Chapter X

Character of the Africans in general — Their social qualities considered — Succinct remarks on the Natural History of the Interior — Yam Yams — Arabs — Falatahs — War of the latter people with Bornou and Fundah.

The character Plutarch gives of the Athenians is strictly applicable to the people of Africa in general, _in times of peace_:—“They are easily provoked to anger, and as easily induced to resume sentiments of benevolence and compassion.” This we found to be true in numberless instances; particularly amongst the gentler sex, whose apprehensions are quicker and more lively, and whose finer feelings more easily excited than those of their male companions. We not unfrequently observed persons quarrelling and fighting in one moment, with all the bitterness of angry and elevated passions, and in the next as gentle as lambs, and the most cordial friends in the universe; forgetting their previous noisy dispute in the performance of reciprocal acts of kindness and good nature.

The African, ceaselessly engaged in sleeping, warfare, drinking, &c. takes little, if any, delight in his own family circle. His is no _domestic_ life: his children never prattle round his knee; his eye never glistens with tenderness on receiving their innocent caresses; his numerous wives, who are valued as a distinct and inferior order of beings, weaken his affections and blunt his feelings; and he regards them with looks of indifference or contempt. With him,

“All claims that bind and sweeten life,”

are, indeed, unknown; and, provided his wants be supplied, unless aroused from his stupor by any particular event, he journeys calmly on, with the most listless indifference imaginable, scarcely deigning to bestow a solitary thought either on his country, or his wives and children. He holds the dead, however, in the greatest veneration, hardly venturing to let the name of a deceased relative escape his lips; and if, when engaged in contentious bickerings, his opponent alludes to them in a disrespectful manner, he interrupts him with this energetic expression: “Curse _me_; slay _me_, if thou wilt; but do not rake up the ashes of the dead. Let them rest in peace, or thou thyself shalt follow them to the grave.”

The natives are passionately fond of storytelling, and listen for hours after the setting of the sun, with a gravity truly comic, to the recital of tales of the most wonderful and incredible description, in which they repose implicit belief. The following was told me with an air of great solemnity, and with a full conviction of its truth, by a native of Goober:—

“Doncasson, Prince of that province, ordered a number of men to build houses at the distance of three miles from Coonia, the capital, which they undertook to finish within a given number of days. The workmen, contrary to their expectation, could find no water in the neighbourhood of the spot, nor, indeed, at a shorter distance than Coonia; and having no vessels large enough to convey a sufficient quantity within the time specified, they were put to their wits’ end, in what manner to act, fearing that in the event of the non-fulfilment of their engagement a dreadful punishment would await them. In this dilemma they applied for advice to a female fortune-teller, residing in the city, who, having accompanied them to the scite of the intended hamlet, ordered an immense heap of earth, sufficient for the walls of the buildings, to be thrown up; when the old woman immediately supplied them with the water required, in the same manner as Gulliver extinguished the dreadful fire that threatened to destroy the capital of the kingdom of Lilliput, on his visit to that country; and thus the buildings of Doncasson were finished a week earlier than was expected.”

The persons of the Africans, of both sexes, are perfectly well-formed. I never saw an individual in the whole country with a hump on his back, or any other species of deformity whatever; and this will appear the more strange when it is considered that no people in the world pay less attention to their offspring in their tender years. We frequently saw individuals with only one hand, the other having been amputated as a punishment; but never met with a person that had lost a leg. The people used to deride us when we affirmed that some of our countrymen were furnished with _wooden_ legs in lieu of natural ones, believing that a person could never survive the loss of so important a member.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Of the natural history of the regions we traversed I can say but little, my very limited and imperfect acquaintance with that interesting study, in either of its branches, incapacitating me from giving any thing like a description of the various productions of the soil, or of the numerous animals that inhabit the woods or the rivers.

Magnificent forests of tall trees are scattered over the face of the country from Badagry to Soccatoo, and afford, in their gloomy solitudes, shelter to numerous species of reptiles and wild beasts. The palm, the cocoa, the tamarind, the banana, the fig, the date (a species of palm), the butter, and other trees, are indigenous; and several varieties of plum grow in woods of Yariba, as well as a tree bearing a fruit similar in size and appearance to our “love apple,” and in flavour, to the _cashew_ apple of the West Indies. Stunted orange, lemon, and lime trees, bearing fruit of inferior quality, may also be found growing wild in that region, but are made little use of by the natives, who know not how to improve them; the people have likewise water-melons, guayavas, papaws, &c. &c. The cotton plant, indigo, rice, wheat, yams, maize, Guinea corn, dourra, six or seven other varieties of corn, the plantain, sweet potatoes, onions, and cassada, are cultivated to a great extent in the interior countries.

Reptiles are exceedingly numerous, but the bites of few of them, as far as I was able to learn, are attended with fatal effects. We frequently saw in the woods of Borghoo and Houssa a large species of snake swinging in the sun-beams, with its tail encircling the branch of a tree; but on the approach of a human creature, it would attain the summit in an instant, and look from its elevation on the head of the person beneath. The boa constrictor we rarely met with alive; on my journey from Kano, however, I espied one of them, of about the bigness of a man’s thigh, coiled up like a rope, and partially concealed by fallen branches and leaves of trees. I watched the monster attentively for a moment or two, being within a few yards of the spot: but at length observing me, it attempted to hide itself, when I immediately discharged my piece at its head, and in all probability wounded the animal, although it eluded a rigorous search that I caused to be made after it. The beautiful reptile called at the Cape of Good Hope the puff-adder, is unknown in the central parts of the continent; but a slender green snake, elegantly variegated with black, which is sometimes met with in the former country, is seen in almost every inhabited place of the latter. I have frequently observed, on awaking in the morning, one or more of these reptiles, gliding from underneath the mat on which I had been sleeping, towards the door of the hut, and so making their escape. The bite is speedily mortal. Another snake, about two feet long, of a greyish colour, whose bite is also fatal, is found in many parts of the country. Pasko snatched up an adder of this description one day, thinking it to be a bit of decayed wood, covered with lichen, which it greatly resembles; but feeling the reptile twisting itself round his fingers, he cast it from him before it had power to bite, and immediately fainted from excess of fear. The natives hold all poisonous snakes in the greatest dread, and can never be induced to touch them, even after they are destroyed, believing that, although there be no cut on the hand by which it could so enter, their venom yet attaches itself to the skin, and insinuates itself into the blood of the person that seizes it.

Of insects the most formidable are the ant, the locust, the mosquito, the centipede (a peculiarly hideous animal), and the scorpion. The bites of the two latter are attended with danger; but although they frequently visited us in our tents and huts, we never had the ill-fortune to suffer from their attacks.

Wild animals, in incredible numbers, abound in the woods; amongst which are the lion, elephant, tiger, tiger-cat, panther, leopard, hyena, wolf, and hog. The camel is found in a wild state in Houssa; and that beautiful animal the giraffe, or cameleopard, also inhabits the forests of the same country. I saw three of them in my travels between Zaria, Kano, and Soccatoo; they are excessively timid, and are rarely, if ever, caught by the natives. Although the tremendous roar of the lion, which made the woods tremble, could be heard by us when travelling at all hours of the night; yet I never saw but two of those ferocious animals, a male and female; which incident has already been mentioned in a preceding part of my narrative.

The elephant is annually becoming more shy and scarce in the interior. The country people say that they have been taught the value of their tusks, and therefore studiously avoid, as often as possible, the haunts of man, by penetrating more deeply into the bosom of their ancient forests. Be this as it may, they are not so frequently seen in Houssa as formerly, and less often slain; and although numerous traces of them were perceptible in the woods, we never met with a considerable number at one time in all our journeyings. Elephants are more numerous in the deep woods on the borders of the Quorra, near the island of Boussa, than in any other place whatever. This may be accounted for by the king of that country having interdicted his subjects, under dreadful penalties, from slaying them. The fetish of the same monarch is a white elephant; and it is believed that he can assume the form of that animal whenever inclination or necessity may prompt him to disguise himself. Hence elephants are held in considerable veneration by all ranks in Boussa; and the figure of a _white_ one is worshipped as a god in that kingdom.

I have often heard it remarked, that the elephant is as sluggish in his motions as he is unwieldly in appearance; but this is by no means the case. In proportion to his size, he is as fleet as other animals, which I learnt to my cost in South Africa; for on going out shooting one day I disturbed a huge elephant, which, unobserved by me, was standing at a very short distance. The animal immediately pursued me; but it being a few seconds before he could disentangle his legs from the thick underwood that grew on the spot, I was considerably in advance before he got into open ground. The beast ran much faster than I, and would have overtaken me in a few minutes, if a dog that was with me had not made an alarm which drew our party out of their encampment, fixed at no great distance, who came to my assistance, and drove the animal back. As it was, I was almost frightened to death, and resolved never again to come to such close quarters with an elephant, bulky as he might be; since that quality does not prevent him from using his gigantic legs with elegance and dispatch.

Of all untamed animals in Central Africa, hyenas are most to be dreaded; they are astonishingly bold and ferocious, and commit great depredations on the domestic animals of the natives. The howl of these creatures is truly terrific, and their demoniacal laugh is enough to appal the stoutest heart; hundreds of them used to pass and repass our tent in the woods by night, our fires alone preventing them from commencing an attack on our persons. The wild hog also does a great deal of mischief; they visit the plantations in immense droves, and destroy the corn, or whatever else may be growing on them. They inhabit the woods of Houssa, but more particularly those in the vicinity of Soccatoo, where they are found in considerable numbers; but no pains are taken by the inhabitants of that city to exterminate them; in fact the Mohammedan portion of the community would rather embrace a leper than touch the skin of one of these abhorred animals; and there cannot be a greater affront than to give a Falatah the epithet of “pork-eater.”

The domestic animals are the camel, horse, ass, ox, pig, goat, sheep, &c.; turkeys, ducks (the Muscovy kind), geese, the Guinea and common fowl, are also tamed. The turkey is no where to be met with after leaving Yariba; nor is the camel seen in that or any other country between it and the coast. Although the pig is detested by the Falatahs, the Mohammedan negro feasts on its flesh without the slightest reluctance, as do likewise the Pagan natives indiscriminately. The large species of ox with the hump, was first brought into Houssa, Nyffé, Borghoo, Yariba, Cuttum Cora, Cubbé, &c. by the Falatahs, the native breed being diminutive, and without the hump. The beef of both kinds is always dry, and tough as leather; and as by reason of the heat it never gets perfectly cool, or solid, it is very indifferent eating. The sweetest and most palatable animal food, is the flesh of kids, which is publicly sold in the markets at a reasonable rate.

The native horse of the countries above enumerated, is particularly small and shaggy; it is generally of a mouse colour, with hair as soft and fine as silk; and, like the ass, has a black streak placed transversely on the back and shoulders. The finest horses are imported from Bornou, which country supplies every other in the interior with that useful animal; and these are handsome, powerful beasts. The ass is common in the interior, and for size, speed, strength, and beauty, surpasses any animal of its kind I have ever seen, not even excepting the most approved of the famous Spanish breed. They are highly valued by the natives, and in some instances are preferred to the horse. Sheep and goats are plentiful, but are of very inferior description; none of the former are to be found with the enormous tail of fat which so peculiarly distinguishes that animal at the Cape; but, as in all tropical countries, they have hair instead of wool. Dogs and asses are eaten in Yariba, and their flesh is much sought after.

Of the feathered tribe, there are various species, of rich and brilliant plumage. Parrots, Guinea fowls in a wild state, and a variety of doves, are seen in the branches of the beautiful trees, and by their chattering and cooing, impart a grateful animation to the spot near which they may happen to take up their abode. The golden pigeon is sometimes to be seen; its ground colour is a rich and vivid blue, and the feathers on the breast and under the wings are tinged with a glittering yellow, whence it takes its name. The grey pelican abounds on the margins of rivers and streams in Houssa; it is much less than the white pelican, and the beak in particular is considerably smaller than that of the latter species. The former are found in immense numbers, more especially at a place called Zulamee, and build their nests close to the water’s edge, near to which they always stand to feed their young. The eggs are esteemed as a delicacy by the natives; but the flesh of the bird is of so offensive a flavour that it cannot be eaten. It is somewhat singular that the opinion of the pelican feeding its young with its blood is as general in Houssa as it is amongst the lower class of people in Europe; and to this belief I must acknowledge myself a proselyte! I have stood for a long while together by the side of this stupid animal, watching its motions, and seeing it bending its head for its offspring to extract their nourishment. The young ones thrust their beaks into a small round aperture at the lower part of the back of the neck of their parent, and they swallow the substance that flows freely through. If it be not blood that issues from the old bird, it is a red liquid so closely resembling it, that the difference cannot be perceived. I took a sketch of a pelican feeding its young in this manner, in Houssa, which is now in my possession; and I should not have said so much on the subject, if my assertions had not been questioned by several of my countrymen.

I met with few of the species of birds to be found in Southern Africa, in the more central parts. A rook having a white ring round its throat, is the same in both regions, as is also a small bird called in the former country _finy fink_, and in the latter the “harvest-bird.” Its feathers are fine, soft, and silky; but retain their splendid colour only whilst the corn is in the ground, changing its plumage to a russet brown as soon as the grain is fairly housed, which is just about the period that its young are able to take wing. There are two varieties of this beautiful bird, the colours of the one being yellow and black, and those of the other a bright scarlet, or red and black.

The rivers swarm with fish, which, generally speaking, are not very delicious eating; and the consumption of them is confined chiefly to the lower orders of the community. Crocodiles in incredible numbers infest the rivers and streams from Badagry to Soccatoo, and are held in considerable dread. I never saw any of these amphibious monsters of such exceeding length and enormous dimensions as I have heard spoken of; the largest I saw measuring no more than from fourteen to eighteen feet in length, and of proportionate bulk. They sometimes attack the human species; but such instances of their ferocity are not so often displayed as the natives would wish strangers to believe, for, being fond of the terrible, they magnify the most trifling incident in the world to one of excessive horror. The eggs of the crocodiles are eaten by the people, and greatly esteemed; they are certainly preferable to their hen’s eggs, which are rarely more than half hatched, and when dressed look and taste like water and curdled milk. They are also superior in flavour to the eggs of the penguin, and although larger, closely resemble them in appearance when boiled, the yolk in both being of a pale yellow, and the more liquid part of a delicate blue. The former are used as charms by the natives of Yariba and Borghoo, not only to deter crocodiles from visiting their villages, but likewise to avert the “Evil Eye.”

THE YAM YAM.

The Yam Yam, in his most conspicuous traits, is alike different from the Falatah, the Arab, and him that claims a Bornou descent, resembling, as nearly as possible, the Caffre of the southern interior. The same open, manly countenance—the same jetty blackness of skin—the same noble but restless eye—the same advantageous stature, and athletic, powerful form, are observable in both savages; and they have a like fondness for pastoral pursuits; but the Yam Yam differs from the Caffre in being a cannibal. He is accused by every nation of the revolting crime of eating his own species; yet the united testimony of every nation might be questioned as arising from prejudice or dislike, if he did not confess it himself. A Yam Yam told me at Kano, deliberately and seriously, that his countrymen not only devour the bodies of their enemies taken in battle, but feed on the flesh of their friends and companions, purchased from human shambles!

THE ARABS.

This ancient and extraordinary people are spread like locusts over the central parts of the continent; and, like locusts also, have left marks of their devastating qualities wherever they have appeared. Both Saracen and Moor fall under the general denomination of _Arab_; and although it is said that the former made an irruption and settled in the northern parts as early as the seventh or eighth century, and the Arabs three or four centuries subsequently to that era, there does not appear at this time to be the least difference in the persons or manners of the whole. At whatever period they crossed the desert, however, it is certain that the wild and fanatical religion of Mohammed accompanied them, and that they preached it with zeal and energy amongst the natives, making innumerable converts to the new and strange doctrine.

The Arabs in Houssa and other parts have, unhappily, lost all trace of their ancient splendour, as well as the characteristic features of their countrymen. Like the Jews in Barbary, monopolize not only all the trade, but likewise all the money concerns of the state and people; degenerating from a restless, but high-minded and imaginative race, to the vilest and most grovelling on the face of the earth. They pluck the ignorant and superstitious aborigines of their substance with impunity, and perpetrate the most revolting crimes for the bare love of gain. Some of them are observed straggling from one end of the African continent to the other, practising, like wandering quacks, the most shameful impositions in the different towns and villages through which they may happen to pass. An Arab mallam selling the small balls of tin to a native chief, which has been already mentioned, is a proof of this; and hundreds of other examples might be adduced, if necessary, as a further corroboration of the truth of my assertion. They also tell fortunes, and by various incantations pretend to discover the authors of robberies or mischief of any kind that may have been effected. Some again remain stationary in cities and in courts, ever ready to take advantage of circumstances to cheat and embezzle, and to enrich themselves at the expense of the prince or the public; and, although they are so numerous in the interior, I do not believe there exists half a dozen honest men amongst them. Unacquainted with the brilliant achievements that shed so rich a lustre over his earlier history, the Arab of the internal districts of Africa ceases to retain the politeness, the gallantry, the lofty enthusiasm, and the love for the fine arts, which distinguished his ancestors under the Califs; and even the desire of collecting and preserving Arabic manuscripts, which for a long time prevailed amongst his countrymen, is now wholly extinct. Intolerant and bigoted in their religious principles, the Arabs look with invincible contempt on all those differing from them in opinion; and their dislike to Christians in particular is inveterate and deeply-rooted. They did their utmost to prejudice the minds of the rulers as well as the _canaille_ of Africa against us, by propagating the most unfavourable rumours of our character and our motives; and partially succeeded in convincing them that we were either spies or robbers; insomuch that the term “Christian” became in disrepute with a large portion of all ranks, and a watchword for reproaches and indignities of every description. Jealous and malevolent, and fearful that through our means the great fabric of imposture they had reared with so much facility on the basis of superstition would be overthrown, as well as their lucrative trade with the natives ruined, they watched all our actions with distrust and alarm; and although they covered their faces with smiles on visiting us, or on accosting us in the streets, those looks of kindness were put on only to lull us into a security, and to impress us with the belief that they were our best friends. Their relentless malice at length displayed itself; for by repeatedly throwing out indirect insinuations on our integrity in the hearing of Sultan Bello, these Arabs succeeded in undermining our reputation in the eyes of that monarch; the consequences of which hastened the death of my valued master, together with the failure of the African Mission—for, to the perfidious endeavours of those scoundrels I must attribute our detention in Soccatoo, and all the misfortunes which attended that restraint.

THE FALATAHS.

The Falatahs, as a people, are perhaps not less extraordinary than the Arabs, whom they formerly resembled in their unsettled, wandering habits, and simple manners. No one can tell their origin, from what country they at first emigrated, or to what extent they have scattered themselves. They have overrun the continent from east to west, and are found tending their flocks and herds near the sea, and warring with success in the interior: some of them profess the Mohammedan religion, and some worship stocks and stones; but all speak the same language, and have the same ceremonies and amusements. The negroes who have travelled farthest have declared to me that Falatahs are every where to be met with, seldom mixing with the owners of the soil; but, like the gipsies of Europe, keeping themselves a peculiar and distinct people.

When I was at Graham’s Town, Cape of Good Hope, in 1824, two copper- coloured men, who had incautiously separated themselves from their companions, were found wandering in the woods in the vicinity of the place, and brought into it by a body of Caffres; they excited at the time a great deal of curiosity, and conjecture was afloat as to what particular nation they could have belonged to. For my part, from what I now know, I have every reason for believing that those very men were Falatahs; and I have a strong persuasion within my own breast that the tribe called in Southern Africa the _Red_ Caffre, and the Falatah of the eastern and central parts, are one and the same people! I do not affirm that they _are_ actually the same; I only state it as my decided conviction that they have sprung from one common source. I know nothing of the language of the Red Caffre, but he certainly does not differ from the Falatah in personal appearance; and by all accounts the manners, customs, and ceremonies of both are precisely the same. It would be a truly magnificent undertaking to traverse the unexplored regions between Leetakoo and the (so called) Mountains of the Moon; and every way worthy the courage and enterprise of an Englishman. I really believe that a person acquainted with the genius and usages of the natives, and possessing a persevering, undaunted spirit, with an unruffled temper, would find no insurmountable difficulties against accomplishing this object, stupendous as it may at first appear; he might soon and easily accommodate himself to the manners of the Africans, which are generally mild and simple, and do not differ, in many very essential points, from the Cape to Bornou; and leaving gradually, and almost imperceptibly, the healthy for the insalubrious climates, his frame would be prepared, by such degrees, to encounter the transition.

At one time the Falatahs never resided in towns, but rambled, with their flocks and herds, from place to place, as pasturage and water might invite their steps. They journeyed in companies, having no particular chief, or regular form of government; and their numbers were at first too contemptible to excite the notice, still less the fears, of the aborigines. Into Houssa they stole insensibly by “ones and twos,” and finding that fertile and beautiful country much to their liking, they took up a permanent abode in the woods at no great distance from the spot on which Soccatoo now stands.

By some secret intelligence or correspondence, hordes of their straggling countrymen soon gathered around them, and they at length built a town in the province of Goober, in Houssa, and chose for themselves a chief, named Danfodio. This man was well versed in the religion of Mohammed, and had derived from the figurative language and splendid diction of the Koran, a visionary and romantic turn of mind, which prompted him to undertake novel and daring exploits, not unworthy that great legislator whose work he had so intently studied. He began at first to meddle with the polity of the ruling prince of Goober, and adopted the language of dictation to that imbecile monarch, which not being altogether agreeable to the royal mind, the newly built Falatah town was levelled with the dust, and the chief himself, with all his people, driven out of the country into the woods, wherein they erected another town; and the Falatahs from the east and west flocked, in considerable numbers, to the standard of their countryman. Finding his strength daily and hourly increasing, Danfodio divided his men into bands, or companies, and nominating a captain to each fifty, bade them go forth and conquer in the name of the Prophet, for that God had given them the lands and houses of the natives. He also embraced the opportunity of impressing upon the minds of the leaders, with admirable eloquence, the most prominent features of the religion they professed; and artfully insinuated the exalted and unfading happiness which those who fell in the cause of Mohammed would be entitled to in the other world. The captains, filled with ardour and enthusiasm, found little difficulty in the accomplishment of the task imposed upon them by their crafty leader. With a handful of men the flourishing and important city of Kano was taken and pillaged; and other parties overran the country and subjugated the people, telling them that the Almighty had given them their possessions for an inheritance; and that they themselves, with their offspring, must ever after be their slaves and bondsmen. The stupid natives were palsied with fear, and understanding little or nothing of the Koran, knew not what to think of the strange doctrines of the Prophet sprung up so suddenly and unexpectedly amongst them. Danfodio’s pretensions, therefore, were seldom disputed; the Houssans have often declared to me that the strength and inclination to “shake the spear!” were denied them; they had no will of their own,—their hands fell powerless by their sides, and they felt as if they had been touched by the finger of a god, or were under the influence of an eastern talisman. Abandoning their wives and children to the mercy of the invaders, they consented to lose their liberty, and fell, like “silly sheep,” into the snare that had been laid for them with so little art; not even attempting to struggle with their oppressors; or if so, making efforts as puny and ineffectual as the fluttering of a fly in a spider’s web. Of all the provinces in Houssa, Goober alone made a show of resistance; its monarch invested Danfodio in his own town, but being repulsed with loss, made a precipitate retreat to Coonia, the capital of his kingdom. He was pursued thither with slaughter by the Falatahs, who, in their turn, surrounded his town, and succeeded in slaying him in a sally, when the inhabitants, deprived of a leader, immediately capitulated, and bowed their necks to the yoke of the Falatah chieftain. All Houssa was now in subjection; Bornou was attacked with success; the dynasty of that ancient kingdom tottered to its foundation, and its monarch trembled on his throne. The Falatahs pushed their almost bloodless conquests to Nyffé, and conquering part of that country with the whole of Cubbé and Youri, had the audacity to enter Katunga, the metropolis of Yariba, which being an idolatrous city, was set on fire; but the inhabitants, recovering from the panic into which they had been so suddenly thrown, rallied, and turning upon the incendiaries, compelled them to make a precipitate, and disgraceful retreat. For some reason, which I could never exactly comprehend, Danfodio hastily recalled his victorious soldiers, and concentrating his power in Houssa, founded the city of Soccatoo, somewhere about the year 1798, which he resolved should be the metropolis of his usurped empire. Here he lived in peace for many years, uniting in his own person, like his celebrated prototype, the sacerdotal and kingly offices; and ruled his people with candour, equity, and justice. As soon as the Arabs were made acquainted with these sudden and important changes, they hastened, with well-timed speed, to do homage to the success of his arms and the wisdom of his councils; and ingratiated themselves so effectually into the favour of the conqueror, by flattering his self-love with artful and well-directed encomiums, that he loaded them with benefits, and intreated them to remain for ever in his newly-acquired territory. He also presented them with horned cattle, camels, and slaves, and offered them the most fertile lands in Houssa, if they would consent to teach his subjects to read the Koran, and give them an acquaintance with the Arabic language and literature.

In the midst of these proceedings, the terrible Danfodio, at whose name thousands of negroes trembled, became religiously mad, and was often seized with paroxysms of remorse, for having erected a throne, by the shedding of so much Mussulman blood. In his lucid intervals, a melancholy preyed upon his mind, and he delivered his conscience into the hands of the Arab emirs who surrounded him. These hungry and insatiable adventurers plied the fanatical prince unceasingly for more valuable presents, as the only means of appeasing the wrath of offended Heaven; in which object they were eminently successful; but this failed in alleviating the malady that afflicted Danfodio, and he expired in great anguish in one of his fits about the year 1816, to the infinite joy of his conquered subjects, and the sincere regret of the interested Arabs, and the aspiring Falatahs. Amongst all people, however, he bore the reputation of being one of the most extraordinary men that had ever existed in the interior of Africa; and his enterprizing spirit, artful stratagems, and perfect acquaintance with the African character, which the whole tenor of his conduct evinces, show that the honor he had acquired was not founded on popular clamour, or national prejudice; but that his mind was greatly superior to those of the semi-barbarians that surrounded him. He had made great and important changes in the laws and government of the people he had subjugated to his sway, and created on the ruins of the most flourishing and beautiful kingdom in the interior, a new dynasty which is likely to become, in time, the most formidable power in the whole continent.

Mohammed Bello, the present Sultan, and eldest son of Danfodio, ascended the throne, by the unanimous voice of the Falatahs, shortly after his father’s decease; but the government of the conquered territory to the westward of Houssa, was awarded to Mohammed Ben Abdallah, his cousin. Atego, a younger brother of Bello, attempted to raise a rebellion in furtherance of his own ambitious projects in opposition to the rightful heir, but being completely defeated in a pitched battle, by the partizans of Bello, was taken prisoner, and liberated after a year’s imprisonment in a common dungeon. He is now on a friendly footing with his brother, but is a contemptible fellow, and appears to have sunk the dignity of the prince in the meanness of the man.

On receiving intelligence of the death of the Sultan of the Falatahs, the people of Goober, and many of those of the other conquered provinces, impatient of the galling yoke which they had been compelled, much against their own inclinations, to bear, rose simultaneously into an open and general revolt, and put to death, indiscriminately, every Falatah that had located himself in their country. Then, forming themselves into a confederacy, with a variety of leaders at their head, they for a long time waged an exterminating war with the successor of Danfodio; but their movements being unconnected and irregular, and anarchy having the ascendancy in their councils, Bello had reconquered several of the mutinous districts at the period of our arrival, and made a great slaughter of the miserable inhabitants. The towns whose gates were not instantly opened to their summons, the Falatahs surrounded, and intercepting all communication between the people residing in them and those of the neighbouring country, prevented any provisions being obtained by the besieged, and in a manner starved them into capitulation. The insurgents had made, however, for Africans, a gallant defence; and well knowing what they had to expect from their sanguinary adversaries, would not surrender till all their domestic animals had been consumed, and they themselves reduced to the extremity of feeding on decoyed vultures, which, next to human flesh, they most cordially abhor. Having obliged them at length to open the gates, the Falatahs rushed in, and pouncing upon the emaciated and unresisting inhabitants, made dreadful havoc of them, putting the old men and councillors to the edge of the sword; thrusting a sharp stake into their bodies, and exhibiting them on the tops of the walls and other conspicuous places, as melancholy trophies of their success, and as a spectacle of horror for their shuddering countrymen to profit by. In this situation the ghastly corpses were exposed, till they had fallen to pieces by the action of the air, or been devoured by birds of prey. The old women, and young people of both sexes, who had escaped the general massacre, were driven in triumph to Soccatoo, and retained as slaves by their imperious conquerors. This was the dismal fate of the inhabitants of Coonia, the capital of Goober, the prince of which country, named Doncasson, with other young men, laboured as a slave till a year or two before Captain Clapperton’s first arrival at Soccatoo, (about 1822,) when, effecting his escape, with the most determined of his countrymen, he was elected their captain, and being joined by numbers of the disaffected, marched forthwith to the metropolis of the kingdom of his ancestors, and vigorously assaulting it by surprise, the Falatahs, in their turn, after a short and ineffectual resistance, surrendered to the infuriated Gooberites.

The merciless Doncasson retaliated upon the inhabitants the dreadful cruelties which they had so inhumanly inflicted upon his countrymen not long before; in addition to which, the left hand of every young woman in the town, in spite of their cries and tears, was amputated; after which, being set at liberty, they returned with their mutilated bleeding members, to Soccatoo. I saw several of the unfortunate creatures in that city who had undergone this barbarous operation; the hand had been cut off at the wrist, and the wound being left to nature for a cure, several of the young women had bled to death on the road.

Sultan Bello meantime had not been an unconcerned or inactive spectator of the exploit of Doncasson; he immediately assembled a strong force, and made repeated attacks on Coonia, but was repulsed with loss in all his attempts. The belligerents likewise fought two pitched battles, in which the Falatahs were discomfited, and their Sultan wounded by a poisoned arrow; by this means the Falatahs were no longer considered as invincible by the original natives; and, foiled in all their manœuvres, they returned crest-fallen and defeated to Soccatoo. Bello soon recovered from the effects of his wound, but was ever after so excessively afraid of the _Towayahs_, as Doncasson’s followers were called, that, unless protected by a strong escort, neither he nor his people dared to venture near their territories.

The Gooberites, at the period of my departure from Soccatoo, had received a considerable reinforcement of cavalry from the Sheikh of Bornou, and were daily becoming stronger and more formidable to the Falatahs. Numerous bands of their young men infested the Goober, or _Gondamie_ “bush,” through which the road to Kano lay. Here they hid themselves in caves and unfrequented places; but on receiving intelligence from their scouts of the approach of a body of the enemy, less powerful than themselves, they would suddenly emerge from their concealment, and springing upon the ill-fated Falatahs, generally contrived to capture or destroy them. Hence the rapidity with which we travelled through the dreaded bush—a rapidity that, in one instance, had nearly cost me my life; and hence the exclamation of “O, the Goober Bush!” so general amongst the Falatahs.

WAR WITH BORNOU.

The war between the Bornouese and Falatahs, which has been already mentioned as raging at the time of our arrival in Kano, and which had caused the Arabs in that city great uneasiness, originated from the following cause:—A famine having impoverished the natives of the former country, and threatened them with utter destruction, the Sheikh sent a number of handsome horses, for which his kingdom is celebrated, as presents to the Governor of Kano, and the chiefs of other Falatah towns. The animals were delivered to the care of the ambassadors, who depicted to the receivers of them, in lively colours, the destitute condition of the people of Bornou; and intimated a wish that the Falatahs would relieve their wants, by returning as much corn and other provisions as they could readily spare, without putting themselves to an inconvenience. The custom of giving and receiving presents is of very ancient standing in Africa, and sanctioned by universal adoption. Instead of acceding to the reasonable desires of the Ruler of Bornou, the Chiefs of all the towns, excepting the Governor of Kano, kept indeed the horses, but followed the example of many rude nations of antiquity, as well as that of more modern times[1] and sent back the ambassadors to their monarch, with bundles of sharp-pointed spears, hinting by these hieroglyphics, that if the Sheikh wanted corn, he was to come and fight for it. The Governor of Kano, however, went even a step beyond this, for he not only retained the horses sent him, but bound the unsuspecting ambassadors hand and foot, and taking them to the market-place, the pitiless Falatah publicly butchered them in cold blood. The consummation of this atrocious act, to which I was myself a spectator, elicited a universal murmur of disapprobation from the slaves, who form by far the major part of the inhabitants of the city; and it was generally feared, from their deep but not loud execrations, that they would have risen into open revolt, and revenged the murder of the Bornouese, by wreaking their vengeance on the head of the perpetrator of the abominable crime. This effervescence of the public mind, nevertheless, had subsided at the period of my departure for Soccatoo, without producing any of the effects so much dreaded by the free population of Kano; and the recollection of the revolting and sanguinary action of the Governor was swallowed up in other and more important incidents.

As soon as the news of this melancholy catastrophe reached the ears of the Sheikh of Bornou, who was then at Kouka, the capital of his empire, he was so violently exasperated, that he swore by the Prophet he would have an immediate and ample revenge of the Falatahs for the insult they had offered him; and for this purpose, instantly assembling a numerous and powerful army, he hastened to chastise his relentless enemies. The inhabitants of every Falatah town opened their gates to the Sheikh till he reached Murmur, (the place in which Dr. Oudney died and was buried by my lamented master, in the former journey,) where the people who refused to follow the example set them by their countrymen; and prepared to defend themselves to the last extremity. The Bornouese, being unwilling to lose so much time as the investment of the town, in a formal manner, would inevitably occasion, contrived to ensnare a number of vultures, by baiting a crooked bit of iron, sharpened at the extremity, and resembling in shape a small sized English fish-hook, with pieces of putrid beef. These instruments, to which a long string was attached, were eagerly seized by those voracious birds, which by this means were caught with little difficulty. The soldiers of the Sheikh had no sooner obtained as many as they fancied would be necessary, by this stratagem, than they tied pieces of burning cotton to the claws or tails of the vultures, and so set them at liberty. The affrighted birds instantly flew into the town, and alighting on the thatch of the dwellings, of course set them on fire, and a general conflagration was the almost immediate consequence.

This unlooked for calamity distracted the attention of the besieged; and all flew to arrest the progress of the flames, and to snatch their children from their burning habitations; whilst the Bornouese, taking advantage of the general consternation that prevailed in the town, made a sudden rush on the massy gates or doors, (which are made of the bark of the date tree, fastened and strengthened with iron clasps,) and so desperate was the assault, that in less than a minute’s time they had entered the place, and were engaged in their work of death and slaughter amongst the inhabitants.

The infuriated Bornouese pursued their way through the burning streets, amidst the crackling huts of the people, and the general devastation and ruin—respecting neither party, but frequently overwhelming both themselves and their enemies in one common destruction. The male Falatahs were marked out as peculiar objects of the vengeance of the victorious troops, one only escaping to tell the dismal tale to his countrymen; but not yet satiated with blood, the pagan soldiers in the army of the Sheikh captured all the unoffending females who were running about in every direction, with their offspring in their arms, or on their breasts; and, as with the Gooberites, after amputating one of their hands, ejected them from their town, snatched their children from their embraces, and compelled the poor creatures to wander without protection, and almost dead with grief and intense suffering, to other towns and villages, before arriving at which many of them were released by death.

Several other Falatah towns were treated in a similar dreadful manner by the Bornouese, who marched hastily towards Kano; but when about a day’s journey from that city, were intercepted by the troops of the king of Jacoba, and other allies of Bello, and coming to an engagement, the latter were utterly routed by the Sheikh, after a short but sanguinary contest. The Bornouese obtained immense booty by this victory, and on drawing near the walls of Kano, the governor went out to meet them with the joint forces of that city and the province of Zeg Zeg, when the Falatahs again suffered a mortifying defeat, and were obliged to flee back into Kano, the immense wall of which, with its ponderous doors, alone prevented the victorious Sheikh, flushed with success, and glutted with revenge, from following them into the town, and annihilating every soul; in which he would undoubtedly have been assisted by the murmuring slaves.

Bello, meantime, was gathering together an immense army to attack the Sheikh, who, being made acquainted with the circumstance, in order more effectually to secure the booty he had already required, having fulfilled to the letter his terrible denunciation on the insolent Falatahs, thought proper to raise the siege of Kano, and return to his own kingdom, laden with provisions and spoil; nor did the Gooberites leave it in the power of Bello to make reprisals on his triumphant adversaries; so that they were suffered to retreat unmolested to Bornou.

The old coffee-pot, tent, and drum, which the disappointed Falatahs boasted, amongst other things, they had captured from the Bornouese, and which were publicly exhibited as trophies of a victory they had never won, were owned, the day before I left Soccatoo, by the discomfited king of Jacoba, as his property, and restored to that monarch immediately. The prince informed me that the soldiers of the Sheikh were so loaded with articles of greater value, that they did not think it worth while to have the trouble of conveying an old worn-out tent, coffee-pot, &c. to Bornou, and therefore left them behind for the use of their opponents.

I could hardly forbear laughing to see the animosity which the Falatahs evinced against the unconscious coffee-pot, and the dreadful punishments they inflicted upon it, on all occasions, as if this inanimate vessel could satisfy their thirst for vengeance on their enemies. I have heard of boys in England, during the period of the war with France, desperately lopping off the tops of thistles with a walking-stick, and exclaiming, with appropriate gesticulation, “Oh, if you were Frenchmen, we would behead you in this manner!” The expression of the Falatah, with regard to the coffee-pot, was very similar. I have seen him lift his spear in a transport of rage, and while his eyes flashed fire, cry out with dreadful vehemence: “Oh, if you were the Sheikh of Bornou, thus would I pierce your vile body!” accompanying his words and gesture by making, with all the fury of excitement and disappointed revenge, a valorous thrust at the ill-used breakfast-preparer of the king of Jacoba. When it came to be understood, however, that the coffee-pot did not actually belong to the Bornouese monarch, but was the property of one of their most faithful allies, they were overwhelmed with shame and chagrin; but hushed up the matter as well as they were able, vowing, that as soon as the Gooberites should give them a short respite, they would be amply revenged on their spirited and successful antagonists.

WAR WITH FUNDAH.

Fundah was described to me as being a large and populous city, the capital of a kingdom of the same name, and situated on the banks of the Niger. It is defended by a high wall, except the part facing the sea; and canoes are continually plying up and down the river, between the town and the bight of Benin. The inhabitants, having received a quantity of European fire-arms from the coast by this water-conveyance, no sooner heard of the Falatah conquests, than they perforated the wall of Fundah with innumerable little holes, barely large enough to admit the barrels of muskets, and light for the soldiers to distinguish objects without. The city never was invested in Danfodio’s time, that prince wisely contenting himself with the subjection of Houssa, &c.; but Bello, his successor, having cast an envious eye on so rich and flourishing a kingdom, had long premeditated the conquest of dominions that lay so near and so commodious for the accomplishment of his ambitious views; and attempted to carry his well-matured design into execution a few weeks only after Captain Clapperton had quitted Soccatoo on his former journey (1824).

The Sultan accordingly, assembling all his forces, marched with a formidable army towards the devoted Fundah; and halting about a half mile from that city, sent the following singular and characteristic message to the king:—

BELLO’S MESSAGE.

“Ruler of Fundah! deliver up your country, your riches, your people, and your slaves, to the beloved of God, Mohammed Bello, king of all the Mussulmans, without reluctance on your part; for if you do not suffer him quietly and peaceably to take possession of your kingdom, in order to propagate the religion of the only true Prophet in it, he will shed your blood, and the blood of your children, and the blood of your household; not one shall be left alive: while your people he will bind with fetters of iron, to be his slaves and bondsmen for ever—God having so spoken by the mouth of Mohammed!”

KING OF FUNDAH’S ANSWER.

“Sultan of the Falatahs! The king of Fundah does not know you or your Prophet; he laughs your boastings to scorn, and despises your impotent threats. Go back to your country, and live in peace with your people; for if you persist in the foolish attempt to invade his dominions, you will surely fall by his hands; and instead of his or his subjects being your vassals and bondsmen,—your slaves shall be his slaves, and your people his people. Your chiefs and warriors, and mighty men, will he slaughter without mercy, and their blood shall be sprinkled on the walls of his town; while even your mallams and emirs will he thrust through with spears, and cast their bodies into the woods, to be devoured by lions and birds of prey!”

This insulting and contemptuous message to the beloved of God, the high- minded Bello, irritated the choler of the Falatah monarch to so great a degree, that he immediately ordered his cavalry to advance to the very walls of Fundah; and the conquest of that important city was already effected in his imagination;—the glory and fame he was about to acquire filled him with pride of heart, and the brightest visions of aggrandizement floated in his fancy. The cavalry were dressed in flowing white tobes; and as they drew near, the mallams, preceding the horse, read aloud sentences from the Koran, as they were wont to do, till, approaching within a few yards of the fatal wall, they made a simultaneous pause for the infantry to come up. The mallans then embraced the opportunity of reading a few Mohammedan prayers in Arabic, which no one understood or cared about; and the army unconcernedly prepared to make the attack. They were quite easy as to the result of it; and contrary to the solemnity of the Moslam character, laughed, joked, and made merry amongst themselves, playing all manner of antics, just like a fool shaking his bells before the mouth of a cannon about to sweep him to destruction.

Meanwhile the king of Fundah had not been idle. Anticipating what was actually taking place, he had prepared to meet the shock of his powerful antagonist by every means that could be devised in so pressing an emergency, rallying the drooping spirits of his people, and dissipating the dread that even the _sound_ of the Falatah name could not fail of inspiring. The apertures already mentioned as being formed in the wall, the prince caused to be filled with muskets; and placing a soldier at each, watched attentively the motions and advances of his enemies. He waited till, as it has already been remarked, the foe, by a strange indifference, began to play the fool almost close to the walls. Another moment—and a thousand Falatah jaws were extended to shout the war-cry of their countrymen, “Allah Ackbar!” previously to making the premeditated assault; but before they had uttered the first syllable of the sentence, their mouths were suddenly closed by the salute of a volley of musketry from the fatal wall, which did dreadful execution amongst them. Hardly knowing what to make of this rough and ungracious reception, so entirely different from what they had ever before experienced, they were petrified to the spot, and could neither fly, nor prosecute the assault against the town; but kept their stupid eyes foolishly staring into each other’s countenance, as if to ask the meaning of what had taken place.

Whilst the Falatahs were in this state of horrid suspense, and before they could have time to recover their presence of mind, another well- directed discharge of fire-arms from the holes in the wall, completed the general consternation, broke the charm that had bound them to the soil, and away scampered the heroic Mohammedans in all directions—Bello, the beloved of God, and king of all the Mussulmans! being the first to set them the example. At that instant the men of Fundah, rushing from the gates, accelerated the flight of the invaders, who were terror- stricken on hearing the war-cry of their pursuers, a loud, wild yell, close at their heels; many of them were killed, and many taken prisoners, not one of them daring to make the shadow of resistance, or even venturing to look behind him. Being loaded with booty, the successful people of Fundah discontinued the carnage, and returned in triumph to their city.

In this disastrous affair, the Falatahs left five hundred of their best troops dead on the field, besides a vast number of prisoners and wounded; two hundred of the finest horses in their empire also fell into the hands of the conquerors, so that the threat of the Fundah monarch was more than partially accomplished. This, in African warfare, was considered as a sanguinary contest: indeed Bello himself was so severely humbled at the decisive and signal overthrow, that, for a long season afterwards, he was ashamed to show himself to his people. What surprised the Falatahs and their prince was the death of so many mallams, who, being placed in front of the horsemen, were consequently more exposed to the fire of the enemy, and the first victims to the Fundah musketry; but the greatest wonder of all was the loss of an Arab emir, who received two shots in his breast, and fell dead from the side of the sultan. These men were supposed to have a charmed life, and in all probability believed themselves that they were invulnerable; but the result proved on what a fragile tenure they had held their pretensions to impenetrability, and opened, in some measure, the eyes of the multitude to their abominable deceptions.

The preceding information was first furnished to me by the king of Jacoba; and afterwards corroborated in all its particulars by Mohammed, a Houssa man, and servant of mine, who accompanied me to Dunrora. He had been himself a spectator of the bloody scene he described; and fought with the cavalry in the Falatah army, in their memorable exploit before the walls of Fundah.

Bello, it was asserted, would not risk the dangers of a second campaign, the first having given him a _quietus_, which, it was generally believed, would effectually damp his ardour for conquest during his lifetime. The Falatahs, a proud, conceited people, and excessively vain of their national spirit, carefully exclude from their conversation even an allusion to a defeat; whilst their victories are always made the most of, and repeated a thousand times in every company.

The great eagerness and anxiety which Bello displayed on Captain Clapperton’s former visit to Soccatoo, to maintain a friendly intercourse with the English nation, arose undoubtedly from the expectation, that by the assistance he should derive by that means, he would find little difficulty in overcoming his enemies: a universal despotism which he had attempted, singly and unprotected, to erect over the minds and persons of every Pagan nation in the interior, being a desideratum with him, towards the accomplishment of which his thoughts and actions were unceasingly directed.

FOOD OF THE NATIVES.

In Houssa, and, generally speaking, in every country in the interior (except Yariba), the natives have but two meals a-day, one before sunrise, and the other after sun-set. The breakfast of the higher classes consists either of rice and milk, or flour and milk, boiled with honey, and butter manufactured from cow’s milk. The supper, which is considered the principal meal, is made of a small quantity of meat stewed in butter, and poured over a bowl of tuah. Poorer people breakfast on flour and water only; and their evening’s repast is composed simply of flour boiled in water till it attains the consistence of pudding, seasoned with a sauce made from a certain herb, which to the palate of an European would be most disgusting stuff indeed. With this, however, they are perfectly contented; and, indeed they are infinitely happier than the same class of people in Europe.