31st.—Carried the charms to the king, on which I had written scraps of old English ballads, which made him in the best humour in the world.
September 1st.—The king still wished to detain me longer, and insisted on my selling or giving him my gun and pistols, the only arms I had left. I endeavoured to soften him by every means in my power; but finding him firm in his determination of having the gun, and at least one of the pistols, and knowing resistance would be ridiculous, I sent them to him, leaving it entirely to his generosity to give what he thought proper. The liberal-minded chief shortly afterwards returned 4,000 cowries (worth little more than a dollar), as a sufficient remuneration for the gun and pistol, but made me a present the next day of a beautiful little mare.
3d.—Early in the morning the old chief desired to see me before I left, and obtained from me a promise to return to him after having visited my own country. He showed me various patterns of silk for a tobe I was to bring from England for him; and said, as I was going out of the apartment, “Your countrymen may come here, and build a town, and trade up and down the Niger: we know now that they are good men, but we did not think so when the white men who were drowned at Boussa were in the country.” He kept me with him till nine o’clock in the morning, when, on going to my hut, I found a party of merchants waiting for me, whom the kind old chief had detained on purpose that they might accompany me to Khiama (which had been concealed from me entirely), the roads to that city being infested with bands of robbers. Crossed the river Auli at twelve at noon. The current being very rapid, we had extreme difficulty in getting over; but no accident occurred, and we fixed our tent on the south bank of the river. In the evening the mallam, or priest of the merchants, came to my tent, and gave me the following account of Mungo Park and his unfortunate companions:
“You are not, Christian, the first white man I have seen. I knew three of your countrymen very well. They arrived at Youri at the fast of the Rhamadan (April). I went with two of them three times to the sultan. The person that appeared to be the head of the party made the sultan a valuable present on one of his visits, which consisted of a handsome gun, a cutlass, a large piece of scarlet cloth, a great quantity of beads, several knives, and a looking-glass. He was a very tall and powerful man, with long arms and large hands, on which he wore leather gloves reaching above the elbows. Wore a white straw hat, long coat, full white trousers, and red leather boots. Had black hair and eyes, with a bushy beard and mustachios of the same colour. The sultan of Youri advised your countrymen to proceed the remainder of the way on land, as the passage by water was rendered dangerous by numerous sunken rocks in the Niger, and a cruel race of people inhabiting the towns on its banks. They refused, however, to accede to this, observing that they were bound to proceed down the Niger to the Salt Water.” The old mallam further observed that, “as soon as the sultan of Youri heard of their death, he was much affected; but it was out of his power to punish the people who had driven them into the water. A pestilence reaching Boussa at the time, swept off the king and most of the inhabitants, particularly those who were concerned in the transaction. The remainder, fancying it was a judgment of the white man’s God, placed every thing belonging to the Christians in a hut, and set it on fire.” It is not a little remarkable that it is now a common saying, all through the interior of Africa, “Do not hurt a Christian, for if you do, you will die like the people of Boussa.” The old man left me shortly afterwards; and I thanked him for his information thus voluntarily given.
4th.—At nine in the morning left the bank of the river, and at two in the afternoon fixed our tent in a bush. Proceeded this day by ourselves, the merchants not being ready to start in time. Notwithstanding the account the king of Wowow had given me of the dangers of the road, we were not molested in our journey.
5th.—At six in the morning were again in motion, and halted at four in the afternoon in a small town called Gorkie. This day one of the asses was taken suddenly ill on the road, and it was with the utmost difficulty we could drag him to the halting place. The chief of the town, at the instigation of the king of Wowow, supplied us abundantly with fowls, rice, yams, &c. Gave him a pair of scissors and a few needles.
6th.—Finding the ass that was taken ill yesterday unable to proceed any farther, was obliged to leave him behind. On seeing his companion going away, the poor animal brayed most piteously, and made many ineffectual attempts to rise. At six in the morning left the town, and after sunset came to a number of grass huts, similar to those mentioned before; in the largest of which we rested for the night, and did not fix the tent. On crossing a river, apparently very narrow, to-day, my horse unexpectedly sunk several feet in mud and sand, and his legs becoming entangled in the roots of some trees lying at the bottom, fell on his side, and plunging violently, threw me off his back; but not being able to get one of my feet from the stirrup, lay several seconds under water, in a most perilous and distressed state. Freeing myself at length from the stirrup, I got out much exhausted, and succeeded in extricating the horse also from his no less unpleasant situation. Some merchants told me afterwards at Khiama, that I might think myself highly fortunate in escaping so easily, the river being filled with large crocodiles.
7th.—Started at six in the morning, and arrived at Yaro after sunset. The chief made us the usual presents of provisions, &c. A dreadful hurricane came on about nine o’clock in the evening, which lasted three hours, when it became awfully still and calm. The storm was unusually violent, and tore up large trees by the roots; the peals of thunder were fearfully loud, and shook the ground on which our tent was fixed; while large masses of fire, falling from the heavens, added not a little to this scene of devastation and terror.
8th.—Heavy rain all day; unable to proceed.
9th.—At half-past six in the morning continued our journey, and at noon entered the city of Khiama. Went immediately to the king’s residence, who, as soon as he saw me, asked how I dared to come into his town without having previously sent him a messenger to inform him of my approach. I answered I had sent one of his own men, three or four days before, to acquaint him of it. “That is of no consequence,” he continued; “you should have sent another this morning. Get on horseback directly, and return an hour and a half’s journey the way you came: on arriving there, send me a messenger, and I will order a sufficient escort to conduct you into the city, in a manner deserving your rank and respectability.” I was in the act of obeying this odd mandate, when he bawled after me: “I forgive you this time, Christian, but never be so remiss again.” The chief is an eccentric but friendly kind of man, and regretted very much my father’s death, which had been told him some days before by a merchant. He had heard the Fellatas had behaved very roughly to us, and had robbed us; but asked what business we had at Soccatoo? I told him we were at Kano, on our road to Bornou, when Sultan Bello sent for us, and we were obliged in consequence to visit him. He offered to send me safely to Bornou, and said he was tributary to the sheik. I replied, that Bello had taken the presents intended for him, and that I had none left worthy so great a prince, therefore could not accept his kind offer. My present to the chief consisted of a silk sword-sash, three yards of scarlet and blue damask, the same quantity of blue silk, a red cap, two pairs of scissors, and a hundred needles. I likewise gave him my old tent, which was full of holes, and quite useless.