Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth CenturyVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
Clapperton was detained by illness much longer than he had intended to
remain at Coulfo, a commercial town on the northern banks of the
Mayarrow containing from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants.
Exposed for the last twenty years to the raids of the Fellatahs, Coulfo
had been burnt twice in six years. Clapperton was witness when there of
the Feast of the New Moon. On that festival every one exchanged visits.
The women wear their woolly hair plaited and stained with indigo. Their
eyebrows are dyed the same colour. Their eyelids are painted with kohl,
their lips are stained yellow, their teeth red, and their hands and
feet are coloured with henna. On the day of the Feast of the Moon they
don their gayest garments, with their glass beads, bracelets, copper,
silver, steel, or brass. They also turn the occasion to account by
drinking as much bouza as the men, joining in all their songs and
dances.
After passing through Katunga, Clapperton entered the province of
Gouari, the people of which though conquered with the rest of Houssa by
the Fellatahs, had rebelled against them on the death of Bello I., and
since then maintained their independence in spite of all the efforts of
their invaders. Gouari, capital of the province of the same name, is
situated in lat. 10 degrees 54 minutes N., and long. 8 degrees 1 minute
E.
At Fatika Clapperton entered Zegzeg, subject to the Fellatahs, after
which he visited Zariyah, a singular-looking town laid out with
plantations of millet, woods of bushy trees, vegetable gardens, &c.,
alternating with marshes, lawns, and houses. The population was very
numerous, exceeding even that of Kano, being estimated indeed at some
forty or fifty thousand, nearly all Fellatahs.
On the 19th September, after a long and weary journey, Clapperton at
last entered Kano. He at once discovered that he would have been more
welcome if he had come from the east, for the war with Bornou had
broken off all communication with Fezzan and Tripoli. Leaving his
luggage under the care of his servant Lander, Clapperton almost
immediately started in quest of Sultan Bello, who they said was near
Sackatoo. This was an extremely arduous journey, and on it Clapperton
lost his camels and horses, and was compelled to put up with a
miserable ox; to carry part of his baggage, he and his servants
dividing the rest amongst them.
Bello received Clapperton kindly and sent him camels and provisions,
but as he was then engaged in subjugating the rebellious province of
Gouber, he could not at once give the explorer the personal audience so
important to the many interests entrusted by the English Government to
Clapperton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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