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Updated: September 27, 2025
About this time a messenger arrived at Esalay from the king of Katunga, with commands for the governor to deliver up the robber to punishment, but instead of obeying them, he privately warned the man of his danger, who took immediate advantage of it, and made his escape to Nouffie.
James', was also the occupant of the delightful office of public executioner, an occupation which, in that despotic country, was frequently called into practice. The king of Katunga, like other kings, has also his master of the horse, who at the time of Lander's visit was an elderly person, possessing no small degree of influence over his royal master.
It would be more prudent to go through Yaourie. Whether these excuses were true or not, Clapperton had to submit. The explorer availed himself of his detention at Katunga to make several interesting observations.
The age of the master of the horse of the king of Katunga was about seventy, but he contrived, similar to the plan adopted in some other countries, of keeping to himself all the emoluments of his office, and getting a deputy to perform the labour; thus for a mess of Indian corn, the stud of the king of Katunga could be very ably looked after by some half-starved native, whilst the holder of the office was comfortably reposing himself amongst his twenty or thirty wives.
So confident were they that they would be unable to start from Katunga, for a month to come at the earliest, that they had not only sowed cress and onion seed the day after their arrival, which were already springing up, but they had actually made up their minds to abide there during the continuance of the rains.
This town, which was not long since well inhabited, has been reduced to its present desolate and miserable state, by the protection which its ruler granted to an infamous robber, whose continued assaults on defenceless travellers, and his cruelty to them, at length attracted the notice of the king of Katunga.
Under this impression, he despatched a messenger to Jenna, to ascertain if the affairs of that country warranted him sending them thither. The old king of Jenna, who, it will be recollected, behaved so kindly to Captain Clapperton, was dead; his successor had been appointed, but he had not at that time arrived from Katunga. That being the case, there would not be any one at Jenna to receive them.
From thence he was known to have set forward with another escort, but from that time nothing whatever was heard of him or his attendant, Columbus. At Benin Clapperton met an English merchant of the name of Houtson, who advised him not to ascend the river, but to take a route from Badagarry across the country to Katunga, the capital of Youriba.
The king could gain little or nothing by their protracted stay in his capital; he had received his presents, and therefore it was conjectured, that it might be the etiquette of the court of Katunga, not only for the king to receive some presents from strangers on their arrival, and especially from travellers of the character and importance which the Landers gave themselves out to be, as the accredited ambassadors of the king of England, but also that the departure was to be preceded by certain presents, as a kind of passport or purchase of his leave to travel through his dominions.
Soon after leaving Katunga, Clapperton crossed the Mousa, a tributary of the Quorra and entered Kiama, one of the halting-places of the caravans trading between Houssa and Borghoo, and Gandja, on the frontiers of Ashantee. Kiama contains no less than 13,000 inhabitants, who are considered the greatest thieves in Africa. To say a man is from Borghoo is to brand him as a blackguard at once.
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