Chapter XVII (2)

The old chief returned to the village, followed by his people, whom he addressed by the way from an ant-hill, on which he mounted himself. He put himself into a great variety of attitudes, and delivered them a speech which lasted more than half an hour. Whether this was relating to ourselves or not we could not ascertain; but it seemed more than probable. They came back to us again in the afternoon, bringing with them a large quantity of yams and goora-nuts as a present, and invited us with urgent importunity to sleep in their huts for the night, promising to treat us as well as their circumstances would permit. We thanked them for their kindness, but for many reasons we did not embrace their offer. However, it seemed as though this refusal on our parts caused them to be mistrustful of our intentions; for the villagers were discharging their muskets from sunset till nearly eleven o’clock at night, when the chief paid us a third visit, and brought with him eight thousand cowries, and a large heap of yams, which he laid at our feet. Poor fellow! his countenance beamed with joy on discovering that we were _really_ his friends. At length he was induced to place confidence in us; and, as he wished us good night, he seemed well pleased with the tranquil appearance of things, and went away.

In the course of our conversation with the chief, when all his villagers were assembled around us, we pointed to their guns, and the bits of red cloth they had with them, and made them understand that they all came from our country, at which their admiration and wonder was much increased. The old man who had performed the part of our interpreter so admirably, is an old Funda Mallam. He understood the Hàussa language perfectly, and told us he had come here from Funda to attend the market which was held here every nine days. He informed us that many people came from the sea-coast, with goods from the white men to purchase slaves, a great number of which he said came from his country. He told us that this place is the famous Bocquâ market-place, of which we had heard so great talk, and that the opposite bank of the river belonged to the Funda country. We now asked the old Mallam the distance from this place to the sea, and he told us about ten days’ journey. We then pointed out the hills on the opposite side of the river, and asked him where they led to? ‘The sea,’ was his answer. And ‘where do they lead to,’ we enquired, pointing to those on the same bank of the river as ourselves? He answered, they run a long way into a country we do not know. We then asked him, if he had ever heard of a country called Eyeo or Yarriba? To which he replied, he had never heard of any country of either of those names. Our next concern was about the safety of the river navigation; and we anxiously inquired his opinion of it lower down, and whether there were any rocks or dangerous places? As to the river navigation, he satisfied us by saying, he knew of no dangers, nor had he ever heard of any; but the people on the banks he said were very bad. We asked him if he thought the chief would send a messenger with us if we were to request him, even one day’s journey from this place? Without the least hesitation he answered us—‘No; the people of this country can go no further down the river; if they do, and are caught, they will lose their heads. Every town that I know of on the banks of the river is at war with its neighbour, and all the rest likewise.’ We asked him then, how far Bornou was from Funda? To which he replied, ‘Fifteen days’ journey.’ We were also anxious to know the character of the people on the borders of the Tshadda; and he informed us they were all good people, nearly all Mussulmen. There was one bad place to pass, he said, which was Yamyam. Here our conversation was interrupted by the old chief, who wished to return to the village, and the Mallam was obliged to accompany him. He was a fine respectable old man, and answered all our questions with a readiness which evinced the superiority of his class.

We offered up a prayer to the Almighty for his signal protection during this eventful day, and retired to rest.

_Tuesday, October 26th._—When I awoke in the morning the first person I saw was our trusty old man, Pascoe, very busy roasting yams for our breakfast. This man has been a most valuable servant to us, and is the only staunch fellow among all our people. In spite of a good deal of rain that had fallen in the night, we got up much refreshed this morning; for our mat awning, although rather a frail covering, had excluded the rain and kept us tolerably dry. Early in the morning the chief of the village, the old man that acted as interpreter, and a number of men and women visited our encampment, and behaved themselves in the most becoming and friendly manner. Not satisfied with what they had given us yesterday, the villagers offered us another large heap of yams, which, however, we refused to accept without making a suitable recompense. We accordingly gave them some beads in exchange for them, although I believe they would have been contented had we possessed nothing to offer them in return.

We now learnt from the interpreter that buyers and sellers attend this market, not only from places adjacent, but also from remote towns and villages, both above and below, and on each bank of the Niger. A small tribute is exacted by the chief from every one that offers articles for sale at the market, and in this consists the whole of his revenues. All the villagers that came out against us yesterday are his slaves. We were likewise informed that directly opposite, on the eastern bank, is the common path to the city of Funda, which is indeed, as we had been told at _Fofo_, situated three days’ journey up the Tshadda from the Niger; that the large river which we observed yesterday falling into the Niger from the eastward, is the celebrated _Shar_, _Shary_, or _Sharry_, of travellers, or, which is more proper than either, the _Tshadda_, as it is universally called throughout the country. The interpreter said further that the smaller stream which we passed on the 19th, flowing from the same direction, is the ‘_Coodoonia_.’

The chief assured us that we had nothing to fear, having passed all those places from which we might have expected danger and molestation during the night. However he cautioned us to avoid, if possible, a very considerable town lying on the eastern bank, which we should pass in the afternoon, the governor of which, he affirmed, would detain us a considerable time in his territories, though he might treat us well. A little way below Bocquâ, he said, on the left border of the river, resides a powerful king, sovereign of a fine country, called _Attà_, who would force us to visit him, if by any means he were to be forewarned of our approach. He said, that he did not think he would do us any injury, but that the chief was a very extraordinary man, and if he had us in his power would detain us longer than we wished. Perhaps he might keep us in his town two or three months, but he would at least detain us till all his people had satisfied their curiosity, and then he might allow us to depart. As the chief of Bocquâ was decidedly of opinion that it would be in the power of this prince to render us the most essential service if he were our friend, we requested of him a guide and messenger to accompany us to _Attà_, and introduce us to the king; but he answered without hesitation, that a man from him would be captured and slain the moment he should make his appearance there, but for what reason we are left to conjecture. This did not argue, however, very favourably as to the clemency or merciful disposition of the monarch of Attà, and therefore we resolved to keep out of his reach by running along close to the shore on the opposite side of the water. The chief concluded by observing that in seven days we should reach the sea, a piece of intelligence with which we were not a little pleased. The old interpreter had told us that we should get there in ten days; therefore we cannot be far from it.

The females of Bocquâ are good-looking and very neat in their persons. The men have not the custom, as at Kacunda, of cutting marks on the face or on any part of the body. Having finished our usual scanty breakfast of a roasted yam and some water from the river, we commenced loading our canoe and preparing for our day’s journey. We had now passed the worst place on the river, which is between this and Kacunda, and there was no further necessity for travelling by night. This we by no means regret; for although we are exposed to the heat of the sun by day, yet there are dangers in the river in consequence of the water being so high, which are more easily avoided by day-light than in the dark. It is not easy to keep clear of eddies, and when influenced by them our canoe is swept out of the main stream of the river, and it is with difficulty we regain our course. The canoe being all ready, we shook hands cordially with our friend the chief, and the principal male and female villagers, and a few minutes after seven fired a salute of two or three muskets, gave three cheers, and departed from Bocquâ. We soon passed their little town, which had a neat appearance, and was fortified by a strong wooden fence.

Both banks of the river still continued hilly, and were fringed with primeval woods, which were bending over the water. At eleven, A.M., we were opposite a town, which, from the description that had been given of it, we supposed to be Attà. It is situated close to the water’s edge on the south-east bank of the river, in an elevated situation, and on a fine green sward: its appearance was unspeakably beautiful. The town is clean, of prodigious extent, and ornamented with verdant shrubs and tall goodly trees. A few canoes were lying at the foot of the town, but we escaped observation, and passed on near the opposite shore. Afterwards the margin of the river became more thickly wooded, and more umbrageous than before; and for upwards of thirty miles not a town or a village, or even a single hut, could anywhere be seen. The whole of this distance our canoe passed smoothly along the Niger, and everything was silent and solitary; no sound could be distinguished save our own voices and the plashing of the paddles with their echoes; the song of birds was not heard, nor could any animal whatever be seen; the banks seemed to be entirely deserted, and the magnificent Niger to be slumbering in its own grandeur.

From Bocquâ the river runs in a valley between mountains of a considerable height. Between Attà and Bocquâ market the course of the river is about south-west, with several turnings in it. The hills on the north-west side seemed to decrease in height about the middle of the day, and those on the eastern side are changing their course to the south-east, while the river still flows to the south-west. About two in the afternoon the nature of the banks was entirely changed; from being high they became low and swampy, particularly the left bank, and were covered with thick jungle, which mostly overhung the water. At half past two we passed two charming little islands, which appeared to be uninhabited, and at four we saw a branch of the river running off in a southerly direction, inclining a little to the east. It appeared to be a quarter of a mile wide. At about five in the evening, our people being tired, we descried a canoe, and pulled towards it; but those that were in it were frightened on seeing us, and jumped out and hid themselves in the forest. In two or three minutes we perceived on the left bank a few dilapidated huts, and we pulled the canoe ashore, intending to remain there for the night. A number of women first observed us; they were also alarmed, and hurried away to an adjacent village, where we saw them providing themselves with muskets and other uncivil weapons, and very formidable Amazons they appeared to be. However we did not seem to regard them, but jumped on shore with our mats and sat down on the ground very comfortably under the branches of a cocoa-nut tree, the first that we have seen since leaving Yarriba. We had not been long seated before a number of people made their appearance, running hastily towards us with swords and muskets in their hands. Seeing that we were sitting down quietly, without making any hostile display, they hesitated and stopped at a short distance from us, and wished to know what we wanted at their town. We had recourse to our usual method of expressing ourselves by signs, and the natives finding that we were really harmless beings, ventured to draw nearer, and very soon became reconciled to us. Shortly after they were joined by some more of their companions, and among them was a young man who imperfectly understood the _Bonny_ language; so that Antonio, one of our men, who is son to ‘_King Pepper_,’ chief of that country, was enabled to enter into conversation with him, and presently made him comprehend everything relative to us, which he repeated to the villagers. We had been thus employed a short time, and had become great friends with these people, the women chatting with a familiarity we had not been accustomed to up the country, and began to find ourselves very comfortable, when the chief, a tall, Herculean, awkward figure, with a sullen and most forbidding countenance, made his appearance. He introduced himself without the smallest ceremony, and very briefly desired us to accompany him to his hut in the principal village, which is called _Abbazacca_. The road to this place is by a narrow foot-way, overhung by rank grass three times our own height. This formed a complete arch over our heads, and the path was exceedingly intricate. On arriving there, a clean shed was prepared for us, which, though small, was one of the largest in the village. Through the interpretation of Antonio we informed the chief who we were, and where we wished to go. He immediately said he would accompany us to a large town lower down the river, of which his brother was governor, and where we should meet with people from Bonny, Calebar, Brass, and Bini, which latter place we conclude is meant for Benin. The natives of all these places, he informed us, come up to his brother’s town for the purpose of buying slaves, and we shall then be at liberty to accompany whichever party we please. It was important to ascertain which was the largest branch, as soon as we found that these different rivers communicated with the Niger, and we asked him the question, through Antonio, which was considered the largest river. This he was unable to say, but we were told by Antonio afterwards, that he thought the Bonny was the largest. He informed us that if we intended going to the town of which his brother was governor to-morrow, that we must get up very early, otherwise we should not arrive there before sunset. After thanking the chief for his communications and attention to us, we took our leave of him for the night.

Before we had retired to rest, a few stale eggs which we could not eat, and a calabash of very inferior tuah, were sent us by the chief, with a hint that a present would be acceptable in the morning. This was very inhospitable treatment of us, and we could not help thinking the chief was a mean old fellow, for we saw plenty of poultry and goats in his yard, which he knew would be more acceptable to us than his stale eggs. At eight in the evening we lay down to sleep, but could find no rest, on account of an army of gigantic mosquitoes, which desperately attacked us from all quarters, and serenaded us till morning with their unwelcome song. The course of the river to-day has been nearly south-west, and its width varying from two to three miles.

_Wednesday, October 27th._—At day-break we arose from our mats after no very comfortable night’s rest in consequence of the attacks of the musquitoes. We took a little refreshment, and commenced our preparations for starting. At six o’clock the chief, who as well as his villagers had long been on the alert, came to us for his present, and, as we suspected last evening, we found considerable difficulty in satisfying the surly old man. I accordingly gave him a pair of silver bracelets, a pair of scissors, five hundred needles, and a handsome country cloth, which the queen of Boossà had given us. The fellow was discontented with this, which was more than we had given away a long time. He began to grumble, and told us plainly, that he would not let us leave his village till something better was given to him. To enforce his threats, fourteen of his slaves stood around him armed with muskets, whose appearance alone, I suppose, he thought would be sufficient to intimidate us into compliance. We by no means wished to have any disturbance, and therefore endeavoured as much as we could to persuade him that we had nothing more to give him. I directed all our travelling things to be taken out of our boxes before him, and had them put back again and locked up. This would not satisfy him, and he desired them to be searched again, and that he himself might be allowed to examine them. Our patience was now quite exhausted: ‘Tell the chief,’ said I to Antonio, ‘the boxes shall be opened no more, and let him stop my people from loading the canoe if he dare.’ My brother and I had armed ourselves with the loaded pistols and swords, as well as all our people, and on telling the chief what we had done, we ordered them to proceed loading the canoe, which they obeyed directly. The chief stood amazed, and did not offer to interfere with us. This old rascal had muttered and grumbled at everything which was offered him; _this_ was of no use and _that_ of no value, and he would desire all that we had, such was his covetousness. After having gone the length he did, and having shown his insolent airs, without producing the expected impression, he feared that he should get nothing at all, and therefore accepted the present we had offered him at first. The country cloth alone, which had been given us by the queen of Boossà, was ten times more than he deserved.

At _Abbazacca_ we saw an English iron bar, and feasted our eyes on the graceful cocoa-nut tree, which we had not seen so long. We were delighted also with the mellow whistling of grey parrots. Trifling as these circumstances may appear, yet they made our hearts beats with delight, and awakened in us a train of very pleasing associations. We indulged in a delusive, yet fanciful reverie, and we fondly hoped,—but what good would it be to tell of what we hoped so fondly?

It was the avowed intention of the chief to send a man with us as messenger to a large town, which he described to be a day’s journey from Abbazacca, and of which he said that his brother was governor; but imagining, no doubt, that he would not be paid to his satisfaction, and that, should he accompany us himself, the reward would be greater, he changed his mind, and resolved on the latter expedient. Therefore he got into one of his own canoes, and between seven and eight in the morning, our canoe having been loaded without any interference from the chief or his people, and without taking any further notice of him, we led the way from the village through a large and unwholesome swamp which is before it, and were soon followed by him. We succeeded in getting into the open river with incredible difficulty.

In consequence of the lightness of his canoe, and its superiority to our old one, which we had got at Zagōzhi, the chief passed us with the utmost facility, and touched at various towns and villages, to inform their inhabitants of the fact of our journeying down the river, and that Christians were coming from a country they had never heard of. We were solicited to stop at one or two of these, in order to please the curiosity of the people, hundreds of whom ran out into the water to obtain a better view of our persons, but we did not get out of our canoe. These brought us presents of eggs, which we accepted very gladly and passed on.

During the first part of the day the course of the river was about west- south-west, the breadth varying from two to four miles, according to our estimation. At noon we saw a small branch running off to the south-east. The chief of Abbazacca, who had kept company with us, seemed to get impatient as his canoe was so much swifter than our own, and coming close to it, told us to pull as strong as we could, or that we should not reach his brother’s town by day-light. However we did not pay much attention to his remarks, but quietly kept on our usual rate. The north- west side of the river was now low, and covered with thick jungle, and the bank in many places was overflown, so that the jungle appeared to be growing out of the water. The south-east bank was rather higher, and cultivated pieces of ground were seen now and then about three or four miles apart, with villages about them.

At two in the afternoon we came abreast of a village of pretty considerable extent, intending to pass it by on the other side. We had no sooner made our appearance than we were lustily hailed by a little squinting fellow, dressed in an English soldier’s jacket, who kept crying out as loud as his lungs would permit him, ‘Holloa, you Englishman! you come here.’ However we were not inclined to obey his summons, being rather anxious to get to the town mentioned to us by the chief of Abbazacca, and as the current swept us along past the village, we took no notice of the little man; and we had already sailed beyond the landing-place, when we were overtaken by about a dozen canoes, and the people in them stopping us, desired us to turn back, for that we had forgotten to pay our respects to the king. The name of this village, we now find, is _Damuggoo_. Ever willing to please and oblige all parties, as far as we are able, and being in no condition to force ourselves from the men that had interrupted us with so little ceremony, we pulled with all our strength against the current, and, after an hour’s exertion, landed amidst the cheers and huzzas of a multitude of people. The first person we observed at the landing-place was our little friend in the red jacket, whom we found out afterwards was a messenger from the chief of Bonny. His business here was to buy slaves for his master.

My brother and I were instantly conducted over a bog to a large fetish tree, at the root of which we were made to sit down, and were shaded by its branches from an intolerably hot sun. Here we waited till the arrival of the chief, who made his appearance in a few minutes, bringing with him a goat, with a quantity of yams and other provisions as a present. We arose to salute him, and he shook hands with us, welcoming us to his town with a reserved and sorrowful, yet friendly air. In his dress and person we saw nothing remarkable, save that his countenance displayed mildness and benevolence, mingled with a great deal of seriousness and native dignity. His stature is above the middle size, and he is rather advanced in years. He requested us to stop a few days at his town, which we promised him we would do, having told him that we were going to the sea. The chief of Bonny’s messenger, he said, was going there in a few days, and he would recommend us to remain with him till he went, that we might accompany him. We had no objection to this, and thought that the little squinting fellow, who was a very important personage in his own estimation, might be useful to us, and be some sort of protection to our party where he was known. He was at all events a man of some consequence even from his red jacket alone, which rendered him a conspicuous object among the dark natives by whom he was surrounded; so we congratulated ourselves with the thoughts of being quite safe.

The chief put a great many questions to us respecting ourselves and our country, the places we had come from, their distance up the river, and also concerning the river itself, and was astonished at our answers. He told us that he had never heard of any countries higher up the river than Funda and _Tacwâ_, by which latter we found he meant the Nouffie country. He said that he had never heard of Yarriba, Borgoo, or Yàoorie. A Mallam now joined our company, who appeared to be a respectable man. We found afterwards that he was one of Ederesa’s people, and had been sent for by the chief of Damuggoo for the purpose of writing charms to protect him from all evil which might threaten him and his village. This man seemed happy at seeing people who had come from his own country, which he told us he had heard nothing of during the last year. He was pleased in being able to talk with those who could give him information concerning it, and he offered us his services in all manner of ways, and told us he would do everything in his power to make us comfortable.

A messenger now arrived to inform us that our hut was ready. The chief, on our taking leave of him, told us we were only eight days’ journey from the sea, and that we should soon get there. We were then conducted through filthy streets of mud to a very diminutive hut, which we find excessively warm, owing to the small quantity of light and air, which are admitted into it only through a narrow aperture, opening into a gloomy and dismal passage. The appearance of the inside is better than that of the outside, being plastered rudely with clay, and surrounded with indifferently carved fetish figures, either painted or chalked a red colour.

The news of our arrival having spread through the village, the people flocked in hundreds to see us. They so completely blocked up every place through which we might receive air, that we were nearly suffocated; nor could we succeed in driving them away. We made our people arm themselves with swords and sticks to keep them off, but to no purpose; their curiosity overcame their fears, and they pressed on us as thickly as ever. This was no longer to be borne, and we were obliged to send to the chief, requesting his interference. His reply was, that if the people would not go away when they were desired, we were to fire at, and kill as many of them as we pleased. This we could not think of doing, and therefore desired he would command some of his own people to come and drive them away. They soon arrived, armed with large, heavy sticks, which they laid about the natives in so merciless a manner, that, to our great relief, our hut was soon cleared, and we again enjoyed the fresh air.

At six in the evening, the chief sent us some fofo, and a quantity of stewed goat, sufficient for thirty persons. We were not a little surprised by the addition of a small case-bottle of rum—a luxury which we have not had since we were at Kiama. It is long since we have tasted tea or coffee; but the rum was a treat that we did not expect, although it was the worst kind of trade rum I ever recollect to have tasted.

Here, to our infinite surprise, we saw, on landing, besides the little man dressed in a soldier’s jacket, several others partially clothed in European apparel, all of whom have picked up a smattering of the English language from Liverpool vessels which frequent the Bonny river for palm- oil. The messenger from the chief of that country, who has come hither to purchase slaves and ivory, asserts, that the ship _Bamboo_, and four other Liverpool vessels, are now at anchor in the river. Bonny is said to be four or five days’ journey from hence.

After making a hearty meal off the stewed goat and fofo, we laid ourselves down to rest, but the mosquitoes were so troublesome, that they prevented us from getting any till nearly morning. We have generally found that the mosquitoes are more troublesome and vigorous in their attacks a short time before rain than at any other. The course of the river has been much in the same direction as yesterday; the current very rapid.