United States or Papua New Guinea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They heard, indeed, dreadful reports of the character of the people occupying both sides of the Niger between Kakunda and Bocqua. They, however, loaded their arms and prepared to defend themselves.
They promised to procure them a convoy of traders, if they would consent to wait three days longer, which was to leave Egga at the end of that time to attend a famous market called Bocqua.
They, however, paid little attention to his remarks, further than that they consented to wait till the afternoon, for a man to accompany them in the capacity of messenger, to the so much talked of Bocqua market, where, it was asserted, they should be perfectly safe, and beyond which place the people were represented as being less rapacious, so that little fear was to be entertained from them.
He requested them to wait eight days longer, when he expected his people back from the Bocqua market. "I think," he added, "that the chief of Bocqua's messenger and our people will be a sufficient protection."
It is an article of trade, and appears to be taken in large quantities to the Eboe market, where it is exchanged for yams, the kowrie shell not being circulated lower down the river than Bocqua. The principal employment of the people consists in making salt, fishing, boiling oil, and trading to the Eboe country, for not a particle of cultivated land was to be seen.
The old mallam was asked the distance from Bocqua to the sea, and he told them about ten days journey. The Landers then pointed out the hills on the opposite side of the river, and asked him, where they led to. "The sea," was his answer. "And where do they lead to?" they inquired, pointing to those on the same bank of the river as themselves.
So soon as the discoveries made by Lander became known in England, several merchants formed themselves into a company for developing the resources of the new districts. In July, 1832, they equipped two steamers, the Quorra and Alburka, which, under the command of Messrs. Laird, Oldfield, and Richard Lander, appended the Niger as far as Bocqua.
They now ascertained that the place where they now were, was the famous Bocqua market place, of which they had heard so much talk, and that the opposite bank of the river belonged to the Funda country. Their interpreter was an old Funda mallam, who understood the Houssa language perfectly, and was come to Bocqua to attend the market, which was held every nine days.
The information obtained at Bocqua was most satisfactory; the sea was only ten days' journey off. There was no danger in going down the river, the chief said, though the people on the banks were a bad lot.
'I thought you were children of heaven fallen from the skies, said the chief, in explanation of this sudden change." This scene took place in the famous market-town of Bocqua, of which the travellers had so often heard, whither the people come up from the coast to exchange the merchandise of the whites for slaves brought in large numbers from Funda, on the opposite bank.
Word Of The Day