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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A Party Of
Horse And Foot Arrived From Zirmee The Same Night.
It was the retinue
of a Fellata captain, who was bringing back a young wife from her
father's, where she had made her escape.
The fair fugitive bestrode a
very handsome palfrey, amid a groupe of female attendants on foot.
Clapperton was introduced to her on the following morning, when she
politely joined her husband in requesting Clapperton to delay his
journey another day, in which case, they kindly proposed they should
travel together. Of course, it was impossible to refuse so agreeable
an invitation, to which Clapperton seemed to yield with all possible
courtesy. Indeed he had no serious intention of setting out that day.
The figure of the lady was small, but finely formed, and her
complexion of a clear copper colour, while, unlike most beautiful
women, she was mild and unobtrusive in her manners. Her husband, too,
whom she had deserted, was one of the finest looking men Clapperton
ever saw, and had also the reputation of being one of the bravest of
his nation.
A humpbacked lad, in the service of the gadado, or vizier of Bello,
who, on his way from Sockatoo, had his hand dreadfully wounded by the
people of Goober, was in the habit of coming every evening to
Clapperton's servants to have the wound dressed. On conversing with
Clapperton himself, he told him that he had formerly been on an
expedition under Abdecachman, a Fallata chief. They started from the
town of Labogee, or Nyffee, and, crossing the Quarra, travelled south
fourteen days along the banks of the river, until they were within
four days journey of the sea, where, according to his literal
expression, "the river was one, and the sea was one," but at what
precise point the river actually entered the sea, he had no distinct
notion.
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