Chapter IV (3)

Tuesday, 4th.—I waited on the chief, and made him a present of a silk umbrella and other articles. I then told him that what I had given him did not belong to me, but to my master, the king of England, who had sent me to visit Houssa and Bornou, where I had been two years before; that I wanted the chief of Guari to give me his assistance and protection as far as he could give it. He said he thanked me for the present I had given him from the king, and I should have every protection and assistance he could afford; that he and the Fellatas, I knew, were at war, and that his sending an escort of horse to Zegzeg with me would be of no service, and only expose me to attack from the Fellatas who infested the road on the frontiers of the two states; but from the last town in his territory bowmen on foot should escort me as far as Fatika, the first town in Zegzeg, and under the dominion of the Fellatas, and then I should be in perfect freedom to go where I pleased; that his horsemen should go with me as far as the last town in his territory, and would provide every thing, and see me off, escorted by the bowmen, before they returned; that the bowmen were the best escort in the woods I had to cross between Guari and Zegzeg, and, God willing, I should perform it in safety, as I had done the long and dangerous journey I had already come; but that if I thought any other way was better, or if there was any thing I wanted, to mention it, and if it could be got in Guari I should have it. I thanked him; said, if there were any curious animals or birds, I should like to have them; and if he had any written account of the country, I should like that more than all. He said he had no written account of the country; that no one troubled their heads about affairs of that kind; that if I would remain with him in Guari some time, I should have all the curious birds and beasts in the country, but that at present every person that could be spared was out in the country attending the growing grain; that they had a scarcity over all the country last year, and they were afraid the same thing might happen this year, as the rains as yet had not been very abundant. After I left the chief I returned home, and opened all the cases, and put the things that were wet out to dry.

Guari, formerly a district of the province of Kashna, was conquered by the Fellatas a short while after their rising, along with the rest of Houssa. At the death of old Bello, this, with the greater part of the province of Kashna, made itself independent by joining in the Towia, or confederation and rebellion against the Fellatas. Bonaga, the chief of Zamfra, was the first to rise and shake the spear, as they express it. He was joined instantly by the inhabitants of the province of Goober, whose chief, a lad, was kept as a slave in Sackatoo; but, by the assistance of his countrymen, had made his escape, and now heads his people. The northern part of Kashna was the next to join, under a son of their former chief or governor. Guari and Katongkora, both districts of Kashna, and belonging to Houssa, also joined, but declared themselves independent of the authority of Kashna. The states of Youri and Cubbi have also since joined, as have Doura and the southern part of Zegzeg. Youri, they say, was forced to join by the others of the Towia, as their districts nearly surround it. The strength of Guari lies in the bravery of its inhabitants and the number of horse they can bring into the field—they say a thousand: this may be all true, but I think they owe their strength to the hilly and woody nature of their country. The capital of this district, also called Guari, is situated in latitude 10° 54′ north, longitude 8° 1′ east; built partly on the north-east side of a hill, and partly in a narrow valley, through which a muddy stream runs that is dry in the summer months; this stream rises only a day’s journey in the mountains or hills south of Guari, runs through part of Zamfra, and divides in one part the states of Katongkora and Guari, and enters into the Kodonia in Nyffé. The city or town has two walls, the old and the new; the old in ruins ever since it was stormed by old Bello. At the rising of the Fellatas it surrounded the hill on which the city is built, and great part of another; the new wall runs over the ridge of the hill, cutting the town into one half the size it was formerly; and even now the wall is much too extensive for the inhabitants to defend, and appears enclosing a few scattered houses and villages, not a town or city. The house of the chief is like a walled village, with a large clay castle at one end: this serves as the harem of the chief, and is well filled, or, more properly speaking, there are a great number of women in it. The other houses in the enclosure are huts, or coozies, occupied by blacksmiths, weavers, tailors, dyers, &c. all belonging to his household.

Friday, 7th.—Morning cloudy. At 8 A.M. loaded the bullocks and camel, and sent them off. I went and took leave of the chief Abubuker, where I found an escort of four horsemen ready to conduct me to the frontier. This was more than I expected; for both he and his people knew I was going to Bello: at least I told the chief I had a letter and present for him: at all events they knew I had to go through his territory—there could be no mistake as to that. The road from Guari was hilly and woody, and winding and rocky, and filled with sharp gravel stones; the soil a deep red clay; the rocks a slaty sandstone: a number of what in England are called the Malacca cones were growing by the sides of the streams.

At 1 P.M. passed the town of Makundi, where a large caravan from the eastward had just halted, a number of the merchants of which had seen me in Yourriba and Borgoo, and came to wish me joy and a blessing at being so near their country. A number of tongas, or camps, were around this town, some empty and some filled. Arrived at the walled town of Cazigie, where I remained for the night.

Saturday, 8th.—The country, as we approached Fatika, became more uneven and cut up by deep ravines between the long ridges which the land formed. At 5.30 P.M. passed to the south of Fatika, which is walled, and of considerable size. I sent to the head man to inform him of my arrival, and to tell him who I was, and that I was going to halt near the tonga, as the gates of the town were too narrow to admit loaded bullocks. At 6 A.M. halted near a large camp, or tonga. The caravan had preceded us from Guari, and had travelled all night through the wood. They said they had seen the robbers, but from the numbers composing the caravan they were afraid to attack. A short while after halting, the head man of the town sent me pudding, stewed meat, and millet for my horses and camel. I certainly felt very light-hearted and comfortable, as I thought now I had entered the territories actually under the dominion of the Fellatas. All my cares were over; not even thinking of my sick servant, or the chance of my having perhaps to-morrow as much anxiety as ever I had before.

Sunday, 9th.—Morning dull and cloudy. At 8.30 A.M. left our encampment to the eastward of Fatika, the road winding and very gravelly; passed through several plantations of millet, sweet potatoes, indigo, and dourra, the path winding to the south and south-east, when we came to the ruins of a large town, where we turned up, E.S.E. at noon. At 1 P.M. saw the mount inside the walls of the old city of Zaria, appearing over the long ranges which the land forms, like islands in the midst of the sea.

Monday, 10th.—Morning cloudy, with rain. At 7 A.M. the rain ceased, and we loaded our animals, and started at eight. Shaped our path across gentle rising and declining ridges; the soil a deep red clay, with now and then rocks of sandstone and clay ironstone, and the country woody. Within about four or five miles of Zaria the country became altogether clear of wood: except a patch here and there, all was in pasture, or planted with rice, millet, and dourra. Herds of beautiful cattle were feeding in the valleys, or lying chewing the cud on the higher grounds. Zaria was seen to the eastward, and known by its tall trees, like a long avenue of gigantic poplars; running across the horizon from north to south, stretching from the south end of one detached mount to the north end of another. At two, entered one of the gates on the west side of Zaria; but, instead of finding houses, I could just see their tops over the growing grain. At about a quarter of a mile distance all was walled fields, full of growing millet and dourra, with here and there a horse or mare tethered in the open spaces.

At sunset Abdulkrum, the acting governor, arrived, and waited on me instantly. He was very kind, offered me his own house to live in if I did not like the one I was in; sent for a fine fat sheep, with plenty of provisions for man and beast.

Tuesday, 11th.—Morning dull and cloudy. After breakfast I had a visit from Abdulkrum. I told him who I was, and what I was, and where I was going; and desired he would give me a messenger to Kano, as I intended going to Sackatoo by that route. He said he would send to the sultan, or governor, and inform him of my arrival; that the messenger would return in three days, and in the meantime I should have every assistance that he could afford me. I told him I wanted the loan of a horse to Kano, and should leave my little mare until she recovered, when she was to be sent to me, and I would pay all expenses. Abdulkrum appears to be a very good fellow, but is in great distress he tells me; and there is nothing in his possession but he will give me if I will only relieve him, for he declares I can. A number of visitors coming in put an end to his story, as it appears to be with him a great secret.

The old city of Zaria was taken by the Fellatas about a month after they had taken the provinces of Goober and Zamfra, in or about the year 1800, as they do not care much about a year or two. It only stood a siege of two days; the sultan and the greater part of the inhabitants flying to the southern and western part of the province, which is hilly, and inhabited by pagans. Here they still remain, and preserve their independence, though the Fellatas seldom let a month pass without making an attack on them; but of late they have suffered severely, and begin to be more cautious in their attacks. The old city is now only known by its ruined wall surrounding the before-mentioned mounts, which were in the centre of the city.

The new city built by the Fellatas, the walls of which extend from the south-east side of the old, about two miles to the south, enclosing a great space of ground, on which are built a number of little villages and detached houses, is surrounded by high clay walls. Abdulkrum’s house, where I lived, is in latitude 10° 59′ north, and longitude 8° 42′ east. Near the centre of the wall stands the principal mosque, built of clay, having a minaret about forty or fifty feet high. The principal market is at the south end, inside the walls, and here the caravans make their tongas, or camps. One twentieth is exacted from the merchants as a duty; and they dread halting at Zaria, from the rapacity of the inhabitants, who are all Fellatas, and often keep travelling by secret paths through the woody country, to evade the city, until they enter the province of Guari. The house of the governor is north of the great mosque, and is surrounded by a high clay wall; inside this wall are large coozies, or huts, surmounted by ostrich eggs, and some single rooms of a square form, with a flat roof. The houses of the principal inhabitants are much the same. Of the number of inhabitants I can form no estimate: they say there are more than in Kano, which I should suppose to contain 40 or 50,000 at least. They are mostly all Fellatas; a great many of them from Foota Bonda and Foota Torra, and know the French and English well they say; but I am sorry to add, that they have not improved by their acquaintance. They rattle over the names of the towns between Sierra Leone, or the Senegal, and Timbuctoo, like a, b, c, then sit down, and will not start until they get something. These fellows are generally armed with French fusees. They prefer the guns of the French and the powder of the English. The late governor was a native of Foota Bonda: so that the Foulahs and the Fellatas are the same people. Foota Bonda, Foota Torra, &c. they call Meli. They now possess Jinnee, near Timbuctoo, and I think will soon have the whole of the interior. Inside the walls there are a great number of shady trees, which are pruned every year for fire-wood; they look at a distance like immense poplars: swamps, corn fields, and green plats, make up the rest of the town. Date trees, palm oil trees, papas, melons, plantains, Indian corn, millet, dourra, rice, yams, sweet potatoes, &c. are in abundance, particularly rice. They say they raise more and better rice than all the rest of Houssa put together. Horses, sheep, and horned cattle abound in every part of the province inhabited by the Fellatas. Game is also in abundance; such as antelopes of all the different kinds. Guinea fowls and partridges are also in great numbers. The elephant and buffalo inhabit the southern part of the province, which they say is twelve days south of Zaria, and reaches close to the salt water. It is bounded by the province of Kano to the east; Jacoba to the south-east; by the mountains inhabited by pagans to the south, where they say the sea is; by Nyffé to the south-west; Guari and Kashna to the north and west. The environs of the city are beautiful, being formed of gentle ridges of land and plains; here and there fine large shady trees, and small streams of water; the rocky mounts to the north and south adding to the beauty of the scene. A small river, dry in summer, runs at a little distance from the eastward wall: its course is south.

Friday, 14th.—Morning clear. No messenger having arrived from the governor, as was expected, I had the bullocks and camel loaded, and told Abdulkrum I would stay no longer, and if he attempted to stop me, it would be at his peril. He said there was not the least objection to my going; that, on the contrary, he would send a messenger of his own with me to Kano, and should accompany me part of the way. It was 8 A.M. before I was able to leave the town, Abdulkrum proceeding with me: he has behaved very well to me while I remained in Zaria, and is as decent a Fellata as I ever met with; and he is the only man in the place who bears a good name with strangers. Poor man, his secret came out at last. He was very earnest and rather bashful about it for a Mahometan. It was as usual with them who have too many wives: one, he said, was the governor’s daughter, and he was convinced I had medicine that would be of use to him. It was too serious a matter, and lay too near his heart, for me to laugh at him, or to say I had none; so I gave him a box of Seidlitz powders, the effervescing of which surprised him very much, desiring him to take one once a week. He was made perfectly happy, and fully believed in their virtue. It is the first time I have given medicine for such a disorder, generally laughing them out of asking me for such a thing. As he and I rode after the bullock, a great deal of our conversation was about England, which he, as well as a great many others here, declares to be a small island in the midst of the sea. I had hard work to convince him to the contrary. He then talked a great deal about the inferiority of the Christians to the true believers in battle. I told him he had never yet had Christians to deal with in battle, or he would tell another story. “Oh! do not say that,” says he; “did we not kill forty at Adamowa, and make all the rest run away?” I said they were all Mahometans and Arabs, not a Christian amongst them: but all I could say he would not be convinced, until I told him he lied like a thief, and whenever I saw Bello I should insist on his writing to the governors of the different provinces of Houssa, to inform their people of the truth of that affair: that it was Arabs and Mahometans, headed by Boobecker Bookaloom, who made the attack on Adamowa; and that they had, to save themselves, taken advantage of our being in Bornou at the time to throw it on our backs. Mr. Abdulkrum began to be a little alarmed at the earnestness of my language and threat, and begged I would think no more about it; he himself knew it was a lie told by the Arabs to save their credit. We parted not quite such good friends as we had been.

The country at present, on this side of Zaria, looks like some of the finest in England, about the latter end of the month of April. All around is green and beautiful, with only trees here and there. The soil a red clay, mixed with gravel. The cultivated ground continued until 11 A.M. when we entered a wood of low trees, which continued until noon, when we found ourselves amongst the cultivated grounds belonging to the town of Leokoro, which we passed, and halted on the east side. It is of considerable size, walled round, but the wall is in very bad condition, being broken and falling down in several places. The houses are in good repair, and the inhabitants numerous. Towards sunset several large herds of cattle came in from grazing in the neighbouring woods, and were secured in thorny enclosures outside the walls for the night.

Saturday, 15th.—At 4.30 P.M. arrived and halted at a town called Roma, in English, Soup, whose walls are extensive; and, from the number of shady trees within them, must have once been a populous and well inhabited place. The present inhabitants do not amount to more than forty, poor, mean, and miserable. They were all collected under one of the old shady trees in the town to receive me, with their chief man at their head, bearing a long white wand, or peeled palm-tree branch in his hand, dressed in a ragged dirty white tobe, his skin spotted black and white like a leopard with disease. He conducted me to his house, which was large and spacious; but the courts were overgrown with weeds and grass; the roofs of the huts falling in; the floors wet, damp, and dirty. I could not amongst the whole find one fit to shelter man or beast. I went out, and he accompanied me until, amongst the untenanted houses, I found one, where I put my baggage for the night. He brought me a little corn in a gourd for my horses, and I asked him the cause of the sad state in which the town was: he said, the Fellatas, and held his peace. “Why is your house in such a state?” I asked. He said he once had fifty wives, but they had all run away one after another, and he could not take care of it himself. Plenty of guinea fowls came to roost on the shady tree. Towards sunset I went out and shot six, which served all hands.

Sunday, 16th.—At 12.20 halted at the town of Aushin, where I was provided with as good a house as the place afforded; and this being the day of the aid kebur, or great feast, they had killed a bullock, of which the head man of the town sent me a part, with Indian corn for my horses and camel. I had not taken possession of my house more than ten minutes, and hung my watch and compass up to the rafters, as was my usual custom, than, having occasion to go out, I found my watch torn forcibly from the ring; but I fortunately caught the thief, who was one of the bullock drivers: I threatened him very much, but was glad I had got my watch again without any serious injury. The bullocks on this day’s journey were nearly all worn out; it was with great difficulty we could get two of them on with very light loads.

Monday, 17th.—Having passed Roma and several other towns, at noon of this day we entered the town of Dunchow, the first to the westward in the province of Kano. I rode up to the head man’s house, who was just coming out of his door to take his ride; a jolly looking tall Fellata, about thirty years of age. After we had exchanged compliments, he took me to a very good house to lodge in, and promised to send me every thing I wanted, which was food for man and beast. I got corn sent me in abundance, but nothing else; all his other promises proved to be nothing but empty words.

Tuesday, 18th.—Clear and cool. Thermometer at sunrise 68° F. in the open air. After giving the head man of Dunchow a knife, and a lecture for not performing his promises to me, in giving me meat or milk, or lending me a horse, he said, they had no meat, because they had killed no bullock; no milk, as all the young women were dancing last night, as their custom is after the _aid_, and they did not milk the cows; his horses had all been killed this summer at the war with the sheik of Bornou. All these excuses were made with as much ease as he made the promises, and I could not help admiring the courtier-like manner in which he behaved, though he has only been here a month as governor. At 7 A.M. I left Dunchow and its polite governor, and travelled through a well cultivated and populous country, the inhabitants of the villages all out in their plantations, giving the millet and dourra the second hoeing, and drawing the earth up to the roots of the grain: the soil a fine black mould, covered with a thin layer of sand. Passed several plantations of rice, which was sown in beds in the low and swampy grounds; also beds of sweet potatoes, yams, and a root called goza, like a small short yam, more watery, and of a yellow colour inside: it has a broad flat leaf.

At 2 P.M. entered the town of Baebaegie. I rode to the house of the governor, whose head man gave me a part of his house to lodge in; and shortly after I had halted he sent me a sheep, two fowls, some wheat, the first I had seen since I left England, and plenty of millet for my horses and camel. I sent him in return a knife, six yards of red silk, a gilt chain, and a pair of scissars. In the evening the governor sent me pudding, boiled rice, milk, and stewed meat.

Wednesday, 19th.—The town of Baebaegie is in latitude 11° 34′ north, and longitude 9° 13′ east, and stands as it were in the midst of a large plain, having in sight, from the granite mount about a musket shot outside the southern gate, the hills of Nora, about ten miles east; to the south, the mountains of Surem, distant about twenty-five miles; to the west I could distinguish the tops of one or two of the hills of Aushin, in Zegzeg; to the north a plain bounded only by the horizon; to the north-east the two mounts inside the walls of Kano could just be distinguished above the horizontal line, bearing north-east by north. One hill bore north, breaking the horizontal line, twenty or twenty-two miles; the land, every where the eye turned, looked beautiful; the grain was just high enough to wave with the wind; little towns and villages were numerous; the trees full of foliage, none being left hardly but such as were fit for use, such as the micadania or butter-tree, the nutta or durow, and the tamarind: heads of fine white cattle were seen grazing on the fallow ground; horses and mares were tethered in the small spaces left between the plantations in cultivation; women, to the amount of a hundred, were thrashing out corn with large sticks, on the flat rock at the base of the mount, the wind, blowing fresh from the westward, serving them as a winnowing machine. The town was below, in the form of an oblong square, the four sides facing the four cardinal points; the head man’s house in the centre of the town, and is like one of the old keeps or castles in Scotland, near the Borders; it is also of the Moorish form, and the general one for all the governor’s houses in Houssa. A high clay tower, through which is the gate or entrance from each side, overtops a wall of clay about twenty feet high, in the form of a square; inside are huts or coozies for the women, eunuchs, domestics, and horses; the governor occupying the upper part of the tower in times of alarm and danger, and his men-slaves and armed retainers the lower. This, like all the others, is built of clay, and is three stories high, with a flat roof and battlement. In the lower story, at each side, and above the gate, are oblong holes, which serve for archers and to give light in the upper stories; the windows are like ours in England in form, four on each side, but no attention as to regularity in placing them; the windows are either shut by a mat on the side next the wind, or by a number of coloured and plaited lines of grass strung over a small rod, which is hung across the top of the window; the ends falling down, admit sufficient air and light, and keep out flies. This plan is also used for the doors of inner apartments in the lower houses, and requires no opening or shutting. The rooms in the town are supported by pillars formed by lashing long poles together until sufficiently strong, and, when they are up, plastering them thickly over in all parts with clay, and then a coating of cow-dung, to prevent the white ants and other insects eating away the wood; the great beams are formed in the same manner. The floors of the upper rooms are first laid with rafters of stout poles, then short diagonal pieces are laid over as close as they can be laid, then a coating of clay and small gravel is laid six or eight inches thick. The walls are made, first by mixing clay well up with a little chopped grass or cow-dung, and making it up in lumps of two handfuls, and letting it dry in the sun; when dry, they build with them as our masons would do with rough stones, laying a thick layer of well-wrought soft clay between each layer of hardened lumps, and a good thick coat outside: their hand is the only trowel; and, without plumb-line or level, they manage to make pretty fair walls and buildings, taking these things into consideration. The walls outside, before the commencement of every rainy season, get a fresh plastering, the tops are repaired, and parts that may be washed down are built up. The water is conveyed from the tops of the houses, clear of the walls, by long, baked, clay funnels, like what are used on the tops of smoky chimneys in England, and look like great guns mounted on the tops of the walls. The other houses of the town are like almost all others outside the capital towns, a number of circular huts within a high, square, clay wall; frequently a single room, with a flat roof, used by the master of the house as a safe repository for his goods. Every house has two or three date trees within this wall or enclosure, which bear fruit twice a year, like those of Kashna and Kano; once before or at the commencement of the rains, the other after the rains a month or forty days. They use two pieces of flat board or gourd, one fixed, the other moveable, to which is attached a line for the purpose of clapping one against the other to frighten the vampire-bat and a kind of jay which lodge on the trees and destroy a great quantity of fruit. The ibis, stork, crane, adjutant-crane, and several other birds, build their nests in the shady trees of the town. A market is held daily, which is well attended: grain, oxen, sheep, and all the necessaries of life, abound. A tame ostrich is kept in the market-place to avert the evil eye—a Bornou and eastern custom. There are several places of prayer in the town, but one principal mosque or jama, as they call them, stands on the right of the governor’s house, forming one side of the square before his door. The inhabitants may amount to about twenty or twenty-five thousand, the greater part of whom are refugees from Bornou and Wadey, and their descendants, who are all engaged in trade: from the little I saw of them, they appeared to be cleanly, civil, and industrious. In the afternoon I went through a great number of these houses, shooting pigeons, of which there are four kinds here: the domestic or house pigeon, the large wood dove, a larger kind with a fleshy substance round the outside of the eye like the carrier pigeon, and the small dove with purple breast and black ring round the neck. The inhabitants offered not the least objections to my shooting in their court-yards, but were as much amused as I was, and afforded me every assistance in procuring the wounded birds. At sunset I took leave of the governor, who lent me a horse and a messenger to go with me early to Kano to provide a house, for I had not yet heard from Hadje Salah. The governor’s son sent me a present of a turkey and some wheat, but I sent him nothing in return, as all my things were packed up ready for starting.

Thursday, 20th.—Daylight, fresh breezes and cloudy; thermometer, at sunrise, 75° Fahrenheit. Landed the bullocks, and saw them out of the north gate of Baebaegie, when I started ahead, on the horse I had borrowed from the governor, his servant and the messenger of Zaria accompanying me. I left the baggage in charge of Richard, desiring him to halt at the nearest town or village if it should come on to rain, and not to start in the morning if the weather was bad. My road was through a well-cultivated country, the soil clay and gravel; the villages were numerous, the inhabitants of which were busy in their plantations, dressing up the earth to the roots of the dourra, and hoeing away the weeds. The road was broad and good, thronged with passengers, asses and bullocks loaded with goods and grain, going to and returning from Kano. At 7 A.M. crossed a small stream which runs south and falls into the Girkwa. At 8.30 A.M. passed the town of Madagie, which is walled, and appeared to be well filled with houses and inhabitants. At noon, arrived at the banks of the river which passes Girkwa, and which rises amongst the hills of Aushin. All the streams to the south of the granite ridge passing Roma, close to the south of Kashna, fall into this river. One considerable river passing Duncomee and Fariroa, flows south of Kano close to the walls of Girkwa, runs east past the town and hills of Dushie, near Katagum, and enters the river Yoau near Hadega. This is the river which has been spoken of by the Arabs as coming from Timbuctoo, and continuing its course to the Nile of Egypt. It is dry for nearly the whole length of its course during six months: the stream, when full, is broad but shallow; at this place, about 100 or 120 yards across: its waters are now muddy with yesterday’s rains; the depth five feet. I got wet up to the middle as I crossed, the horse I rode being a small one, and at times off his legs and swimming. I halted on the other side to dry my clothes, and after an hour’s rest under a tree, when my clothes were pretty well drained and half dry, I again started, and, about five in the evening, arrived at the city of Kano.