The Country To The South Was Covered With Extensive Swamps And Mountains, Tenanted By Rude And Pagan Tribes, Who Furnish To The Faithful An Inexhaustible Supply Of Slaves.

The practice of travelling with a caravan was found very advantageous, from the help it afforded, as well as from the good reports spread by the merchants, respecting their European companions.

In Bornou, these last had been viewed with almost unmingled horror, and for having eaten their bread under the extremest necessity, a man had his testimony rejected in a court of justice. Some young Bornouese ladies, who accosted Major Denham, having ventured to say a word in his favour, an attendant matron exclaimed, "Be silent, he is an uncircumcised kafir - neither washes nor prays, eats pork, and will go to hell." Upon which the others screamed, and ran off. But in Houssa, this horror was not so great, and was mingled with the belief, that they possessed supernatural powers. Not only did the sick come in crowds expecting to be cured, but the ladies solicited amulets to restore their beauty, to preserve the affections of their lovers, and even to destroy a hated rival. The son of the governor of Kano, having called upon Clapperton, stated it was the conviction of the whole city and his own, that the English had the power of converting men into asses, goats, and monkeys, and likewise that by reading in his book, he could at any time commute a handful of earth into gold.

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