Monday, 27th.—Received a present of a goat, two fowls, yams, and milk, from the brother of the governor, who has got a sore leg, and wishes me to cure it. In the afternoon we had thunder, lightning, and rain. I took this opportunity of waiting on the governor to press my departure, as the taja is rather too slack for me. I asked him if he would not send me to Koolfu to-morrow, as he saw now that the rains were close at hand. “Oh,” says he, “they will not set in these two months, yet it is always thus before the rains.” I told him that no one knew the seasons better than I did; and that, if I travelled as slow as I had done of late, I would be caught by the rains in Houssa, and I might as well have a sword run into my breast. He said he would send for the taja to-night, and give me into his charge. I said, I must go to Boussa, and make a present to the sultan; that if I did not, he would say, a white man has passed through my country without paying his respects to me, or bringing a present: it would be going out of the country like a thief, not like the messenger of the king of England. “Very well,” says he, “I will despatch a messenger with you to request he will not detain you. You must send all your things up to my house; I will give them and your servants in charge of the taja, and all will go well; my messenger shall accompany them to Koolfu”—(sometimes pronounced Koolfie and Koolfa). He then began asking me if Englishmen would come into the country. “Yes,” says I, “if you use them as well as you have done me: there is now a doctor on his way to join me from Dahomey.” He said he would be very glad to see him, and would forward him on to me. I asked him if this country or Borgoo owed any allegiance to Yourriba: he said, none; and laughed at the idea. He said he owed allegiance to Boussa, as Kiama, Niki, and Youri did; that he was separated from Kiama by the brook I halted at the second day I left that place, and that the province of Wawa extended as far south as Rakah; that Kiama owed no allegiance to Yourriba, but was a province of Borgoo, subject to the sultan of Borgoo, who was the head of all: he added, the sultan of Boussa could take Yourriba whenever he chose, but, says he, the Fellatas will take it now. I asked him if he thought the sultan of Boussa would give me the books that were found in the boat belonging to the white men lost there. He said, if there were any, he would certainly give them to me, as they were of no use to him, he could not read; and he then related to me the same story nearly that his head man had told me of that affair, and asked me if the unfortunate people were not my countrymen, and had great riches: I said they were, but that they were not rich, but honest men like myself; that one, the head man, was a doctor.