As Clapperton Travelled Towards The Camp Of The
Conqueror, He Saw Nothing But Ruined Villages, And Plantations Overgrown
With Weeds.
"This African camp consisted of a number of huts like
beehives, arranged in streets, with men weaving, women spinning,
Markets
at every green tree, holy men counting their beads, and dissolute slaves
drinking; so that, but for the number of horses and armed men, and the
drums beating, it might have been mistaken for a populous village." After
journeying along the banks of the Mayyarrow, and passing a walled village
called Gonda, they entered Coulfo, which is the most considerable
market-town in Nyffe. It is enclosed by a high wall, with a deep and
broad ditch beyond it, and contains about 16,000 resident inhabitants.
Markets are held daily, and a great variety of articles of native and
foreign manufacture are exposed for sale. Traders resort in vast numbers
from Bornou and Sockatoo to the north-east, and the sea-coast to the
west, with the produce of their respective countries. The inhabitants are
professedly Moslems, but are by no means bigoted in their belief. The
greater part of the traffic is carried on by the females, many of whom
possess great wealth.
Clapperton next passed through several independent states, one of which
mustered a force of 1000 cavalry.
He next came to the Fellatah district of Zeg-Zeg, one of the most
beautiful and fertile parts of Central Africa. The fields bore luxuriant
crops of grain; rich meadows abounded, and groves of tall trees waved
upon the hills. Thence he went to Kano, which he found in a state of
great commotion, a war having sprung up between the king of Bornou and
the Fellatahs. Having left his baggage at this place, he proceeded to the
residence of Sultan Bello, with the presents intended for that potentate.
He saw bodies of troops on their way to attack Coonia; the soldiers had a
peculiar appearance as they passed by the lakes formed by the river
Zurmie; he thus describes the scene: - "The borders of these lakes are the
resort of numbers of elephants and other wild beasts. The appearance at
this season, and at the spot where I saw it, was very beautiful; all the
acacia trees were in blossom, some with white flowers, others with
yellow, forming a contrast with the small dusky leaves, like gold and
silver tassels on a cloak of dark green velvet. I observed some fine
large fish leaping in the lake. Some of the troops were bathing, others
watering their horses, bullocks, camels and asses: the lake was as smooth
as glass, and flowing around the roots of the trees. The sun, on its
approach to the horizon, throws the shadows of the flowery acacias along
its surface, like sheets of burnished gold and silver. The smoking fires
on its banks, the sounding of horns, the beating of their gongs or drums,
the braying of their brass and tin trumpets, the rude hut of grass and
branches of trees rising as if by magic, everywhere the cries of Mohamed,
Abdo, Mustafa, &c. with the neighing of horses, and the braying of asses,
gave animation to the beautiful scenery of the lake, and its sloping
green and woody banks."
The army, amounting to 50,000 men, under the sultan's command, surrounded
the walls of Coonia.
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