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The informant stated "that when the boat came down the river, it happened unfortunately just at the time that the Fellatas had risen in arms, and were ravaging Goober and Zamfra; that the sultan of Boussa, on hearing that the persons in the boat were white men, and that it was different from any that had ever been seen before, as she had a house at one end, called his people together from the neighbouring towns, attacked and killed them, not doubting they were the advanced guard of the Fellata army, then ravaging Soudan, under the command of Malem Danfodio, the father of sultan Bello.
These fellows, whenever they fired their muskets, ran out of bow-shot to load; all of them were slaves; not a single Fellata had a musket. The enemy kept up a slow and sure fight, seldom throwing away their arrows, until they saw an opportunity of letting fly with effect.
The country was now extremely beautiful, clear of wood, and partly cultivated; and a number of Fellata villages were passed, the inhabitants of which live here as they do in most other parts of Soudan, a quiet and inoffensive pastoral life, unmolested by the black natives, and not interfering with their customs.
On entering Katagum, the most easterly Fellata province, they observed a superior style of culture; two crops of wheat being raised in one season by irrigation, and the grain stored in covered sheds, elevated from the ground on posts.
After some trifling conversation, and a long and pithy harangue from a Fellata, they took their leave of him and his people, and instantly made their way back to the water side, where they waited in the grass hut for the appearance of the canoe men, with whom the chief had promised to supply them.
Their surprise was, however, great indeed, when instead of the proper person whom they expected would have received them, they were welcomed on shore by a man called Ducoo, who represented himself as the agent and confidential friend of the prince of Rabba, but their surprise was not a little increased on learning that a party of forty or fifty armed Fellata soldiers were also in the town.
He instantly called a fair-complexioned Fellata, and asked the major if he liked him; the answer was given in the affirmative, and Major Denham took his leave. He afterwards went by invitation, to visit the governor of Hadyja, who was here on his return from Sockatoo, and lived in the house of the Wanbey.
A company of women and girls from the Fellata village of Acba, impelled by a curiosity so natural to their sex, came likewise to see them in the afternoon, but their society, instead of being disagreeable, as the company of all their other visitors proved to be, was hailed by them with pleasure.
At seven o'clock on the following morning, they were once more upon the Niger, and about noon they observed a herd of Fellata cows grazing on the banks of the river, and a very short distance from them, they saw an immense crocodile floating on the surface like a long canoe, for which it was at first mistaken, and watching an opportunity to seize one of the cows, and destroy it by dragging it into the river.
The person also who had met them with a horse after crossing the river Yow near Bidjie, proceeded thither on his own account, without the knowledge or consent of the governor, but as he was a Fellata and a respectable man, little was said or done about that matter.
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