On Attaining The Summit Of A Steep Hill, They Rode Over A Very Narrow Pathway So Much Overhung By An Impenetrable Thorny Shrub, That There Was No Room For More Than One Man To Walk.

This led them to the wall of Yaoorie, and they entered the city through an amazingly strong passage, in which was an immense iron door, covered with plates of iron, rudely fastened to the woodwork.

They were almost exhausted with fatigue on their arrival, insomuch that they excused themselves from visiting and paying their respects to the sultan, and they were conducted to a convenient habitation, which had been prepared for them. They soon obtained an introduction to the prince, whom they had been so desirous to visit. After passing through a low dark avenue, and being kept long standing in a yard, they were conducted into another area, resembling that of a farm establishment. Here they discovered the sultan sitting alone in the centre of the square, on a plain piece of carpeting, with a pillow on each side of him, and a neat brass pan in front. His appearance was not only mean, but absolutely squalid and dirty. He was a big-headed, corpulent, jolly-looking man, well stricken in years, and though there was something harsh and forbidding in his countenance, yet he was generally smiling during the conference. He showed considerable dissatisfaction, because neither Clapperton nor Lander had paid their court to him on their previous journey, and still more on being informed that their means of making a present had been reduced very low by the rapacity of the chiefs already visited. In regard to Park's papers, he merely replied, with an affected laugh, "How do you think that I could have the books of a person that was lost at Boossa?" Afterwards being pressed upon the subject, he despatched an Arab to inform them, that he declared to God in the most solemn manner, that he had never had in his possession, nor seen any books or papers of the white travellers that perished at Boossa. Thus it appeared, that his overture upon that subject to Clapperton, by which the Landers had been so unguardedly lured, was a mere pretext to induce them to visit him, and bestow a portion of the valuable articles with which they were understood to be provided. His whole conduct was in perfect unison with this first specimen of it. He did not, indeed, absolutely rob them, but there was no artifice so petty that he did not employ it, in order to obtain the few commodities which still remained in their possession. Wishing to purchase some things, he induced the Landers to send them, desiring that they should affix their own price; he then said they asked too much, on which pretext he delayed, and in a great measure evaded paying for them at all. The travellers, in their ill-judged confidence in his friendship, requested him to furnish a boat, in which they might descend the Niger.

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