The Walls Of Yaoorie Are Between Thirty And Forty Miles In Circuit; But
This Space Encloses Clusters Of Huts, With Pasture Grounds And Corn
Fields.
The land is fertile, and produces excellent crops of rice.
Yet it
must be very unhealthy, for it is in many places swampy, and exposed to
inundation. The sultan's residence is substantially built, and two
stories in height; most of the other houses are built in a circular form.
The place has rather a pleasing appearance, being adorned by many clumps
of trees. The soil is cultivated by a peaceable, industrious, half
servile tribe, called the Cumbrie, who are often subjected to much
oppression.
On the 1st August, they paid a farewell visit to the sultan before
proceeding on their return to Boussa. They were ushered into a large,
gloomy, and uncomfortable apartment, through which naked girls and boys
were constantly passing, carrying dirty calibashes in their hands, and
swallows flew about the room in all directions. The sultan sat upon a
platform covered with faded damask, and smoked a pipe of huge dimensions.
Next day they departed, travelling in a direct line towards the river
Cubbie. They embarked in two canoes, each about twenty feet long, and
constructed of a single log. After they had sailed for about four miles,
the Cubbie fell into the Niger. They took a different channel from that
by which they had before ascended, and reached Boussa on the 5th. They
now determined to proceed to Wowow, to purchase a canoe better fitted for
navigating the Niger.
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