less thick, and the nose inclined to the aquiline; the men well made, and of an independent carriage; the women of a more coarse appearance, probably from drudgery and exposure to the sun.

"Though Clapperton remained at Katunga, from the 23d January to the 7th March, and though the river Quorra, the mysterious and miscalled Niger, was not more than thirty miles to the eastward, he was not able to prevail on the King of Yourriba to allow him to visit it. Whenever he asked for permission to do so, he was always put off with some frivolous excuse; and in this too, the old gentleman appears to have been as cunning and as cautious as a Chinese mandarin-observing at one time, that the road was not safe-at another, that the Fellatahs had possession of the country; and what would the King of England say, if any thing should happen to his guest? It was with some difficulty, after all, that Clapperton could prevail on him to let him depart on his journey-offering if he would stay, to give him a wife; of wives, he said he himself had plenty-he did not exactly know how many, but he was sure that, hand to hand, they would reach from Katunga to Jannah.

"On departing from Katunga to Kiam, a city of Borgho, Mr. Houston took his leave of our traveller, and returned to the coast, where he shortly afterwards died. Clapperton continued his route among ruined villages, that had been sacked by the Fellatahs. These marauders, it seems, have a mode of setting fire to walled towns, by tying combustibles to the tails of pigeons, which, on being let loose, fly to the tops of the thatched houses, while they keep up showers of arrows, to prevent the inhabitants from extinguishing the flames. Having crossed the river Moussa, a considerable stream which falls into the Quorra, an escort appeared to conduct our traveller to Yarro, the sultan, as they called him, of Kiam. They were mounted on remarkably fine horses, but were a lawless set of fellows, who plundered the villages as they went along, without mercy or remorse.

"Kiam is one of the largest cities in Borgho. Clapperton estimates it to contain at least 30,000 inhabitants; but, like the rest of the people of this kingdom, they are represented as great robbers. Yarro, however, behaved very well to our traveller, supplied him at once with horses and bearers, and advised him to go by Boussa, and not by Yourri, as the latter was at war with the Falletahs. Profiting by this advice, he proceeded towards the former, and in the way, he fell in with a caravan from Ashantee and Gonja, on their road to Houssa."

This caravan occupied a long line of march; bullocks, horses, asses, men and women, all in a line, and forming a very curious and motley groupe. At Wawa, a city of Borgho, Clapperton was hospitably received. This place being near to that part of the Quorra, where Park lost his life; concerning this melancholy event, the following was the story of the head man.

"That the boat stuck fast between two rocks; that the people in it laid out four anchors ahead; that the water falls down with great rapidity from the rocks, and that the white men, in attempting to get on shore, were drowned; that crowds of people went to look at them, but the white men did not shoot at them as I had heard; that the natives were too much frightened either to shoot at them, or to assist them; that there were found a great many things in the boat, books and riches, which the sultan of Boussa has got; the beef cut in slices and salted, was in great plenty in the boat; and the people of Boussa who had eaten of it, all died, because it was human flesh, and that they knew we white men eat human flesh. I was indebted to the messenger of Yaro for a defence, who told the narrator that I was much more nice in my eating, than his countrymen were. But

it was with some difficulty I could persuade him that if his story was true, it was the people's own fears that had killed them; that the meat was good beef or mutton; that I had eaten more goat's flesh since I had been in this country, than I had ever done in my life; that in England we eat nothing but fowls, beef and mutton."

Wawa is supposed to contain from 18 to 20,000 inhabitants. They appeared to be honest, cheerful, good-natured, and hospitable, but the virtues of chastity and temperance are scarcely known. From this place, Clapperton resolved to proceed across the Quorra, to a city called Koolfu, but as Boussa was higher up the river, and he was anxious to visit the spot where Park perished, his servant was sent forward to the former place, at which he was to join him after his visit to Boussa.

"This town he found, on his arrival, to be situated on an island, formed by two branches of the Quorra, the smaller and more westerly one, named the Menai, which he crossed by a canoe, the horses swimming over. On waiting on the sultan, by whom, as usual, he was kindly received, his first inquiry was concerning some white men, who were lost in the river some twenty years ago, near this place.

""He seemed rather uneasy at this question, and I observed that he stammered in his speech. He assured me he had nothing belonging to them, that he was a little boy when the event happened. I said I wanted nothing hut the books and papers, and to learn from him a correct account of the manner of their death; and that with his permission, I would go and visit the spot where they were lost. He said no, I must not go; it was a very bad place. Having heard that part of the boat still remained, I asked him if it was so: he replied that such a report was untrue; that she did remain on the rocks for some time after, but had gone to pieces, and floated down the river long ago. I said if he would give me the books and papers, it would be the greatest favour he could possibly confer on me. He again assured

me that nothing remained with him,-every thing of that kind had gone into the hands of the learned men; but that if any were now in existence, he would procure them and give them to me. I then asked him if he would allow me to inquire of the old people in the town, the particulars of the affair, as some of them must have seen it. He appeared very uneasy, gave me no answer, and I did not press him further.'"

With this statement Clapperton was by no means satisfied. The people were, however, unwilling to give information on the subject. The following extracts contain, we believe, all the intelligence which could be gathered in relation to this afflictive

event.

"The place where the vessel was sunk, is in the eastern channel, where the river breaks over a grey slate rock, extending quite across it. A little lower down, the river had a fall of three or four feet.-Here, and still farther down, the whole united streams of the Quorra, were not above threefourths the breadth of the Thames at Somerset-house. On returning to the ferry, Clapperton found a messenger from the king of Youri, who had sent him a present of a camel.

"He said the king, before he left Youri, had shown him two books, very large, and printed, that had belonged to the white men that were lost in the boat at Boussa; that he had been offered a hundred and seventy mitgalls of gold for them by a merchant from Bornou, who had been sent by a Christian on purpose for them. I advised him to tell the king he ought to have sold them; that I would not give him five mitgalls for them; but that, if he would send them, I would give him an additional present; and that he would be doing an acceptable thing to the king of England by sending them, and that he would not act like a king if he did not. I gave him for his master, one of the mock gold chains, a common sword, and ten yards of silk, and said I would give him a handsome gun and some more silk, if he would send the books. On asking him if there were any books like my journal, which I showed him, he said there was one, but that his master had given it to an Arab merchant ten years ago; but the merchant was killed by the Fellatas on his way to Kano, and what had become of that book afterwards, he did not know.'

"Upon this, Clapperton sent a person with a letter to Youri

"Mohamed, the Fezzanie, whom I had hired at Tabra, and whom I had sent to the chief of Youri, for the books and papers of the late Mungo Park, returned, bringing me a letter from that person, which contained the fol lowing account of the death of that unfortunate traveller: that not the least injury was done to him at Youri, or by the people of that country; that the people of Boussa had killed them, and taken all their riches, that the books in his possession, were given him by the Imaum of Boussa; that they were lying on the top of the goods in the boat when she was taken; that not a

soul was left alive belonging to the boat; that the bodies of two black men were found in the boat chained together; that the white men jumped overboard; that the boat was made of two canoes, joined fast together, with an awning or roof behind; that he, the sultan, had a gun, double-barrelled, and a sword, and two books that had belonged to those in the boat; that he would give me the books whenever I went to Youri myself for them, not until then.'

"The last account of this unfortunate traveller, is stated to be from an eye-witness.

""This evening I was talking with a man that is married to one of my landlady's female slaves, called her daughter, about the manners of the Cumbrie, and about England; when he gave the following account of the death of Park, and of his companions, of which he was an eye-witness. He said that when the boat came down the river, it happened unfortunately just at the time that the Fellatas first rose in arms, and were ravaging Goober and Zamfra; that the sultan of Boussa, on hearing that the persons in the boat were white men, and that the boat was different from any that had ever been seen before, as she had a house at one end, called his people together from the neighbouring towns, attacked and killed them, not doubting that they were the advance guard of the Fellata army, then ravaging Soudan, under the command of Malem Danfodio, the father of the present Bello; that one of the white men was a tall man, with long hair, that they fought for three days before they were all killed; that the people in the neighbourhood were very much alarmed, and great numbers fled to Nyffe and other countries, thinking that the Fellatas were certainly coming among them. The number of persons in the boat was only four, two white men, and two blacks; that they found great treasure in the boat; but that the people had all died who eat of the meat that was found in her. This account I believe to be the most correct of all that I have yet got; and was told to me without my putting any questions, or showing any eagerness for him to go on with his story. I was often puzzled to think, after the kindness I had received at Boussa, what could have caused such a change in the minds of these people, in the course of twenty years, and of their different treatment of two European travellers. I was even disposed at times to flatter myself, that there was something in me, that belonged to nobody else, to make them treat me and my people with so much kindness; for the friendship of the king of Boussa, I consider as my only protection in this country.'

“This is by far the most probable, and all of them, corroborate the story generally disbelieved at the time, which Isaaco brought back from Amadoo-Fatima. There is yet a chance, we think, though but a slender one, that the journal of Park may be recovered."

In the country of Nyffe, Clapperton "found the Quorra about a quarter of a mile in width, running about two miles an hour,

and from ten to fifteen feet deep. In this part of the country, the natives smelt iron ore, and every village had three or four blacksmith's shops in it. The houses are generally painted with figures of human beings, huge snakes, alligators or tortoise.

"Koolfu is a sort of central market, where traders meet from every part of Soudan and western Africa. It is a walled town, with four gates, and may contain from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants, including all classes, the slave and the free, who live together, and eat together without distinction, the men slaves with the men, and the women with the women; for, in the true style of all orientals, the two sexes eat their meals apart, and never sit down to any repast together. They are represented as a kind-hearted people, and affectionate towards one another, but they will cheat, if they can—and who is there, we may ask, that does not, in the way of trade? From Koolfu to Kufu, the country was woody, the trees along the path consisting mostly of the butter tree. The villages were numer ous, and cultivation extensive; but so insecure did the inhabitants consider themselves, that every man, working in the fields, was armed to defend themselves against the inroads of the Fellatas.

Many of

"Zaria, the capital of Zeg-zeg, is a large city, inhabited almost wholly by Fellatas, who have their mosques with minarets, and their houses flat roofed. It is said to be more populous than Kano, a city which is estimated by Clapperton to contain from thirty to forty thousand inhabitants. them are from Fotta Bonda, and Foota Torra, and seem to know and to have had dealings with the French and English on the coast, and, as our author says, have not improved by the acquaintance. The environs of this city are said to be beautiful-like some of the finest parts of England in the month of April, and grain and fruits of various kinds are cultivated both within and without the walls. The beauty and fertility of the country continued all the way to Kano, which our travellers entered on the 20th July, 1826.

"Here Clapperton met his former friend and acquaintance, Hadje Hat Sala, who informed him of the state of the war between Bello and the Sheik of Bornou. Though still in bad health, he determined to proceed at once to Bello, and to leave his servant Richard and old Pascoe at Kano, under the protection of Hadje, who was authorised to grant them whatever money they might want. At Jaza he met his old friend the Gadado, or prime minister; who greeted him with great kindness; told him that Bello had received his letter from Koolfu, and had sent a messenger to conduct him to Soccatoo. It seems, however, that the gadado prevailed on him to remain for some time in Kano, where he was plundered of several articles, and, among others, of his journal and remark book, a circumstance which has occasioned an hiatus in his narrative, from July to October, on the 12th of which month, we find him, with a part of the Sultan's army, near Zer