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 Traveller, However, Found An Entire Change In The Feelings
Of Kindness And Cordiality Towards Himself, Which Had Been So
Remarkably Displayed In The Previous Journey.
Jealousy had began to
fester in the breasts of the African princes.
They dreaded some
ambitious design in these repeated expeditions sent out by England,
without any conceivable motive; for that men should undertake such
long journeys, out of mere curiosity, they could never imagine. The
sultan Bello had accordingly received a letter from the court of
Bornou, warning him that by this very mode of sending embassies and
presents, which the English were now following towards the states of
central Africa, they had made themselves masters of India, and
trampled on all its native princes. The writer therefore gave it as
his opinion, that the European travellers should immediately be put
to death. An alarm indeed had been spread through Sockatoo, that the
English were coming to invade Houssa. The sultan irritated doubtless
at the shameful result of his grand expedition against Coonia, felt
also another and more pressing fear. War had just broken out between
himself and the king of Bornou. Clapperton was on his way to visit
that prince, and had left six muskets at Kano, supposed to be
intended as presents to him; and six muskets in central Africa, where
the whole Fellata empire could scarcely muster forty, were almost
enough to turn the scale between those two great military powers.
Under the impulse of these feelings, Bello proceeded to steps not
exactly consistent with the character of a prince and a man of
honour.
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