stream, and not above three-fourths the breadth of the Thames at Somerset House at high water, with a current from about two to two and a half or three knots: the colour of the water red and muddy: the banks on each side the river rising to the height of forty-five or fifty feet; in some places rocky: about a quarter of a mile below, it divided into three rocky streams.
At 7.30 A.M. left Songa: the road through a woody country, cut up by deep ravines with very rocky beds: the rocks mostly of red and gray granite. At 9 A.M. passed between the east end of a rocky hill, composed of porphyry, and the river; the hills on the east side appearing of the same: the river running with great force through this natural gap, which appeared as if cut on purpose to let the waters through. The river between Songa and this is full of rocky islets and rapids. After having passed the hill about a mile, the western bank shelved away from the river, leaving a high ridge by the river side, composed of sand and clay, with occasionally ridges of clay-slate, between which and the high ground it appeared as if it had formerly been the bed of the river, and is now a swamp. The ridge close to the river was studded with villages; the river full of small rocky islands, and occasionally rapids. At 10.30 arrived at the village of Comie, or, as it is more commonly called, Wonjerque, or the king’s ferry. Here the river is all in one stream; and this place is the great ferry of the caravans to and from Houssa, Nyffé, &c. The village is built on the high ground, the bank shelving gradually down to the river side, where there is a second temporary town composed of the huts of the merchants: here and in the village all was bustle and confusion. A caravan going to Gonja was halted on the eastern bank; on the western, the goffle from Gonja, with kolla nuts, &c. The village was filled with horses and men dressed out in their gayest trappings: here merchants were offering horses for sale; there their slaves, with gay glass beads, cords of silk, unwrought silk, and tobes and turkadoes for sale; some dancing and drumming; while others, more wicked, were drinking and rioting. I was provided with a good house, and received presents of milk, honey, eggs, ducks, sheep, and goats, as soon as it was known I had arrived; but I returned the whole of them, and said I would accept of nothing until my servants and baggage arrived. Several people came and said they had left Wawa early in the morning, and that my baggage was on the road. The widow Zuma, who is at a neighbouring village, sent me boiled rice and a fowl, and also an invitation to go and stop at her house until my things came, and I should cross the river; but my anxiety for my baggage, and my being rather unwell, prevented me accepting her invitation. I had a visit from the taya, who declares the baggage will be here in the course of a short time. He has now changed his tone: he says I must buy bullocks and pay for them at once, as he will not carry my baggage: he will buy the bullocks for me, and find men to drive them; that he will sell me those which he has bought from the widow; and that he will trust to my generosity for a present when I arrive at Kano; that my baggage, he said, would be here directly, and advised me to go and stop at the widow’s until it came. Towards evening my anxiety was very great on account of my baggage, as no appearance of it, or any tidings that I could depend upon was to be learnt. The governor’s son of Wawa, who is here, offered to go to Wawa and see what was the reason they had not come.
Tuesday, 4th.—I found on his return from Wawa, to my great surprise, that my baggage would not be allowed to come until the widow Zuma went back to Wawa. “What have I to do with the widow?” I asked him. “Yes, you have,” says he, “and you must come back with me and fetch her.” “Not I,” I answered; “what have I to do with her? If I were governor of Wawa I would bring her back if I wanted her, but I am a stranger.” “Then,” says he, “I will go if you will send a token and a message, to say I come from you.” I gave him my umbrella, but no message, declaring I would not send any. The governor’s son went to the widow, and I went to Wawa, where I arrived at noon. My trusty servant Richard arrived at the same instant from Boussa, where he had been to seek me, and acquaint me of the detention of my property: his only guide, a boy whose language he did not understand, or any other but his own native English. He had seen the sultan and midaki, who understood from the little boy who accompanied him what he had come for. They treated him with great kindness, making him remain all night; and in the morning sent him with two armed men to protect him and to find me, and to desire the governor of Wawa to allow my things to go instantly: a convincing fact that the minds of men here must be much changed for the better since the days of Park and Martin. He had left Wawa yesterday, to come and inform me of the detention of my baggage, and the cause why; which was the widow Zuma’s having left Wawa about half an hour after I did, with drums beating before her, and a train after her, first calling at my house before she waited on the governor; giving Pascoe a female slave for a wife, without the governor’s permission, which I had allowed him to accept; and the widow’s declaration before she went away, that she intended following me to Kano, and come back and make war on the governor, as she had done once before.
I was glad to find all my things safe; and was more amused than vexed to think that I had been so oddly let into the politics of Wawa, and that the old governor meant me no harm, but just to let me see his consequence before I left Wawa. I certainly never would have thought that the widow Zuma would have been at the head of the malcontents in Wawa. I was now let into their politics with a vengeance; and it was believed I was taking a very great share in them. It would have been a fine end to my journey indeed, if I had deposed old Mohamed, and set up for myself, with a walking tun-butt for a queen.
I sent to the governor the instant of my arrival at Wawa, to say I was ready to wait on him. I had tea to refresh me and clear up my ideas; and went, accompanied by his head man. My servant Ali brought the rifle, which was loaded; but I ordered him back with a severe reproof, as I always make a point of going unarmed; as the least show of fear or distrust would most likely cause me to pay dearly for my unnecessary caution. The head man said, “Ah! dua, dua,” or that I had taken medicine to keep me from harm. I found the governor just roused from his noon-day nap, which was done by sound of horn. I put on as many smiles as I was master of, shook hands with him, and asked how he did, and how he had been since I last was blessed with the sight of him. I told him that I had seen the sultan of Boussa, and said what a good and generous man he was; and how well he and the midaki, his wife, and the governor’s sister, had behaved to me. I then said, I was surprised that my things had not come to the water side, according to his promise. He asked if the widow was not going to take them, as he thought she was. I said, I had nothing to do with the widow; I was a servant of the king of England, and it was to him I looked; that I did not know the widow before I came here. “Is she not going to Houssa with you? if she is greater than me, let her take them.” I said, no; it was he, and not the widow: I had nothing to say to her; and I would thank him to send me and my things off as soon as possible. “As soon as the widow comes back,” says he, “you shall go, not until then: send for her.” I said, I would not send for her; I had nothing to do with her. “You allowed your servant to take a female slave from her; send her back; and if the widow comes back to-night you shall go to-morrow.” I said, as to the widow’s coming or going, it was nothing to me: with respect to Pascoe’s returning the girl, that was his affair; and that no offence had been meant to the governor in allowing him to accept her. He said, return her, and he would give him another; and if the widow came to-night I should go in the morning: she was his enemy, and was gone to stir up war against him, as she had done once before. I said, he might blame his head man for my acquaintance with the widow: he was present when she first came to my house; and, as she was an enemy of the governor, he ought to have told me then, and I, as a stranger, and the governor’s guest, would not have allowed her to come to my house. We parted after this, and in the evening he sent me a present of one fowl, yams, milk, and honey.