Tuesday, 16th.—Waited on the Gadado and sultan. The latter told me, as soon as the reports of the rebels being out were found to be true or false, I should go; that he intended I should go by the way of Asbur, and that I should visit the country of Jacoba during the interval; that he should send a Fellata to Tripoli with me. I returned in the afternoon, and arrived at Soccatoo a little after sunset.
Wednesday, 17th.—A small gaffle of Arabs arrived to-day from Timbuctoo, one of whom had seen Major Laing, who, he said, had lost his hand in an attack which the Tuaricks had made on him and his servants during the night, and that his servants, a Jew and a Christian, had got severely wounded.
Saturday, 20th.—Sent Richard to Magaria with a letter to the Gadado, urging him to apply to the sultan for permission to visit Jacoba and the southern parts of Houssa, that I might be able to ascertain whether and where the Quorra fell into the sea.
Friday, 26th.—Light airs, with a slight haze; at 8 strong breezes from the E.N.E. The sultan sent to inform me that a courier had arrived from the sultan of Kano, informing him of the sheik being only a day’s journey to the south of that place; and the Sultan Bello wished to know if, after such intelligence, I wished to go to Kashna. Sidi Sheik was the bearer of the message. I, of course, said I should remain where I was at present, without making any observations, as the news might be untrue, and it was only a catch to get at my intentions.
Saturday, 27th.—Cool and clear. At day-break the Gadado arrived from Magaria. In the forenoon I visited him, when he told me he was going to Kano: he said that as soon as every thing was settled he would write for me to come; but that I had better remain where I was until the sheik had returned, who was at Sangia, on his way to Kano. It seems the sheik, before he entered the territory of Houssa, had sent to the governors of Katagum, Hadiga, Lamema, and Kano, to say he was not at war with Bello or his people, but at peace; that he had only come to take Mohamed Mungo and Mohamed Nema, two of the Fellata chiefs on the frontiers, who were constantly invading Bornou, and carrying off the inhabitants and cattle. Instead however of looking after these chiefs, he entered the province of Shena, took all the people and cattle he could lay his hands on, and was now on his march to Kano, trying to cut off the sultan, who was at Dushie, the frontier town, to assist Hadgi Katagum in case of attack; but on hearing that the sheik was on his march to Kano, he had returned to secure that important city.
Sunday, 28th.—Clear and cloudless sky. Took leave of the Gadado, as he goes to Kano to-morrow to take command of the forces. The whole of the Fellatas are in the greatest state of alarm, as they expect the whole of the blacks will join the sheik, as also the Tuaricks: they are now busily employed in getting their grain into Soccatoo, expecting an attack here.
Monday, 29th.—The Gadado did not leave until the afternoon. The sultan, and every one that could muster a horse, besides a number on foot, accompanied him as far as the river side, which runs to the north, on the east of Soccatoo: here they repeated the fatha, after which all those not going to accompany him returned.
Thursday, February 8th.—Having taken leave of the sultan, I put all my baggage, except one trunk and the canteen, into the Gadado’s house, as well to prevent robbery as to guard against fires, which are very common in Soccatoo; taking my two camels and all my servants for Magaria. At 8 A.M. one of my camels being sickly and weak, we travelled very slowly until 3 P.M., when I halted at a village near the road-side, where the head man gave me a hut to sleep in; and the river being about two miles distant to the north, we sent the camels out to feed, and left Richard and Allah Sirkie to pitch the tent and take care of the horses. I went down to the river side with the gun, to look at the hunting ground: I was attended by Malem Moodie, the owner of the village, on horseback, and about twenty of his slaves. He is the only free man in the village, which consists of about seventy men, women, and children. After descending the rocky and gravelly side of the hill over which the road lies, I came upon the flat, which spreads out about four miles to the foot of the high ground or low hills. On the north side, the river overflows all the flat during the rains; and the former course of the river has left several pools and beautiful lakes of water. The soil in the flat is generally a blue clay and mould to a depth of from three to four feet; in the upper parts planted with cotton and gourds, and the other parts, during the rains, with rice, which is of a very good quality. The river runs at this place in a narrow winding bed, about twelve feet deep; the banks sandy below the strata of clay and mould; and the falling of trees, and the looseness of the soil, cause it often to shift its bed through the flats or swamps in the rainy season. The acacia trees were in blossom, and the traces of elephants were numerous. I saw only three antelopes, but great numbers of guinea-fowl, which were too wild to come near, as they are so much hunted by the young Fellatas; so I returned without any thing. I was very anxious to have shot a wild boar, of which there were great numbers; but Malem Moodie was quite shocked at the thought of my wanting the skin, so that he would not, I suppose, have let me or my people have any supper if I had touched it; though he had no objection to my shooting as many as I pleased of their Kaffirs and Eblis. I returned to my hut in the village, when the Malem, at meal-time, sent me a large store-pudding, and gravy made of butter and the leaves of the adansonia, with corn for my horses.
Friday, 9th.—After day-light, left the village of Malem Moodie, having given his female slaves who brought the pudding and millet the full price in cowries, and the old Malem two gora nuts: the old man was quite pleased with the present, and accompanied me a little distance on the road, calling at two other villages on the road-side to show his guest to the people. Though they have seen me fifty times, every man and woman, for twenty miles round Soccatoo, still their curiosity is as great as ever, examining my dress, and the dress of my servant Richard; the buttons of brass they always call gold: also my English bridles, and the cloth of my trousers, and my coat, which is a striped printed dressing-gown, draw the attention of all the women, young and old, who beg always a piece of the same to tie round their heads: all good things, they say, we have got. They call me the big Christian, and my servant Richard the little Christian: my old name of Abdulla is seldom used, except by those who knew me when I was here before, and that only to my face. At 10 A.M. arrived at Magaria. My friend Malem Moodie was not at home; but I took up my quarters at my old house; and Moodie’s wife, the one that lives here (for he has four wives and sixteen concubines), sent me plenty of milk and doura. Moodie arriving, I told him I had come to remain a few days to shoot, and I wanted a man to show me the ground: he soon got me one, and I had every thing ready to start next morning.
Saturday, 10th.—A little after day-light left Magaria, and riding through between a number of plantations of cotton on the low ground, which had been covered during the rains, we came on to the rice ground, which is now covered with fine green grass, and has several small lakes and pools of water formed by the ancient beds of the river. The sides of the lakes and pools were swampy for a considerable distance, so that there was no getting within reach of the birds with small shot. They consisted of the white and gray pelican, the Muscovy duck, Egyptian goose, ducks, widgeons, and snipes; the heron, adjutant, ibis, and a small white crane were numerous. On the low flat were feeding, amongst the herds of bullocks, five or six of the large red antelopes, between the size of the common antelope and the nylghau, of a red colour, about as high as a small ass, with large thick horns, called by the Arabs the hamoria, and by the people marea. I did not look after them, as there was little cover, but rode over to the north side of the flat, where the river lies, expecting to find plenty of game and plenty of cover. On approaching through the flats, and within about a mile of the river, the woods were almost impenetrable, abounding in wild hogs and guinea-fowl: of the latter I shot some, but the hogs were forbidden fruits. I had no wish to kill them, except to eat, or to have their skins; and my own servants would have been the first to have held me up to abomination if I had done so, as the less these rogues know about their religion, the more they adhere to the less scrupulous points of it; the whole they know being to repeat their prayers in Arabic, not a word of which they understand; abhor a Christian, a Kaffir, and a poor harmless pig. I saw five elephants, and the traces of a great many more. They hunt them, or set watch for them in their regular paths, sitting on the branch of some high tree which overhangs the path. Their weapon is a harpoon, with two moveable barbs, like our whale harpoons, but a shorter shaft, which is stuck into the end of the large wooden pestle with which the women beat the husks of the rice and millet in their mortars. The iron head is poisoned, and night being the time, they strike on the back as the animal passes under the branch. The hunter traces him for a little distance; the wood of the harpoon drops off, and if the animal does not soon fall, the hunter returns home until next morning, when he is sure to find him dead near to where he had left him. They eat the flesh, and sometimes sell the tusks for a few cowries, or they are oftener brought to the sultan or Gadado, along with the trunk, as a proof of their victory; the tusks they always give to the Arabs. Three have been killed since I have been here: they watch only in the evening. At sunset we returned to Magaria, all very tired, and I with my old dressing-gown torn to ribands.