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Not deeming it safe, according to the advice of the sultan of Zeg Zeg, to pursue his homeward way by the route of Funda, he chose the Youriba road; and, after serious delays, he reached Badagry on the 21st November 1827; but here he was nearly losing his life, owing to the vindictive jealousy of the Portuguese slave-merchants, who denounced him to the king as a spy sent by the English government.
The chief of Zamfra was the first to shake the spear of rebellion, and he was soon joined by the natives of Goober, and the northern parts of Kashna, by Guari and Kotong Kora, and at length by the states of Youri, Cubbi, Doura, and the southern part of Zeg Zeg.
This district must, therefore, belong to the Bowchee country, which forms part of Zeg Zeg, according to the M. S. account of Tackroor, apparently on the Boushy, that is infidel or kirdy country, bordering on Yacoba.
The province of Zeg Zeg is the most extensive in the kingdom of Houssa, and both Kashna and Kano were at one time tributary to its sovereigns. The name of the country appears to be also given to the capital, and is possibly derived from it. It must, however, be observed that Lander mentions Zaria only by the name of Zeg Zeg.
The hills of Nora are seen about ten miles east; to the south are the mountains of Surem, distant about twenty-five miles, while to the westward appear the tops of the hills of Aushin, in Zeg Zeg, over which the route had passed. Small towns and villages are scattered over the plain, and herds of fine white cattle were seen grazing on the fallow ground.
The horse kept out of bow-shot, while the foot went up as they felt courage or inclination, and kept up a straggling fire with about thirty muskets and the shooting of arrows. In front of the sultan, the Zeg Zeg troops had one French fusee; the Kano forces had forty-one muskets.
Prior to the Fellata conquest, Islamism is said to have been unknown in Zeg Zeg, and the southern part is still in the possession of various pagan tribes, whose country is called Boushir or Boushi, that is, the infidel country, and is said to extend to the ocean. The country in the vicinity of the capital, Zaria, is clear of wood, and is all either in pasture or under cultivation.
Lander had now reached the latitude of Funda, which, according to his information, lies about twelve days due west of Dunrora, and after seventeen perilous days' travelling from Kano, he seemed to be on the point of solving the great geographical problem respecting the termination of the supposed Niger, when, just as he was leaving Dunrora, four armed messengers from the sultan of Zeg Zeg rode up to him, bearing orders for his immediate return to the capital.
Futika, the frontier town of Zeg Zeg, was reached on the second day from Guari; and at Zaria, where the travellers arrived on the fourth, they found themselves in a city almost wholly peopled by Fellatas, who have mosques with minarets, and live in flat-roofed houses. The population is said to exceed that of Kano, and must contain above fifty thousand inhabitants.
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