Wednesday, 5th.—This morning the widow arrived in town, with a drummer beating before her, whose cap was bedecked with ostrich feathers; a bow-man walking on foot at the head of her horse; a train behind, armed with bows, swords, and spears. She rode a-straddle on a fine horse, whose trappings were of the first order for this country. The head of the horse was ornamented with brass plates, the neck with brass bells, and charms sewed in various coloured leather, such as red, green, and yellow; a scarlet breast-piece, with a bright brass plate in the centre; scarlet saddle-cloth, trimmed with lace. She was dressed in red silk trowsers, and red morocco boots; on her head a white turban, and over her shoulders a mantle of silk and gold. Had she been somewhat younger and less corpulent, there might have been great temptation to head her party, for she has certainly been a very handsome woman, and such as would have been thought a beauty in any country in Europe.
After the heat of the day was over, I went to the governor, Pascoe having previously sent back his wife to the widow. They parted without reluctance, though he declared that she had fallen in love with him at first sight. She was the second wife the old fellow has had since we left Badagry: the first he got at Jannah; she turned out to be a thief, a jade, and used to get drunk with the king’s wives at Katunga, for which I was obliged to order her out of the house; but Pascoe, with tears in his eyes, begged me to forgive her, as she really loved him, and he loved her. I was not sorry when I heard, the day we left Katunga, that she had walked off with all the coral and other little trinkets which Mrs. Belzoni had given him before he left England, as I trusted it would be a lesson to him in future. I told the governor that the widow was now arrived, and I wished he would send me off according to his promise. He said, he did not know that she had arrived, but would send for her. He again repeated what he had said yesterday, and so did I; to which I added that I should be sorry if such a foolish affair should have any effect on the good understanding that existed between him and me before I went to Boussa. The widow arrived, having stripped off her finery, and put on only a common country cloth around her, and one female slave in attendance. She saluted the governor according to the custom of the country; that is, by kneeling down on the ground on her knees and elbows, with the palms of her hands before her face. It was some time before the governor spoke: he then began, and gave her a lecture on disobedience and vanity, and asked her where she was going: she said, after some slaves of hers who had run away and gone to Nyffé: with which excuse, after his telling her she did not speak the truth, she was dismissed; and when she got outside the coozie, or hut, she shook the dust from her cloth with the greatest contempt. “That,” says he, “is a bad woman; none of the sultans like her; she will not pay duty on any thing: but you shall go to-morrow.” I went home, determined never to be caught in such a foolish affair in future, as my last journey ought to have taught me never to make friends of the opposition party in any place, for they were always sure to lead to trouble, if not mischief.
As the governor said I should go to-morrow, I took him at his word, and accordingly left Wawa the second time, determined that politics should never bring me back to the place again. We halted at a village of the Cambrie, remained here an hour, then proceeded an hour, and halted at another, where the gentlemen seized a sheep, as they had done at the former place. I gave them a severe lecture, which they listened to very quietly, but killed the sheep, lighted a fire, and roasted it with the skin on, before the poor Cambrie its owner. In the evening I arrived at the ferry, where I had an excellent house, and plenty of presents of sheep, eggs, and honey, sent to me and my friends: the carriers arriving at sunset with the baggage, and living at free quarters on the inhabitants, as they had done on the Cambrie.
Being unwell, I remained at the ferry three days; and on the 10th, about noon, having got all my baggage over, I crossed the Quorra, which at this time was about a quarter of a mile in width, running at the rate of two miles an hour, and in the middle ten or twelve feet deep. The ferry is crossed by canoes of about twenty feet long and two broad. Cattle are occasionally made to swim over.
The four rogues of slaves wanted to cheat me out of my horse, and urgently invited me to pass over first. I told them, when I saw the horses fairly over I would go, but not until then: at which they were evidently much disappointed; and as it was, they succeeded in cheating me out of one which the governor had lent me.
The master of the house in which I lived in Comie, a very respectable man, and formerly head man to the king of Nyffé, but who had fled to escape the civil war, told me that the river was full of rocks and islands nearly the whole way to the sea, which it entered at the town of Fundah; that the people of that country visited the southern parts of Nyffé; that the people of Benin came up by land, and had the river to cross, as they never travelled by water if they could avoid it, it being against their fetish; that the river farther down ran more to the eastward, until joined by the river Kadania, flowing from the east, when it turned to the west, and fell into the sea.
I now proceeded on my journey towards Kano, and having travelled about six miles, came to a walled village called Dallu; and beyond that five miles to El Wata, which appeared to be inhabited by blacksmiths. Though the village was small, I counted, on the way to where I was to lodge, four large blacksmiths’ shops with five forges in each. The blacksmiths were very civil to me; they gave me their best house, some corn for my horses, and a goat and some yams.
The natives of Borgoo, of whom I have now taken leave, and to whom the Arabs and their neighbouring nations give such a bad character for theft and robbery, always behaved honestly to me. I never lost the smallest article while amongst them. I have travelled and hunted alone with them, and myself, servants, and baggage, have been at their mercy. I ever found them cheerful, obliging, good-natured, and communicative; and the plundering of the sheep, goats, &c. from the villages, by the slaves of Yarro and Mohamed of Wawa, was not the act of natives of Borgoo, but of Houssa; as were the four messengers of Wawa, who had also formed a design to plunder me. These persons are nearly half-starved, and possessed with the idea that it is only right their masters’ subjects should feed them when on a journey, as they have no other provision but what they can catch in this manner; and therefore all they can lay their hands on is considered by them as good and lawful prize. They are more warlike than any of their neighbours; more bold and independent also: and parties of two or three will infest the roads of the neighbouring kingdoms, and carry off passengers whom they may meet, and sell them as slaves.
The kingdom, as I have already said, is divided into the petty states of Niki, Kiama, Wawa, and Boussa, of which Boussa is considered the head, Niki the next. The governors are all hereditary as long as they can keep their place. These states sometimes make war upon one another, when the sultan of Boussa interferes, and makes both parties pay. The kingdom is bounded on the east by the Quorra; on the south by Yourriba; on the west by Dahomey; and on the north by a large country called Gourma, which they assert to be inhabited by naked savages, but the Mahomedans say by a civilized people, and governed by a powerful sultan. The country is eleven days’ journey from north to south, and thirty from east to west: its rivers are the Quorra, Moussa, and Oli: its mountains are the range which passes through Yourriba, Youri, Zamfra, Guari, and Zegzeg. The face of the country is partly plain and partly mountainous, abounding in game of all the kinds common to Africa; and the inhabitants are said to be great hunters. Through Borgoo the caravans from Houssa and Bornou pass to Gonja and Yourriba. They have few cattle, but plenty of corn, yams, plantains, and limes. Their religion is paganism, but they offer no human sacrifices.
Tuesday, 11th.—Left El Wata, the country around which is well cultivated. The ant-hills here are the highest I have ever seen, being from fifteen to twenty feet high, resembling so many Gothic cathedrals in miniature. Halted at another walled village to change carriers, which, like El Wata, was also full of blacksmiths. In all the villages I passed through to-day there is a fetish-house, or pagan house of worship, in good repair; showing that the head people and the majority of the inhabitants, though pagans, have a regard for religion. Figures of human beings are painted on these houses, as are also the boa, the alligator, and the tortoise. The country is well cultivated, and planted with corn, and yams, and cotton. They have plenty of sheep and goats, a few small horses, but no cows; and large plantations of bananas and plantains are seen by the river side. The blacksmiths are still in great numbers. They get their iron ore from the hills, which they smelt where they dig it, and which is done without mining. The taya paid me a visit, wishing me to remain at this place to-morrow, as an army of the Fellatas were in Koolfu, on their return to Sockatoo. He still shuffles off his bargain, and begged hard that I would remain here until the day after to-morrow, as the Fellatas would then be gone. I said I had nothing to do with the Fellatas; they would not hurt me: that he had put me off from day to day, always making a fresh bargain, different from the one he had made before. I offered him half the money here, on his giving me proper security; but he began haggling again, and went off without coming to any certain agreement, as he has always done. I however determined to get to Koolfu to-morrow if possible, as these Fellatas are the very people I want to meet, more particularly if they are from Sockatoo.