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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In This, However, They Were Agreeably Disappointed, For In Less Than
Two Hours After His Departure, Ibrahim Returned From His Errand With
A Quick Step And Cheerful Looks, And Informed Them That The Tobe Was
Accepted By The Prince With Rapturous Admiration.
By this present
they had made him their friend for ever.
"Ask the white men," said
he, "what they would desire, and if Rabba can supply them with it,
tell them they shall always have it. Well," he continued, "I must
purchase this tobe, I will not accept it as a gift; that would be
against my principles, and besides, it would be wrong for me to be
guilty of such injustice. Now I shall be something like a king," he
added, turning the tobe inside and out; "let no man know of it, my
neighbours will behold me with envy, and as for my own people, I will
surprise them some morning by putting it on when they are going to
war: it will dazzle their eyes. How great will be their
astonishment?" In this manner the king of the Fellatas talked to
Ibrahim.
On the following day, Pascoe was sent to Rabba, well tutored by his
masters, and in consequence of the offer made by the king to make
them any compensation for the handsome tobe, Pascoe informed him,
that the first wish of the white men was to obtain a large canoe, and
to pursue their journey on the Niger as fast as possible. He promised
to settle the business of the canoe, and sent some presents to the
Landers, which at the time were very acceptable.
They had, however, scarcely got over the dilemma with the king of
Rabba, than a messenger arrived to that monarch from the king of
Nouffie, who had despatched him privately to Mallam Dendo, with an
intimation to him, that if it met with his approbation, he (the
magia) would order the white men to be detained at Zagozhi, until
they would consent to make him a present of a certain number of
dollars, or something equivalent to them in value; that he
disbelieved the story of their poverty altogether, and would
therefore search their luggage, in order to discover whether their
assertion were true or false, that they had no greater presents to
make.
So much dissimulation, meanness, and rapacity, which this trait in
his character exhibited, they had little reason to expect from the
king of Nouffie, after expressing for them so warmly and repeatedly
as he had done, protestations of the most cordial, candid, and
lasting friendship. They could not forbear feeling very indignant at
this foul breach of the laws of hospitality and good faith, which
previously to this act, they had experienced in every part of the
country. Perhaps it was well that they had presented the prince of
Rabba with Mr. Park's tobe, for he treated the message and its bearer
with contempt, and answered energetically, "Tell the magia, your
sovereign, that I would rebuke him for this expression of his
sentiments, and that I detest his base insinuations; that I will
never consent to his wishes, and that I reject his proposal with
disdain. What! shall the white men, who have come from such distant
lands to visit our country, who have spent their substance amongst
us, and made us presents before we had leisure to do any good for
them, shall they be treated so inhumanly? never! They have worn their
shoes from their feet, and their clothes from their persons, by the
length and tediousness of their journeys; they have thrown themselves
into our hands, to claim our protection and partake of our
hospitality; shall we treat them as robbers, and cast them from us
like dogs? Surely not. What would our neighbours, what would our
friends - our foes say to this? What could be a greater reproach than
the infamy, which would attach itself to our characters, and to our
name, should we treat these poor, unprotected, wandering strangers,
and white men too, in the manner your monarch, the king of Nouffie
proposes? After they have been received and entertained with so much
hospitality and honour in Yarriba, at Wowow, and at Boossa, shall it
be said that Rabba treated them badly? that she shut her doors upon
them and plundered them? No, never! I have already given my word to
protect them, and I will not forfeit that sacred pledge for all the
guns and swords in the world." Such was the answer of a man whom we
call a savage - it was worthy of a prince and a Christian.
It was now high time that their journey should be completed, for
their goods were very nearly exhausted, and so far from being in a
condition to make further presents, their means were scarcely
adequate to procure the bare necessaries of life. Their stock of
cloth, looking-glasses, snuff-boxes, knives, scissors, razors, and
tobacco pipes, had been already given away, and they had only needles
and a few silver bracelets left, to present to the chiefs whom they
might reasonably expect to fall in with on their voyage down the
Niger.
The population of Zagozhi cannot well be estimated on account of its
lowness, and the prevailing flatness of the country round, on which
neither a hillock nor eminence of any kind can be discerned. However,
it must be immense, and the Landers considered it to be one of the
most extensive and thickly inhabited towns, as well as one of the
most important trading places in the whole kingdom of Nouffie, not
excepting even Coulfoo.
Having at length received permission to quit Zagozhi on the following
day, to pursue their journey down the Niger, they made the necessary
preparations for their departure. They were in hope of obtaining a
canoe capable of holding the whole of their party, as it would be a
much more satisfactory arrangement for them, and more convenient than
two small ones.
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