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At Belee, a little above Rabba, the brothers received a visit from the "King of the Dark Waters," chief of the island of Zagoshi, who appeared in a canoe of great length and unusual cleanliness, decked with scarlet cloth and gold lace. On the same day they reached the town of Zagoshi, opposite Rabba, and the second Fellatah town beyond Sackatoo.
Clapperton next passed through several independent states, one of which mustered a force of 1000 cavalry. He next came to the Fellatah district of Zeg-Zeg, one of the most beautiful and fertile parts of Central Africa. The fields bore luxuriant crops of grain; rich meadows abounded, and groves of tall trees waved upon the hills.
To the adventures and discoveries of the latter we must now turn. Clapperton and Oudney started for Kano, a large Fellatah town on the west of Lake Tchad, on the 14th of December, 1823, followed the Yeou as far as Damasak, and visited the ruins of Birnie, and those of Bera, on the shores of a lake formed by the overflowing of the Yeou, Dogamou and Bekidarfi, all towns of Houssa.
The Fellatah horse, taking advantage of their confusion, dashed in amongst them; "and the chivalry of Bornou and Mandara spurred their steeds to the most rapid flight." Major Denham found himself in a desperate predicament. As the account of his escape is one of the most interesting narratives of personal adventure which we have ever read, we shall extract it in his own words:
These fellows, whenever they fired their pieces, ran out of bow-shot to load; all of them were slaves: not a single Fellatah had a musket. The enemy kept up a sure and slow fight, seldom throwing away their arrows, until they saw an opportunity of letting fly with effect.
I. Peddie and Campbell in the Soudan Ritchie and Lyon in Fezzan Denham, Oudney, and Clapperton in Fezzan, and in the Tibboo country Lake Tchad and its tributaries Kouka and the chief villages of Bornou Mandara A razzia, or raid, in the Fellatah country Defeat of the Arabs and death of Boo-Khaloum Loggan Death of Toole En route for Kano Death of Oudney Kano Sackatoo Sultan Bello Return to Europe.
Connexion between the east and west formerly existed: in the time of John the Second, the Portuguese on the river Zaire in Congo learned the existence of the Abyssinian church. Travellers in Western Africa assert that Fakihs or priests, when performing the pilgrimage pass from the Fellatah country through Abyssinia to the coast of the Red Sea.
It is irregularly built on the slope of a gently-rising hill, at the foot of which runs the Niger; and in point of rank, population, and wealth, it is the second city in the Fellatah dominions, Sackatoo alone being considered as its superior.
The guns and pistols of the Arab shiekhs kept the Fellatahs in check, and assisted in some measure the retreat of the footmen, I hailed them with all my might, but the noise and confusion which prevailed from the cries of those who were falling under the Fellatah spears, the cheers of the Arabs rallying, and their enemies pursuing, would have drowned all attempts to make myself heard, had not Maramy, the shiekh's negro, seen and known me at a distance.
The palace itself is, as Clapperton describes the Fellatah Sultan's state-hall, a mere shed, a long, single- storied, windowless barn of rough stone and reddish clay, with no other insignia but a thin coat of whitewash over the door. This is the royal and vizierial distinction at Harar, where no lesser man may stucco the walls of his house.
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