delay the attack till a resolute band of Kanemboo spearmen should arrive and lead the way. The lowing, however, of the numerous herds, and the bleating of the flocks on the green islands which lay before them, excited in the troops a degree of hunger as well as of military ardour that was quite irrepressible. They called out, "What! be so near them and not eat them? No, no, let us on; this night these flocks and women shall be ours!" Barca Gana suffered himself to be hurried away, and plunged in among the foremost. Soon, however, the troops began to sink into the holes or stick in the mud; their guns and powder were wetted, and became useless; while the enemy, who knew every step, and could ride through the water as quickly as on land, at once charged the invaders in front, and sent round a detachment to take them in the rear. The assault was accordingly soon changed into a disgraceful flight, in which those who had been the most loud in urging to this rash onset set the example. Barca Gana, who had boasted himself invulnerable, was deeply wounded through his coatof-mail and four cotton tobes, and was with difficulty rescued by his chiefs out of the hands of five La Sala horsemen who had vowed his death. The army returned to their quarters in disappointment and dismay, and with a severe loss. During the whole night the Dugganah women were heard bewailing their husbands who had fallen, in dirges composed for the occasion, and with plaintive notes, which could not be listened to without the deepest sympathy. Major Denham was deterred by this disaster from making any farther attempt to penetrate to the eastern shores of the Tchad.

The Biddoomahs are another tribe who inhabit extensive and ragged islands in the interior of the lake, amid its deep waters, which they navigate with nearly a thousand large boats. They neither cultivate the ground nor rear flocks or herds, while their manners appeared to our traveller the rudest and most savage even of Africans, those of the Musgow always excepted. They are said to have adopted as a religious creed, that God, having withheld from them corn and cattle, which the nations around enjoy, has given in their stead strength and courage, to be employed in taking these good things from all in whose possession they may be found. To this belief they act up in the most devout

manner, spreading terror and desolation over all the shores of this inland sea; no part of which, even in the immediate vicinity of the great capitals, is 'for a moment secure from their ravages. The most powerful and warlike of the Bornou sovereigns, finding among their subjects neither the requisite skill nor experience in navigation, do not attempt to cope with the Biddoomahs on their watery domains; and thus gave up the lake to their undisputed

sway.

While Major Denham was thus traversing, in every direction, Bornou and the surrounding countries, Mr. Clapperton and Dr. Oudney were proceeding through Houssa, by a route less varied and hazardous indeed, but disclosing forms both of nature and of society fully as interesting. They departed from Kouka on the 14th December, 1823, and, after passing the site of Old Birnie, they found the banks of the Yeou fertile, and diversified with towns and villages. On entering Katagum, the most easterly Fellata province, they observed a superior style of culture; two crops of wheat being raised in one season by irrigation, and the grain stored in covered sheds elevated from the ground on posts. The country to the south was covered with extensive swamps and mountains, tenanted by rude and Pagan races, who furnish to the faithful an inexhaustible supply of slaves. The practice of travelling with a caravan was found very advantageous, from the mutual help afforded, as well as from the good reports spread by the merchants respecting their European companions. In Bornou these last had been viewed with almost unmingled horror; and, for having eaten their bread under the extremest necessity, a man had his testimony rejected in a court of justice. Some young Bornouese ladies, who accosted Major Denham, having ventured to say a word in his favour, an attendant matron exclaimed," Be silent; he is an uncircumcised Caffre,-neither washes nor prays, eats pork, and will go to hell;" upon which the others screamed out and ran off. But in Houssa this horror was not so extreme, and was min gled with the belief that they possessed surprising and supernatural powers. Not only did the sick come in crowds expecting the cure of every disease, but the ladies solicited amulets to restore their beauty, to preserve the affections of their lovers, and even to destroy a hated rival. The son

of the governor of Kano, having called upon Mr. Clapperton, stated it as the conviction of the whole city and his own, that the English had the power of converting men into asses, goats, and monkeys, and likewise that by reading in his book he could at any time commute a handful of earth into gold. The traveller, having argued with him upon the difficulty he often found in procuring both asses and gold, induced him, with trembling hands, to taste a cup of tea; when he became more composed, and made a sort of recantation of his errors.

As the caravan proceeded they met many other travellers, and found sitting along the road numerous females, selling potatoes, beans, bits of roasted meat, and water with an infusion of gussub grains; and when they stopped at any place for the night, the people crowded in such numbers as to form a little fair. Mr. Clapperton attracted the notice of many of the Fellata ladies, who, after examining him closely, declared, that had he only been less white, his external appearance might have merited approbation.

The travellers passed through Sansan, a great marketplace divided into three distinct towns, and Katagum, the strongly-fortified capital of the province, containing about 8000 inhabitants. Thence they proceeded to Murmur, where the severe illness under which Dr. Oudney had long laboured came to a crisis. Though now in the last stage of consumption, he insisted on continuing his journey, and with the aid of his servant had been supported to his camel, when Mr. Clapperton, seeing the ghastliness of death on his countenance, insisted on replacing him in his tent; where soon after, without a groan, he breathed his last. His companion caused him to be buried with the honours of the country. The body was washed, wrapped in turban-shawls, and a wall of clay built round the grave to protect it from wild beasts; two sheep also were killed and distributed among the poor.

Proceeding onwards, the traveller came to Katungwa, the first town of Houssa Proper, in a country well enclosed and under high cultivation. To the south was an extensive range of rocky hills, amid which was the town of Zangeia, with its buildings picturesquely scattered over masses of rock. He passed also Girkwa, near a river of the same name, which appears to come from these_hills, and to fall into the Yeou.

P

Two days after, he entered Kano, the Ghana of Edrisi, and which is now, as it was six hundred years ago, the chief commercial city of Houssa and of all Central Africa. Yet it disappointed our traveller on his first entry, and for a quarter of a mile scarcely appeared a city at all. Even in its more crowded quarters the houses rose generally in clusters, only separated by large stagnant pools. The inhabited part, on the whole, did not appear to comprise more than a fourth of the space enclosed by the walls, while the rest consisted of fields, gardens, and swamps; however, as the whole circuit is fifteen miles, there is space for a popu lation moderately estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000. Its market, the greatest scene of commercial transactions in Africa, is held on a neck of land between two swamps, by which, during the rains, it is entirely overflowed; but in the dry season it is covered with sheds, or stalls of bamboo, arranged into regular streets. Different quarters are allotted for the several kinds of goods; some for cattle, others for vegetables; while fruits of various descriptions, so much neglected in Bornou, are here displayed in profusion. The fine cotton fabrics of the country are sold either in webs, or in what are called tobes and turkadees, with rich silken stripes or borders ready to be added. Among the favourite articles are goora or kolla nuts, which are called African coffee, being supposed to give a peculiar relish to the water drunk after them; and crude antimony, with whose black tint every eyebrow in Houssa must be died. The Arabs also dispose here of sundry commodities that have become obsolete in the north; the cast-off dresses of the Mamelukes and other great men, and old swordblades from Malta. But the busiest scene is the slavemarket, composed of two long ranges of sheds, one for males and another for females. These poor creatures are seated in rows, decked out for exhibition; the buyer scrutinizes them as nicely as a purchaser with us does a horse, inspecting the tongue, teeth, eyes, and limbs, making them cough and perform various movements, to ascertain if there be any thing unsound; and in case of a blemish appearing, or even without assigning a reason, he may return them within three days. As soon as the slaves are sold, the exposer gets back their finery, to be employed in ornamenting others. Most of the captives purchased at Kano are conveyed across the Desert during which their masters endea

vour to keep up their spirits by an assurance that, on pass. ing its boundary, they will be set free and dressed in red, which they account the gayest of colours. Supplies, how ever, often fail in this dreary journey,-a want felt first by the slaves, many of whom perish with hunger and fatigue. Mr. Clapperton heard the doleful tale of a mother who had seen her child dashed to the ground, while she herself was compelled by the lash to drag on an exhausted frame. Yet when at all tolerably treated, they are very gay, an obser vation generally made in regard to slaves; but this gayety, arising only from the absence of thought, probably conceals much secret wretchedness.

The regulations of the market of Kano seem to be good, and strictly observed. There is a sheik who regulates the police, and is said even to fix the prices,-which is going too far. The dylalas, or brokers, are men of somewhat high character; packages of goods are often sold unopened, and bearing merely their mark. If the purchaser afterward finds any defect, he returns it to the agent, who must grant compensation. The medium of exchange is not cloth as in Bornou, nor iron as in Loggun, but cowries, or little shells brought from the coast, twenty of which are worth a halfpenny, and 480 make a shilling; so that, in paying a pound sterling, one has to count over 9600 cowries. Our countryman admires this currency, as excluding all attempts at forgery; but really we should think its use very tedious and inconvenient. Amid so many strangers there is ample room for the trade of the restaurateur, which is occupied by a female seated on the ground, with a mat on her knees, on which are spread vegetables, gussub-water, and bits of roasted meat about the size of a penny; these she retails to her customers squatted around her. The killing of a bullock forms a sort of festival at Kano; its horns are died red with henna, drums are beat, and a crowd collected, who, if they approve of the appearance and condition of the animal, readily become purchasers.

Boxing in Houssa, like wrestling in Bornou, forms a favourite exercise, and the grand national spectacle. Mr. Clapperton, having heard much of the fancy of Kano, intimated his willingness to pay for a performance, which was forthwith arranged. The whole body of butchers attended, and acted as masters of the ceremonies; while, as soon as