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Updated: June 18, 2025
The old route to Kiama was considered so dangerous, that it was understood they were to be sent back to Atoopa, which was two long days' journey from Katunga, and they were to proceed in a safer path.
As signs of European intercourse, with which the Landers, as it might be reasonably supposed, were highly delighted, they received from the chief as a present some fofo, a quantity of stewed goat, sufficient for thirty persons, and a small case bottle of rum, a luxury which they had not enjoyed since they left Kiama; the latter was a treat that they did not expect, although it was of the most inferior kind.
This was the most affecting instance of genuine friendship, and indeed the only one, that came to the hearing of the travellers since they had been in the country. Yarro was much attached to the widow Zuma, and she would have fled to Kiama, instead of going to Boosa, if her intentions had not been suspected, and her actions narrowly watched by the ruler of Wowow.
The carriers who had arrived from Kiama, had preceded them on the road, and the whole of the men then sat down to partake of a little refreshment.
After entering Kiama, they were introduced to King Yarro, who sat by himself upon a heap of buffalo hides; the walls of the apartment were ornamented with portraits of George IV. the Duke of York, the Duke of Wellington, and Lord Nelson; opposite to these were suspended horse accoutrements, and on each side were scraps of paper, on which were written sentences from the Koran.
Kiama, Wawa, Niki, and Boussa are provinces composing the kingdom of Borgoo, all subject, in a certain sense, to the sovereign of Boussa; but the different cities plunder and make war on each other, without the slightest regard to the supreme authority.
The governor of Keeshee was a Borgoo man, and boasted of being the friend of Yarro, chief of Kiama, but as the old man told them many wonderful stories of the number of towns under his sway, his amazing great influence, and the entire subjection in which his own people were kept by his own good government, all of which was listened to with patience; they were inclined to believe that the pretensions of the governor were as hollow as they were improbable.
They received visits almost every hour of the day from a number of mahommedan mallams residing at Kiama, as well as from those merchants, who formed part of the fatakie that accompanied them through the forest from Keeshee.
Men's wives and maidens all join in the song and dance, Mahommedans as well as pagans; female chastity was very little regarded. Kiama is a straggling, ill-built town, of circular thatched huts, built, as well as the town-wall, of clay.
It was reported that Yarro's father, the late king of Kiama, during his life time had enjoyed the friendship of an Arab from the desert, which was returned with equal warmth and sincerity.
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