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
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All The Intermediate
Villages Had Shared The Same Fate.
Algi, according to the information
received, no longer belonged to Youriba, but to the sultan of Kiama.
It comprised three small villages, and before it was burnt down had
been of considerable size.
These marauders have a singular mode of
setting fire to walled towns, by fastening combustibles to the tails
of pigeons, which, on being loosed, fly to the tops of the thatched
houses, while the assailants keep up a sharp fire of arrows, to
prevent the inhabitants from extinguishing the flames.
On the 11th, the travellers once more crossed the Moussa, which
formerly divided the kingdoms of Youriba and Borgoo. It was now dry
in a great many places, with a very rocky bed; when full, it is about
thirty yards in breadth, and flows with a very strong current. On the
other side, the road to Kiama lay through a flat country, thickly
wooded with fine trees, and inhabited by large antelopes. These
creatures are the most lively, graceful, and beautifully proportioned
of the brute creation. Wherever known, they have attracted the
attention and admiration of mankind from the earliest ages, and the
beauty of their dark and lustrous eyes affords a frequent theme to
the poetical imaginings of the eastern poets. The antelopes seen by
Lander are by the Dutch called springbok, and inhabit the great
plains of central Africa, and assemble in vast flocks during their
migratory movements. These migrations, which are said to take place
in their most numerous form only at the intervals of several years,
appear to come from the north-east, and in masses of many thousands,
devouring, like locusts, every green herb. The lion has been seen to
migrate, and walk in the midst of the compressed phalanx, with only
as much space between him and his victims as the fears of those
immediately round could procure by pressing outwards. The foremost of
these vast columns are fat, and the rear exceedingly lean, while the
direction continues one way; but with the change of the monsoon, when
they return towards the north, the rear become the leaders, fattening
in their turn, and leaving the others to starve, and to be devoured
by the numerous rapacious animals, who follow their march. At all
times, when impelled by fear, either of the hunter or beasts of prey
darting amongst the flocks, but principally when the herds are
assembled in countless multitudes, so that an alarm cannot spread
rapidly and open the means of flight, they are pressed against each
other, and their anxiety to escape compels them to bound up in the
air, showing at the same time the white spot on the croup, dilated by
the effort, and closing again in their descent, and producing that
beautiful effect from which they have obtained the name of the
springer or springbok.
Early on the 13th, the travellers were met by an escort from the
chief of Kiama, the capital of a district of the same name, and
containing thirty thousand inhabitants. Kiama, Wawa, Niki, and Boussa
are provinces composing the kingdom of Borgoo, all subject, in a
certain sense, to the sovereign of Boussa; but the different cities
plunder and make war on each other, without the slightest regard to
the supreme authority. The people of Kiama and of Borgoo in general
have the reputation of being the greatest thieves and robbers in all
Africa, a character which nothing in their actual conduct appeared to
confirm. The escort were mounted on beautiful horses, and forming as
fine and wild a looking troop as the travellers had ever seen.
By sultan Yarro himself the travellers were well received. He was
found seated at the porch of his door, dressed in a white tobe, with
a red moorish cap on his head, attended by a mob of people, all lying
prostrate, and talking to him in that posture. He shook hands with
Captain Clapperton, and after telling him who he was, and where he
wished to go, he said, "Very well; I have assigned a house for you;
you had better go and rest from the fatigues of your journey; a
proper supply of provisions shall be sent you." The travellers took
their leave, and repaired to the house prepared for them, which
consisted of three large huts inside a square; they had not been long
there, when a present arrived from Yarro, consisting of milk, eggs,
bananas, fried cheese, curds, and foofoo. The latter is the common
food of both rich and poor in Youriba, and is of two kinds, white and
black. The former is merely a paste made of boiled yams, formed into
balls of about one pound each. The black is a more elaborate
preparation from the flour of yams. In the evening, Yarro paid the
travellers a visit. He came mounted on a beautiful red roan, attended
by a number of armed men on horseback and on foot, and six young
female slaves, naked as they were born, except a fillet of narrow
white cloth tied round their heads, about six inches of the ends
flying out behind, each carrying a light spear in the right hand. He
was dressed in a red silk damask tobe, and booted. He dismounted and
came into the house, attended by the six girls, who laid down their
spears, and put a blue cloth round their waists, before they entered
the door. After a short conference, in which he promised the
travellers all the assistance they solicited, sultan Yarro mounted
his horse; the young spear-women resumed their spears, laying aside
the encumbrance of their aprons, and away they went, the most
extraordinary cavalcade, which the travellers had ever witnessed.
Their light form, the vivacity of their eyes, and the ease with which
they appeared to fly over the ground, made these female pages appear
something more than mortal, as they flew alongside of his horse, when
he was galloping, and making his horse curvet and bound.
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