Wednesday, 12th.—In the afternoon of this day we halted at a village, after crossing a wooden bridge over a stream called the May-yarrow. It was rudely constructed of rough branches covered with earth; long, and so narrow that two horses could not pass at one time. It is the first I have seen in Africa. I remained here only a few minutes, when I went to another village, where the carriers, after setting the baggage down, ran off. As soon as myself and servants arrived we were instantly surrounded by the whole male population of the village, all armed with bows and arrows, their knives in their hands, and bow-rings on their thumbs, perfectly ready for war. I could not help being much amused at their uncalled for alarm; and to prove to them how tranquil I felt, I dismounted from my horse, and sat quietly down on the baggage, ordering my servants to do the same. They pretended not to understand a word of the Houssa language; for that they did not understand it was next to impossible, as not a town or village between this and Badagry occurred in which we did not find one or more that could speak that language; and the Boussa messenger not having come up, we could not talk to them in the Nyffé tongue. For a little time silence prevailed, when all at once they seized on the baggage, each man taking something, until the whole was gone. I now re-mounted, with my servants, and followed. They ran along as fast as it was possible for them, and we rode after them; at length we came to another village, where the people understood Houssa, and asked what I wanted. I said, to stop all night. These voluntary carriers however took up the baggage again, and crossing the May-yarrow by a wooden bridge, entered the town of Tabra, which is in fact the same town I had reached, the river dividing it into two parts. Having also crossed, I was taken with my things in front of the head man’s house; where they questioned and cross-questioned me as to whether I was going to their king or not; but to none of their questions did I think fit to give a direct answer. When they found I was not disposed to commit myself they carried my things to a house for the night. Here for the first time I had to buy wood, grass, and corn: they always asking, “Where is the money?” before they would give me any thing. I sent Ali off to the chief of the Fellatas, with a letter addressed to Bello, as I find they leave Koolfu at day-break. I therefore missed them by being detained and humbugged on the road, through the manœuvres of the taya, who was very anxious I should not see the Fellatas.
Thursday, 13th.—The whole of this day was spent in expectation of my paying a visit to the queen of Nyffé, who is at present residing here; but in the evening I was informed she could not receive me, as the king her husband is absent, at a town called Raba, two days’ journey distant; but that I may see the king’s mother in the morning, who will inform me when and how I am to proceed to Kano. During the night thunder, lightning, and rain.
Friday, 14th.—After breakfast I went and visited the queen-mother, according to last night’s arrangement; I took with me as a present a Chinese crape shawl, part of a string of coral, and a mock gold chain, and some silk. In the outer coozie of her house I found mats spread for me, and a sheep-skin for her majesty. Her male attendants were mostly all old men, without teeth. In this company I remained for near a quarter of an hour. Then came in a number of women past their teens, and seated themselves on the mats opposite to me. They were decently dressed, in short check bed-gowns, the manufacture of the country, with a stuffing in the breast, which made them appear full-breasted. Around their loins they wore striped cotton cloths, which reached down to their ankles. Their woolly hair was dressed in the crest fashion; over which they wore a cap flowered and ornamented with red and white silk; around which there was tied a piece of check, flowered with white silk and fringed at each end, the ends hanging down: this was about the breadth of a broad riband. After sitting in profound silence for some time, they looking at me and I at them; at last her majesty made her appearance, dressed in a large white tobe or shirt. On her head she wore a coarse green cloth cap with two flaps, and trimmed with red tape. She was old, walked with a staff, and had only one eye. I rose to receive her, and shook her by the hand. She sat down on the sheep-skin, and I on the mat beside her. After asking after her health, and she doing the same, and how I had fared on my journey, I began to display my present before her, told her who I was, and where I wished to go. She appeared much gratified with the present, particularly the chain; said I ought to go and see her son the king, who was only two or three days distant, and he would forward me to where I wished, and be glad to see me. I said I would go with pleasure, but the rains had now set in; and that I wished to proceed on my journey with the taya; that I had a great number of books for Bello, and the Sheik of Bornou, and they would all be spoiled if they got wet; that this country was very sickly in the rains; and that three white men who accompanied me had died already. She said she had sent a messenger to her son the night of my arrival; that he would return to-night or to-morrow morning, and he would bring orders to say whether I was to go to Raba, or not; that if I went, they would detain the taya until my return. I said, “Very well; but I must have a horse, as both mine have sore backs.” I then took leave of her majesty, as she is called. A native of Moorzuk, named Mohamed Ben Ahmet, who has long resided in this country, served as my interpreter. He is married to one of the king’s daughters; he is styled in Nyffe El Magia. I had the following account from Ben Ahmet: that this woman was the late king of Nyffe’s relation; that her son Mohamed El Magia, who is a Mahometan, is fighting with the other, who is called Edrisi and a pagan, for the kingdom; that Mohamed is assisted by the Fellatas, and the other, who has the best right, by the people of Nyffe; that Mohamed has gained every battle this summer, and that there is no doubt of his gaining the day; that there is a cessation of hostilities during the rains; that next summer will decide the fate of Edrisi; that Mohamed can read and write Arabic; is a great drunkard, but very generous.
Tabra is on the north bank of the river May-yarrow, over which is a narrow wooden bridge, which will not bear a man and horse. This bridge connects it to a part of the town on the other side the river, which is also surrounded on the three sides by a wall. The two parts may contain from eighteen to twenty thousand inhabitants; they are the occasional residence of the Magia, who has a house here; and it is also the place of his birth. His mother during his absence is considered as governor assisted by the sirtain fada, or master of the ceremonies. There appears to be plenty of sheep and goats, and plantations of yams, plantains, calavances, millet, and limes. The river is always full of water, and may be about twenty yards broad, shaded with large trees; the banks rise with a gentle ascent from the river, and are planted with yams, millet, &c. There are only a few blacksmiths, but a great number of weavers. The inhabitants, with a few exceptions, are pagans, and they all, men and women, have the reputation of being great drunkards. The Houssa caravans pass close to the north side of the town, but seldom halt here. It was deserted last year, when Edrisi was driven here with his army; the inhabitants flying to Ingastrie in Youri, and to the province of Wawa; but are now mostly returned.
Sunday, 16th.—I was visited by the sirtain fada this morning, who had just returned from seeing the Fellatas safe out of Koolfu: he told me that the Benin people, before the civil war began, came here to trade; that the Quorra ran into the sea, behind Benin, at Fundah; that the Nyffe people and those of Benin were the same people; that Benin paid tribute to Nyffe—(this is common with all negroes, to exalt their native country above all others, in their accounts to strangers). He said they got their salt from a town called Affaga, near the sea: this is the Laro or Alaro of Yourriba, and in possession of the Fellatas. In the evening an eunuch, a messenger, arrived from the king, to take me to the Sanson, or gathering-place, where he was; and to stop the taya.
Monday, 17th.—This morning a messenger of the king of Youri arrived, bringing me a present of a camel, to assist in carrying my baggage to Kano. He said the king, before he left Youri, had shown him two books, very large, and printed, that had belonged to the white men, that were lost in the boat at Boussa; that he had been offered a hundred and seventy mitgalls of gold for them, by a merchant from Bornou, who had been sent by a Christian on purpose for them. I advised him to tell the king, that he ought to have sold them; that I would not give five mitgalls for them; but that if he would send them, I would give him an additional present; and that he would be doing an acceptable thing to the king of England by sending them, and that he would not act like a king if he did not. I gave him for his master one of the mock-gold chains, a common sword, and ten yards of silk, and said I would give him a handsome gun and some more silk, if he would send the books. On asking him if there were any books like my journal, which I showed him, he said there was one, but that his master had given it to an Arab merchant ten years ago; but the merchant was killed by the Fellatas on his way to Kano, and what had become of that book afterwards he did not know. He also told me, that the fifteen men whom I had seen at Wawa belonging to Dahomey were slave-merchants; that they had bought a hundred slaves at Youri; that they also bought small red beads that came from Tripoli; that at Wawa they were to get a hundred more slaves, when they would return to Dahomey; that these people bring cloths, earthen ware, brass and pewter dishes, and sell them in Houssa, Nyffe, and Youri, for slaves and beads.
Wednesday, 19th.—Dull and cloudy this morning. The eunuch came with his horse ready saddled, but without one for me. I told him I was all ready, but would not go until he brought me a horse. He then pretended that he was going, and asked if I had no present to send to the king. I said I had, but should give it myself when I saw him; not until then. He then departed; when a Fellata, calling himself a messenger from Bello, residing with the king, came and said he would make the eunuch stop, and removed my baggage and myself to a good and quiet house, as the one I was in was much disturbed by women and children; and it is settled that I am to go with him to the king to-morrow. I have offered two hundred thousand cowries to have my baggage carried, but I cannot even get a letter conveyed to Kano; either so jealous are they of me, or they have an eye to my baggage, about which they have formed anxious conjectures. I had a present from the king’s sister of a sheep, for which she modestly requested a dollar and some beads. My new house is very snug and comfortable. I have three rooms for myself and servants, with houses for my horse and mare, an old man and his wife to look after it, and I can keep out all idle persons.
Thursday, 20th.—Morning clear and warm. I had to remain to-day also, as my guide and messenger, the black eunuch, is gone to the Koolfu market again. At sunset he and Omar Zurmie (or Omar the Brave), the messenger of Bello, waited on me, and told me that they would leave this for the Sanson, or camp, in the course of the night, if I was ready, and that Zurmie had a horse ready for me. I said I was ready at a moment’s notice, and had been the last four days. In the night we had a tornado, with thunder, lightning, and rain.
Friday, 21st.—This morning I left Tabra in company of Omar the Brave, a black eunuch, and Mohamed Ben Ahmet, the Morzukie, as my interpreter and servant; and having travelled twenty-seven miles, came to a village called Kitako, where we passed the night.
Saturday, 22d.—At 1.30 A.M. left Kitako. The moon through the thick clouds just enabling us, by the assistance of two Amars (spearmen) who went a-head, to thread our way through the thick woods, and over some of the most ticklish wooden bridges that ever man and horse passed over. The morning was raw and cold, and the path slippery and wet. At 4.30 I got so unwell and unable to bear the motion of the horse, that I dismounted, and lay down on the wet ground without covering, or any thing underneath me; for there are times when a man, to get rid of his present sickness, will try any remedy, whatever may be the after consequences: this was my case, and I lay until six, when I rose much better of my sickness, but with severe pains in the bones. A short while after starting, I crossed over the wall of a ruined town called Jinne, or Janne, through plantations of indigo and cotton, choked up with weeds. The morning was raw and cloudy. A few of the ragged inhabitants were up; two or three of the most miserable starved horses I ever saw were tied to stakes close to the few huts that were rebuilt, their backs dreadfully lacerated, the skin being nearly off from the shoulder to the rump, and their eyes running with matter. Only for the verdure of the trees at this season, and a beautiful stream of clear water, whose banks were planted with plantain and palm-oil trees, this would have been one of the most miserable scenes I ever saw in my life. After passing the stream twice, without bridges, whose banks were very steep and slippery, with several deep round holes, as man traps, on each side the road, I ascended the plain above, from whence I saw the ruins of several other towns and villages along the banks of the ravine. At eight passed the ruins of another town; and at nine I met, attended by a great rabble, armed with pickaxes, hoes, and hatchets, Mohamed El Magia, or the would-be king, mounted on horseback, and halted under a tree. When they told me there was the Magia waiting to receive me, I rode up and shook hands with him. He asked me after my health, and how I had fared on the road, and then told the eunuch who was with me to take me to his house; he then rode past, as I was informed, to complete the ruin of the last, as I thought already ruined, town I had passed through. He was mounted on a good bay horse, whose saddle was ornamented with pieces of silver and brass; the breastpiece with large silver plates hanging down from it, like what is represented in the prints of Roman and eastern emperors’ horses. He is a tall man, with a sort of stupid expression of countenance, having a large mouth and snagged teeth, with which he makes himself look worse when he attempts to smile, and looks indeed like any thing but a king or a soldier. He wore a black velvet cap, with two flaps over the ears, and trimmed with red silk, a blue and white striped tobe, red boots, part of leather and part red cloth, in rags; in his hand he had a black staff, with a silver head; his slaves were carrying a coast-made umbrella and his sword. I paid him every decent respect, and put on as many smiles as I was able, as I know that those ragged and dirty rogues, when they have power, have more pride than a real king, and expect a great deal more respect, and cannot bear a man to look serious. At ten I arrived at the Sanson, or camp, where I was lodged in the eunuchs’ part, having a small unoccupied hut separated from the rest allotted for me to live in. Here I was left to myself until 3 P.M., when the eunuch came and told me the king had arrived, and wished to see me. I went directly, taking a present, which I displayed before him. When the articles were taken away by an eunuch, I told him who and what I was, where I was going, and that I wanted his assistance and protection to the governors of Guari or Zegzeg, in Houssa; that I had been well treated by every king and governor between Badagry on the sea-coast, to Tabra in his dominions, and I hoped for the same favourable reception from him. He said it was easy to do all that I had asked, and he would do it.