After eating some of our dried venison with some roasted plantains, we resumed our journey; and at twenty-five miles, arrived at the river Ofo, but unfortunately we found no canoe, or anything to convert into a raft, to cross it. We were consequently obliged to make preparations for swimming across. One of my people carried a change of linen, and two pair of light trowsers, and some other articles of hardware, as presents, in a small carpet-bag. This we tied with the saddle to the horse’s back. My little horse was an excellent companion in the water, for, by holding the fastening rope of his headstall, he pulled me across with a rapidity scarcely credible.
I had an American life-preserver, but that had already nearly drowned me by bursting. I never, therefore, trusted to its buoyancy again. We crossed the river in safety, but of course all our clothes were wet. My bag on the horse’s back was quite wet upon the horse’s first plunge into the water. The two soldiers also got their muskets wet, but saved their powder, by placing it on their havresacks, and tying them on their head. My ammunition was also preserved dry in consequence of keeping it in a water-tight case.
Immediately after we had crossed the river, two men from Kosow made their appearance. The caboceer had made no mention of this river, and he undoubtedly expected, by sending men after us, to ferry us across at an enormous charge. It appeared that the caboceer of Kosow keeps a canoe for the purpose of ferrying people across the river, but it is placed at a small kroom, about half a mile higher up the river. Travellers with heavy loads cannot cross this river without employing the canoe. The men seemed much disappointed when they found that we had already crossed. The river Ofo is here thirty-five yards wide, and twenty feet deep, with a sandy bottom. The current is three miles and a half per hour, and runs in a south-east direction.
To ascertain the depth of rivers, I had prepared a lead with a bullet, boring a hole through it; through this I passed a small line of twine, leaving the lower side of the bullet countersunk; into this a piece of goat’s tallow is pressed. The twine is then passed through a very thin piece of wood about five inches square. If the river is very wide, and the crossing made by canoe, the line of course may be dropped over board as on board ship, but if you are obliged to swim, the ball and wood may be dropped on the water. The bullet of course sinks to the bottom, and draws the twine through the hole in the wood at the same time, till it reaches the bottom; the line being marked into feet, the depth is accurately ascertained. If a river is not more than forty yards wide, it may also be measured in the same way, by throwing the wood and ball into the middle of the river; taking care to coil the line carefully up previously to throwing it.
The banks of the river Ofo are low, not being more than three feet above the surface of the water. We remained on the bank of this river till we dried our clothes. Here we also cooked some provisions, and cleaned our guns. We then again resumed our journey; and, at twenty-eight miles, arrived at the large town of Kasso-Kano. This town is well built, and the houses well thatched. There are three market-days in the week here: this happened to be one of them, and though the afternoon was far advanced, the dealers were busily employed. Slaves were abundant, and many parents were publicly offering their children for sale, numbers of them not more than eleven or twelve years of age. They showed their slaves off, and purchasers scrutinized them with as much care as our horse-dealers at an English fair.
Here the women are modest and handsome, the men generally tall, thin, and sinewy. They are apparently very jealous of their women, and naturally covetous and suspicious, and moreover great thieves. The chief is a shrewd, cunning fellow, and, like all others in the same office, seems to monopolize in a great measure the greater portion of the trade in all articles of consumption.
The hills in this neighbourhood abound with iron, and another mineral substance resembling coal, but this mineral is not so abundant: it is probably antimony. I have forgotten its name. It was brought on board in small pieces (the largest not more than half an inch square) during the late Niger expedition, but it was extremely dear. It is used as and considered an infallible cure for inflammation in the eye, by merely rubbing it round it.
Here I had an opportunity of observing their system of smelting ore. The furnace is composed of finely-worked clay, nearly as hard as Roman cement. The dye-vats are composed of the same substance; the furnace is built of a circular form, and of about five or six feet diameter, and about eight feet high. From the top to the middle the furnace tapers inwards to the centre in the form of a funnel; it again widens from the middle to the bottom. At the bottom are fixed two pair of bellows, which are covered nearly over with earth, and kept constantly wet. The bellows are formed by cutting two large round holes in a large block of wood of the cotton-tree. The handles of the bellows are about a yard long, and about the thickness of the barrel of a musket. These are fixed into the centre of a circular piece of leather or hide at one end. This piece of hide is sufficiently large to cover the hole in the block of wood: it is put over this hole, and nailed round the edges. Besides the apertures there are two smaller holes, bored through the sides of the block to communicate with the large hole forming the body of the bellows. Over the mouth of the small hole, where it communicates with the body of the bellows, is a stopper or valve, which shuts close on the hole when the handle is pressed down. The two leather covers, being very loose, are raised up and down alternately, upon the same principle as the bellows used in England.
The man who blows takes the handles (which are perpendicular,) in each hand, and raises one hand up, and at the same time presses the other down, so that with the two bellows a constant blast is kept up. The pipe is frequently made of a sort of clay, similar to that used in coarse earthenware; but when such things can be procured, old gun-barrels, which have burst on the coast, not unfrequently find their way into the interior, and are sold at a very high price for this purpose. Guns in good condition are never suffered to pass into the interior, if the chiefs on or near the coast can prevent it.
But to describe the furnace: iron-wood charcoal, when it can be procured, is used for fuel. The furnace is then filled with a layer of charcoal and iron alternately, and then the fire is lighted at the bottom, and the blowing commences. Two and sometimes three hours elapse before a melting heat can be produced. The melting of the ore of course commences nearest the blower, and the fused metal falls into the bottom of the furnace, when some more ore supplies the place of that which is already melted. When the whole is melted, a stopper is drawn to let the liquid iron run into long narrow moulds, which have again to be melted previously to becoming fit for the hammer. This was the most efficient furnace I had yet seen, and the iron seemed remarkably tough and pliable. They seem ignorant of the method of hardening it, though swords and spear-heads, as well as arrow-heads, are manufactured in Kassokano.