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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The Country Thus Far Appears To Have Been An Almost Perfect Level; In
Some Places Swampy, For The Most Part Covered With Dense Forests, But
Partially Cultivated, And Very Populous.
Towns and villages were
numerous, and everywhere on the road they were met by numbers of
people, chiefly women, bearing loads of produce on their heads,
always cheerful and obliging, and delighted to see white men.
At
Humba, the inhabitants kept up singing and dancing all night, in the
true negro style, round the house allotted to the white men. Their
songs were in chorus, and, as Lander expressed himself, "not unlike
some church-music that I have heard."
On leaving Laboo, they were attended for some distance by the
caboceer of the town, at the head of the whole population, the women
singing in chorus, and holding up both hands as they passed, while
groupes of people were seen kneeling down, and apparently wishing
them a good journey. The road now lay over an undulating country,
through plantations of millet, yams, and maize, and at three hours
from Laboo, led to Jannah, which was once a walled town, but the gate
and fosse are all that remain of the fortifications. It is situated
on a gentle declivity, commanding an extensive prospect to the
westward; to the eastward the view is interrupted by thick woods. The
inhabitants may amount to from eight hundred to a thousand souls. The
account which Lander gave us of the natives of this district was
highly favourable.
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