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asked a dagger to break it open; upon which the sultan started, and half-drew his sword, trembling like an aspen leaf. The other very prudently took no notice of this excitement, but quietly opened his box, when the exhibition soon dispelled all unfavourable impressions. The sultan, however, inquired with evident jealousy into some points of English history that had come to his knowledge; as, the conquest of India, which the traveller endeavoured to represent as a mere arrangement to protect the natives, and particularly the Moslem population. The attack on Algiers being also alluded to, was justly declared to have been made solely on account of her atrocious piracies.

Sackatoo appeared to Mr Clapperton the most populous city he had seen in the interior of Africa. The houses stand more closely together than in most other towns of Houssa, and are laid out in regularly well-built streets. It is surrounded by a wall between twenty and thirty feet high, with twelve gates, which are punctually shut at sunset. The dwellings of the principal inhabitants consist of clusters of cottages and flat-roofed houses, in the Moorish style, enclosed by high walls. There are two mosques, one of which, then in progress of building, was 800 feet long, adorned with numerous pillars of wood plastered with clay, and highly ornamented.

Mr Clapperton, desirous to accomplish what had all along been his main object, solicited a guide to the western countries and the Gulf of Benin. By this route he might investigate the course of the Niger and the fate of Park; he might also pave the way for a commercial intercourse, which would be of some benefit to Britain, and of great advantage to

Africa. The sultan at first gave assurances of permission, and aid in travelling through every part of his dominions; but when our countryman specified Nyffe on the banks of the Niger, Youri where the papers of Park were reported to be kept, Rakah and Fundah, where that river was said to fall into the sea, the courtiers began to demur. Professing tender solicitude for his safety, they represented that the season was becoming unfavourable, and that rebellion and civil war were raging to such a pitch in these countries as to make even the mighty protection of Sultan Bello insufficient for his security. Clapperton strongly suspected that this unfavourable change was produced by the machinations of the Arabs, and particularly of Mohammed Gomsoo, their chief, notwithstanding the warm professions of friendship made by that personage. They apprehended probably, that, were a communication opened with the western coast, Interior Africa might be supplied with European goods by that shorter route, instead of being brought by themselves across the Desert. Perhaps these suspicions were groundless; for the state of the country was afterwards found to be, if possible, worse than had been described, and the ravages of the Fellatas so terrible, that any one coming from among them was likely to experience a very disagreeable reception. Indeed, it may be suspected that the sultan must have been a good deal embarrassed by the simplicity with which his guest listened to his pompous boasting as to the extent of his empire, and by the earnestness with which he entreated him to name one of his seaports where the English might land, when it is certain that he had not a town which was not some hundred miles distant from the coast.

To prevent the disclosure of this fact, which must have taken place had our traveller proceeded in that direction, might be an additional motive for refusing his sanction. In short, it was finally announced to Clapperton, that no escort could be found to accompany him on so rash an enterprise, and that he could return to England only by retracing his steps.

Here the traveller obtained an account of Mr Park's death, very closely corresponding with the statement given by Amadi Fatouma. The Niger, it appears, called here the Quorra, after passing Timbuctoo, turns to the south, and continues to flow in that direction till it crosses the parallel of Sackatoo, at only a few days' journey to the westward; but whether it reaches the sea, or, making an immense circuit, becomes the Shary, and pours itself into the immense basin of the Tchad, are points on which his informants varied greatly.

Returning by a different route, Mr Clapperton visited Zirmie, the capital of Zamfra, a kind of outlawed city, the inhabitants of which are esteemed the greatest rogues in Houssa, and where all runaway slaves find protection. He passed also through Kashna or Cassina, the metropolis of a kingdom which, till the late rise of the Fellata power, had ruled over all Africa from Bornou to the Niger. In its present subject and fallen state,. the inhabited part does not cover a tenth of the wide circuit enclosed by its walls; yet a considerable trade is still carried on with the Tuaricks, or with caravans coming across the Desert by the route of Ghadamis and Tuat. Here our traveller met with much kindness from Hadgi Ahmet, a powerful and wealthy Arab chief, who even took

him into his seraglio, and desired him, out of fifty black damsels, to make his choice, a complaisance, nothing resembling which had ever before been shown by a Mussulman. But our countryman, being indisposed, only picked out an ancient maiden to serve as a nurse.

Mr Clapperton rejoined Major Denham at Kouka, whence they set out, and recrossed the Desert together in the latter part of the year 1824. They reached Tripoli in January, 1825, and soon after embarked for Leghorn; but, being detained by contrary winds and quarantine-regulations, did not reach London till the month of June.

CHAPTER XIII.

Clapperton's Second Journey-Laing-Caillié.

IT has appeared that, in spite of some occasional symptoms of jealousy, and even of alarm, the Sultan of the Fellatas had manifested a very considerable inclination to cultivate intercourse with the English. He was even understood to have promised that messengers should be kept in waiting at Rakah and Fundah, or at some port on the coast, to conduct a new mission to Sackatoo. These promises, it is extremely probable, were mere inferences drawn from the empty boasts of the sultan; he being master neither of Rakah nor Fundah, nor of any place within a great distance of the Gulf of Benin. Be this as it may, there seemed good ground to expect a welcome for the British envoys when they should reach his capital; and in that direction, it was conjectured, were to be found the termination of the Niger, and also the most direct channel of trade with regions already ascertained to be the finest in Africa.

These were views to which the enterprising statesmen who conducted the naval government at home were never insensible. They equipped afresh Mr Clapperton, now promoted to the rank of captain, and sent him to the Gulf of Benin; naming as his associates, Captain Pearce, an excellent drafts

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