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 Appearance Of The Country At This Season Was Very Beautiful; All
The Acacia Trees Were In Blossom, Some With White Flowers, Others
With Yellow, Forming A Contrast With The Small Dusky Leaves, Like
Gold And Silver Tassels On A Cloak Of Dark Green Velvet.
Some of the
troops were bathing; others watering their horses, bullocks, camels,
and asses; the lake Gondamee as smooth as glass, and flowing around
the roots of the trees.
The sun, in its approach to the horizon,
threw the shadows of the flowering acacias along its surface, like
sheets of burnished gold and silver. The smoking fires on its banks,
the sounding of horns, the beating of their gongs and drums, the
blowing of their brass and tin trumpets; the rude huts of grass or
branches of trees, rising as if by magic, everywhere the calls on the
names Mahomed, Abdo, Mustafa, &c., with the neighing of horses, and
the braying of asses, gave animation to the beautiful scenery of the
lake, and its sloping, green, and woody banks. The only regulation
that appears in these rude feudal armies is, that they take up their
ground according to the situation of the provinces, east, west,
north, or south; but all are otherwise huddled together, without the
least regularity.
The sultan was himself encamped with the forces from Sockatoo,
whither the travellers repaired to join him, and they arrived just in
time to be eye-witnesses of a specimen of the military tactics and
conduct of these much-dreaded Fellatas.
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