On arriving at Kano, on his return route, Lander formed a spirited and highly laudable design, which proved him to be possessed of a mind much superior to his station, and this was nothing less than an attempt to resolve the great question, respecting the termination of the Niger, which he hoped to effect by proceeding to Funda, and thence to Benin by water. Striking off to the eastward of the route, on which, in company with his late master, he had reached Kano, he passed several walled towns, all inhabited by natives of Houssa, tributary to the Fellatas, and early on the third day from Bebajie, (as he spells it,) arrived at the foot of a high craggy mountain, called Almena, from a ruined town said to have been built by a queen of the Fantee nation, some five hundred years ago. Mahomet, Lander's servant, who had travelled far and near, and knew all the traditions of the country, gave the following story:—About five hundred years ago, a queen of the Fantee nation having quarrelled with her husband about a golden stool, in other words, we presume about the throne, probably after her husband's death, fled from her dominions with a great number of her subjects, and built a large town at the foot of this mountain, which she called Almena, from which it took its name. The town, according Lander, was surrounded with a stone wall, as the ruins plainly attest. The M. S. account of Tukroor evidently alludes to the same personage. The first who ruled over them, that is the seven provinces of Houssa, was, as it is stated, Amenah, daughter of the prince of Zag Zag, (Zeg Zeg?) She conquered them by the force of her sword, and subjected them, including Kashna and Kano, to be her tributaries. She fought and took possession of the country of Bowsher, till she reached the coast of the ocean on the right hand, and west side. She died at Atagara.
The gigantic blocks of granite forming the mountain Almena, fearfully piled on each other, and seeming ready to fall, are described as resembling the rocks near the Logan stone in Cornwall, but on a scale infinitely larger. To the eastward, a range of high hills was seen stretching from north to south, as far as the eye could reach, and Lander was informed that they extended to the salt water. They were said to be inhabited by a savage race of people called Yamyams, that is cannibals, who had formerly carried on an extensive traffic with the Houssa men, bringing elephants' teeth, and taking in exchange red cloth, beads, &c., but five years before, they had murdered a whole kafila of merchants, and afterwards eaten them, since which time, the Houssa people had been reasonably shy of dealing with them.
Sultan Bello informed Lander that he had ocular proof of the fact, that these same people are in the practice of eating human flesh. The sultan said, that on the governor of Jacoba telling him of these people, he could scarcely believe it, but on a Tuarick being hanged for theft, he saw five of these people eat a part, with which he was so disgusted, that he sent them back to Jacoba soon after. He said, that whenever a person complained of sickness amongst these men, even though only a slight headache, he is killed instantly, for fear he should be lost by death, as they will not eat a person that has died by sickness; that the person falling sick is requested by some other family, and repaid when they had a sick relation; that universally, when they went to war, the dead and wounded were always eaten; that the hearts were claimed by the head men, and that on asking them, why they ate human flesh, they said, it was better than any other, that they had no want or food, and that excepting this bad custom, they were very cleanly, and otherwise not bad people, except that they were kaffirs.
As far as the route of Lander had hitherto extended, all the streams that were crossed had a north-westerly course, and on the fifth day, he reached a large river running in the same direction called Accra. On the following day proceeding S. W., he arrived at Nammalack, built immediately under a mountain, which, rising almost perpendicularly, forms a natural wall on the north-eastern side. It is thickly wooded and abounds with thousands of hyenas, tiger cats, jackals, and monkeys, who monopolize all the animal food in the neighbourhood, the poor inhabitants not being able to keep a single bullock, sheep, or goat.
For four hours beyond this town, Lander's route continued along the foot of this range of mountains, in a continued direction of S. W., it then turned eastward through an opening in the range, and after crossing one large and three small rivers, led to Fillindushie, the frontier town of Catica. Lander speaks of the Catica or Bowchee people as the same. This district must, therefore, belong to the Bowchee country, which forms part of Zeg Zeg, according to the M. S. account of Tackroor, apparently on the Boushy, that is infidel or kirdy country, bordering on Yacoba.
The inhabitants of Catica are described as a fine handsome people, with features not at all resembling those of the negro race, and very similar to the European, but below the negroes in civilization, without any clothing, filthy in person, disgusting in manners, and destitute of natural affection; the parent selling his child with no more remorse or repugnance than he would his chicken, yet at the same time, by way of contrast, artless and good humoured. Their appearance is extremely barbarous and repulsive. They rub red clay softened with oil over their heads and bodies, and invariably wear a large semicircular piece of blue glass in the upper and lower lip, with ear-pendants of red wood. They make fetishes like the natives of Yariba.
Turning again to the S. W., the route now led over a fine and rich country, to a large river rolling to the N. W., called Coodoma (Kadoma,) which empties itself into the Quorra, near Funda. Lander reached the north-eastern bank on the tenth day, and on the morrow after three hours travelling reached Cuttup. Having heard on his route many different reports of the wealth, population and celebrated market of this place, he was surprised to find it to consist of nearly five hundred villages, almost joining each other, occupying a vast and beautiful plain, adorned with the finest trees. Amongst these, the plantain, the palm, and the cocoa-nut tree, were seen flourishing in great abundance, and the aspect of the country strikingly resembled some parts of Yariba. A considerable traffic is carried on here in slaves and bullocks, which are alike exposed in the daily market. The bullocks are bred by the Fellatas, who reside there for no other purpose.
The sultan of Cuttup being a very great man, that is, in his own estimation, Lander made him a suitable present of four yards of blue damask, the same quantity of scarlet, a print of George IV., one of the late duke of York, which, we have reason to suppose, was held in higher estimation than his whole-length colossal figure on the top of the pedestal in this country, which has the superlative honour of calling him one of the most meritorious, most puissant, and most honourable of the royal blood. Lander also made the sultan a present of other trifling articles, in return for which he received a sheep, the humps, or we should call it the rumps, of two bullocks, and stewed rice sufficient for fifty men, not being able at the time to form an accurate opinion of the extent of Lander's gourmandizing appetite, or most probably, as is generally the case in countries situated farther to the northward, judging of the appetite of others by his own. During the four days that Lander remained in these hospitable quarters, he was never in want of provisions, nor do we see how it was possible that he should be, when he had two rumps of beef, from which he could at any time cut a steak, which the most finished epicurean of Dolly's would not turn up his nose at, and stewed rice, as an entremet, sufficient for the gastronomic powers of fifty men. When it is also considered, that the sultan invariably receives as a tax the hump of every bullock that is slaughtered, weighing from twelve to fifteen pounds, and the choicest part of the animal, it is somewhat surprising that the country does not abound with hump-backed tyrants, similar to the notorious Richard of England; at all events, Lander had to congratulate himself that the humps, or rumps, were sent to him daily by the king's wives, we will suppose, out of the pure spirit of charity and benevolence, on the same principle, perhaps, that the widow Zuma invited Lander to take up his abode in her house.
It was very proper that Lander should make a return to the sultan's wives for their rumps of beef, and, therefore, he presented them with one or two gilt buttons from his jacket, and they, imagining them to be pure gold, fastened them to their ears. Little, however, did the Birmingham manufacturer suppose, when he issued these buttons from his warehouse, that they were destined one day to glitter as pendants in the ears of the wives of the sultan of Cuttup, in the heart of Africa; truly may it be said with Shakespeare,
"To what vile uses may we come at last!"