Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
- Page 131 of 302 - First - Home
Clapperton Began To Fear Lest A Bad Construction Might
Be Put Upon His Visit To This Mean Prince, Who, On
The death of his
father, Bello the First, had aspired to the throne, and even had
himself proclaimed sultan in
Sockatoo; from the mere circumstance of
his brother Bello, the present sultan, having expressed the
intention, during his father's lifetime, of resigning the splendour
of royalty for the tranquillity of a holy and learned life. Ateeko
had even the audacity to enter his brother's house, preceded by drums
and trumpets; and when Bello inquired the cause of the tumult, he
received the first intimation of his brother's perfidy in the answer,
"The sultan Ateeko is come." Bello, nowise disconcerted, immediately
ordered the usurper into his presence, when Ateeko pleaded, in
vindication of his conduct, his brother's proposed disinclination to
reign; to which the sultan only deigned to reply, "Go and take off
these trappings, or I will take off your head." Ateeko, with
characteristic abjectness of spirit, began to wring his hands, as if
washing them in water, and called God and the prophet to witness that
his motives were innocent and upright, since which time he has
remained in the utmost obscurity. According, however, to another
authority, Bello confined him to the house for twelve months, and
then a reconciliation took place between them. We are apt to speak of
the sovereigns of barbarous and uncivilized nations as deficient in
those virtues for which civilized sovereigns are or ought to be
distinguished; but we suspect that few of the latter would have acted
towards the usurper of his throne with the same magnanimity as was
displayed by the Fellata sovereign.
On visiting the gadado, he told Clapperton by no means to go to
Ateeko whilst the sultan was absent, as his visit at this juncture
might be regarded with a very jealous eye by the people, who would
not hesitate to charge him with a plot to place Ateeko on the throne,
by the assistance of England. The gadado undisguisedly expressed his
contempt at Ateeko's conduct, and assured him that it was entirely
without the sanction of the sultan.
On the return of the sultan from the army, permission was given to
Clapperton to purchase from Ateeko the sorry remains of Major
Denham's baggage; accompanied, therefore, by El Wordee, he went to
the prince's house, and after waiting for some time in the porch of a
square tower, they were introduced into an inner coozee, hung round
with blue and yellow silk, in sharp-pointed festoons, not unlike
gothic arches. Ateeko soon made his appearance, and after a few
compliments, they proceeded to business. He brought out a damaged
leathern trunk, with two or three shirts, and other articles of
dress, much the worse for wear, and the sextant and parchment already
mentioned. The former was completely demolished, the whole of the
glasses being taken out, or, where they could not unscrew them,
broken off the frame, which remained a mere skeleton. Ateeko seemed
to fancy that the sextant was gold, in which Clapperton soon
undeceived him; and selecting it, with the parchment and one or two
flannel waistcoats and towels, likely to be useful to Major Denham,
he offered the prince five thousand kowries, at which he appeared
much surprised and mortified. El Wordee whispered into Clapperton's
ear, "Remember he is a prince, and not a merchant." But Clapperton
said, loud enough for his highness to hear, "Remember, that when a
prince turns merchant, he must expect no more than another man; and
as that is the value of the articles, it is a matter of indifference
to me whether I buy them or not." Ateeko frequently repeated his
belief of the sextant being gold; but at length the bargain seemed to
be concluded, and Clapperton requested the prince to send a slave to
his house with the articles he had picked out, to whom also he would
pay the money. The slave, however, was recalled before he got
half-way, and his suspicious master took back the sextant-frame, in
dread of being overreached by the purchaser in its value, which
Clapperton did not fail to deduct from the price agreed on.
The prince stated, that he kept two hundred civet cats, two of which
he showed Clapperton. These animals were extremely savage, and were
confined in separate wooden cages. They were about four feet long
from the nose to the tip of the tail, and, with the exception of a
greater length of body and a longer tail, they very much resembled
diminutive hyenas. They are fed with pounded guinea corn and dried
fish made into balls. The civet is scraped off with a kind of muscle
shell every other morning, the animal being forced into a corner of
the cage, and its head held down with a stick during the operation.
The prince offered to sell any number of them which Clapperton might
wish to have; but he did not look upon them as very desirable
travelling companions. Ateeko was a little spare man, with a full
face, of monkey-like expression. He spoke in a slow and subdued tone
of voice, and the Fellatas acknowledge him to be extremely brave, but
at the same time avaricious and cruel. "Were he sultan," say they,
"heads would fly about in Soudan."
One evening, on paying the gadado a visit, Clapperton found him
alone, reading an Arabic book, one of a small collection he
possessed. "Abdallah," said he, "I had a dream last night, and am
perusing this book to find out what it meant. Do you believe in such
things?"
"No, my lord gadado. I consider books of dreams to be full of idle
conceits. God gives a man wisdom to guide his conduct, while dreams
are occasioned by the accidental circumstances of sleeping with the
head low, excess of food, or uneasiness of mind."
"Abdallah," he replied, smiling, "this book tells me differently." He
then mentioned, that, in a few days, the sultan was going on another
expedition, and wished him to join it; but that he preferred
remaining, in order to have a mosque, which was then building,
finished before the Rhamadan, lest the workmen should idle away their
time in his absence.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 131 of 302
Words from 133060 to 134108
of 309561