At 7.30 A.M. left Songa: the road through a woody country, cut up by deep ravines with very rocky beds: the rocks mostly of red and gray granite. At 9 A.M. passed between the east end of a rocky hill, composed of porphyry, and the river; the hills on the east side appearing of the same: the river running with great force through this natural gap, which appeared as if cut on purpose to let the waters through. The river between Songa and this is full of rocky islets and rapids. After having passed the hill about a mile, the western bank shelved away from the river, leaving a high ridge by the river side, composed of sand and clay, with occasionally ridges of clay-slate, between which and the high ground it appeared as if it had formerly been the bed of the river, and is now a swamp. The ridge close to the river was studded with villages; the river full of small rocky islands, and occasionally rapids. At 10.30 arrived at the village of Comie, or, as it is more commonly called, Wonjerque, or the king’s ferry. Here the river is all in one stream; and this place is the great ferry of the caravans to and from Houssa, Nyffé, &c. The village is built on the high ground, the bank shelving gradually down to the river side, where there is a second temporary town composed of the huts of the merchants: here and in the village all was bustle and confusion. A caravan going to Gonja was halted on the eastern bank; on the western, the goffle from Gonja, with kolla nuts, &c. The village was filled with horses and men dressed out in their gayest trappings: here merchants were offering horses for sale; there their slaves, with gay glass beads, cords of silk, unwrought silk, and tobes and turkadoes for sale; some dancing and drumming; while others, more wicked, were drinking and rioting. I was provided with a good house, and received presents of milk, honey, eggs, ducks, sheep, and goats, as soon as it was known I had arrived; but I returned the whole of them, and said I would accept of nothing until my servants and baggage arrived. Several people came and said they had left Wawa early in the morning, and that my baggage was on the road. The widow Zuma, who is at a neighbouring village, sent me boiled rice and a fowl, and also an invitation to go and stop at her house until my things came, and I should cross the river; but my anxiety for my baggage, and my being rather unwell, prevented me accepting her invitation. I had a visit from the taya, who declares the baggage will be here in the course of a short time. He has now changed his tone: he says I must buy bullocks and pay for them at once, as he will not carry my baggage: he will buy the bullocks for me, and find men to drive them; that he will sell me those which he has bought from the widow; and that he will trust to my generosity for a present when I arrive at Kano; that my baggage, he said, would be here directly, and advised me to go and stop at the widow’s until it came.