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The old caboceer of Jannah was, according to the report of Lander, a merry, jocose kind of companion. On one occasion, when he was surrounded by a whole crowd of the natives, and was informed that the English had only one wife, they all broke out into a loud laugh, in which the women in particular joined immoderately.
But the fate of Lander was the most to be commiserated; for although it might be the etiquette of his country, that master and servant should not be quadrilling at the same time, yet as no such distinction existed in the court of the old caboceer of Jannah, as far as the sentiments of the female beauties were concerned, poor Lander led the very devil of a life of it.
Lander describes the country between Badagry and Jannah, the frontier town of the kingdom of Youriba, as abounding in population, well cultivated with plantations of Indian corn, different kinds of millet, yams, plantains, wherever the surface was open and free from the noxious influence of dense and unwholesome forests.
It is, however, stated, on the authority of Lander, that when a king of Youriba dies, the caboceer of Jannah, three other head caboceers, four women, and a great many favourite slaves and women, are obliged to swallow poison, given by fetish men in a parrot's egg; should this not take effect, the person is provided with a rope to hang himself in his own house.
After a mile's march from Jannah Siri, we crossed a ridge of rising ground, and suddenly, as though by magic, the scene shifted. Before us lay a little Alp; the second step of the Ethiopian Highland. Around were high and jagged hills, their sides black with the Saj and Somali pine , and their upper brows veiled with a thin growth of cactus.
Caravans always encamp beneath it, as whoso sleeps upon the summit loses his senses to evil spirits. At some future day Harar will be destroyed, and "Jannah Siri" will become a flourishing town.
The next day Dawson, a seaman, who, while suffering from ague caught at Jannah, had fallen off into the water in the morning, died in the evening. Three days afterwards Captain Pearce, who, supported by his wonderful spirits, insisted upon coming on, grew much morse, and at nine in the evening he breathed his last.
Slave-dealers as the people were, they deserve to be commended for their honesty; for during the whole journey hitherto, although the mission had had ten relays of carriers, not a single article had been stolen. A few days after, Dr Morrison, who continued to get worse, requested to return, hoping that the sea air would restore him. Mr Houtson accompanied him back to Jannah.
Under the sanction of the King of Badagarry, the mission set out on its long and perilous journey on the 7th of December, accompanied by Mr Houtson. At Badagarry Clapperton had engaged an old negro, who had been a sailor, named Pasco, and who, speaking English, was likely to prove useful as an interpreter. Travelling on sixty miles, the mission entered the town of Jannah.
Houston, who was to see him safe back to the coast. He, however, expired at Jannah on the 27th. On the same day, at a town called Engwa, Captain Pearce breathed his last.
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