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 Governor Supplied Them Every Day With Abundance Of
Rice And Milk, In Fact, Nothing Could Surpass His Benevolence And
General Good Humour.
They quitted Coobly on the 15th June, and on the following morning
entered a snug pretty little town called Zalee, lying in a rich and
romantic valley, formed by a gap in a triple range of elevated hills,
which ran from east to west.
The governor sent them a goat, a fowl, a
calabash of rice, and a quantity of corn for the horses. Zalee
contained about a thousand inhabitants.
Their course from Zalee was in a south-easterly direction, and
shortly after leaving the town, they came to a fine extensive plain,
on which stood a few venerable and magnificent trees. Numerous herds
of antelopes were feeding, which on hearing the report of their guns,
bounded over the plain in all directions. From this place they beheld
the city of Boossa, which lay directly before them at the distance of
two or three miles, and appeared to be formed of straggling clusters
of huts. To their great astonishment, however, on a nearer approach,
Boossa was found to be standing on the main land, and not on an
island in the Niger, as described by Captain Clapperton. Nothing
could be discovered, which could warrant the assertion as laid down
by that traveller. At ten o'clock they entered the city by the
western gateway, and discharged their pieces as the signal of their
arrival.
After waiting a few minutes, they were introduced to the king, whom
they found in an interior apartment of his residence, in company with
the Midilie, the title bestowed on his principal wife or queen.
They welcomed the travellers to Boossa, with every appearance of
cordiality.
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