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.
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