“That was not your original plan?”
“Quite so. I commenced by nibbling; now I have my teeth fairly locked in a grip of the things; and I have no inclination to lose them. I am going on.”
In a compound near by Captain Brocklebank had 20 horses; his personal property. I asked whether they were kept for pleasure or for business purposes, and the answer was “For either, or rather for both.” The cost of feeding such a stud by one who bought his guinea-corn in the fat period of the year is small. If his friends wish to borrow a horse for a day or so they can have it. If there is enquiry for something the London and Kano Company have not but which is worth getting, Captain Brocklebank sends half-a-dozen mounted messengers in as many directions to try and secure it. If anybody desires to purchase a horse he is pretty sure to see one at his figure among the batch; and if anyone desires to sell, then the Captain is ever a buyer. An animal more or less makes little odds.
The acquisition of a man of this kind by the London and Kano Company is of value beyond words. Well-to-do and helping the concern with “the sinews of war,” he can assist in a commercial fight at every step. He has already reaped largely in the new sphere opened by the railway. Greatly liked by both the official element and the representatives of the merchants, he can probably do business easier than one of less ingratiating manners, and, being a principal in the firm, he can promptly say yea or nay to a proposition of any magnitude. A man of his education, means, family connection, and social status is surely the equal, to say the least of it, of anybody else in Kano Province, which shows still more clearly the absurdity of looking down on the commercial class as something beneath notice, or only to be noticed in curt, frigid form and sternly ignored in every other way.
CHAPTER X
KANO CITY
The founder—Hunter and prophet, too—The city wall—Warfare and slave hunts—Provocation and defiance to the British—The Emir’s challenge—March on the city—First check—Renewed attempt—Entry—A new ruler.
Kano City seen from a distance of a couple of miles presents no special features to the eye. It is practically indistinguishable from the surrounding country, which is flat and sparsely wooded. Fields of tall guinea-corn and clusters of trees screen the houses of the town. In their midst, however, two oblong hills, side by side, with flat tops, stand against the sky-line. That to the left, looking westward, is named Goron Dutsi, and the one to the right Dalla. On this hill the founder of the city is said to have lived more than 1,000 years ago. He, Berbushay, legend credits with having killed an elephant single-handed with his spear and carried the carcase on his head to a spot near his house. The place where the burden was put down became Kano, and Berbushay was its first Chief. He was not so ambitious as the rulers of the Balkan States to-day and did not aspire to the kingly title. That was assumed by one David, forerunner of the several conquerors of Kano. His success had been foretold a generation earlier by Berbushay, who apparently besides being a mighty hunter was also a bit of a prophet.
Nearer approach to Kano discloses an encircling wall, with tall date-palm trees standing sentinel-like. A closer examination shows the wall to have a thickness of 40 feet at its lowest part, and to run to a height of 50 feet. The top has half-circles, at the backs of which bow-and-arrow men could shoot with ease, and elsewhere this opportunity for defence is varied by mud compartments—as hard as stone—fashioned into the top of the wall where men could stand and use muskets through loopholes in the solid wall. A deep ditch lies in front of the wall, which has thirteen gates for entrance. The road to each gate narrows, with heavy, low side walls, so that an attacking party would be crowded into a small space, allowing few to press forward together. Several of the gates were further protected by the wall turning at an angle outwards, allowing missiles to be poured on the flank of an advance party.
Inside this Kano, less than eleven years ago, a slave market flourished, although the country was then a British Protectorate, and out of these gates there issued forth from time to time the then Emir and his thousands of mounted spearmen, setting out on slave-hunting expeditions, cheered by the loud-sounding drums and trumpets, and encouraged by the cries of the women-folk, who yelled to their lords to bear themselves well. So the Emir’s following rode on, raiding tracts of territory, carrying off the women and children, slaughtering male adults with never a second thought. When the dwellers in a village had wind of the coming onslaught and hid themselves, the raiders burnt the houses and crops to the ground, leaving the people to perish by exposure and starvation. Thus was the land being depopulated. In 50 years it had been decreased to less than a fifth.