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We may add that food was very dear at Yaoorie, and that Richard Lander had no merchandise for barter except a quantity of "Whitechapel sharps, warranted not to cut in the eye," for the very good reason, he tells us, that most of them had no eyes at all, so that they were all but worthless.
But now they were in hope of reaching Yaoorie in twelve or fourteen days, in which city they intended to remain for a short time, before proceeding further into the interior. The only drawback to their pleasure, was the misfortune of having all their horses sick, which might seriously inconvenience them in their progress.
The city of Yaoorie is of prodigious extent, and is supposed to be as populous as any other in the whole continent, or at least that part of it which is visited by the trading Arabs.
About eleven a.m. on the following day, they landed at the foot of a small village, on the east bank of the river, where the horses and men had arrived before them. They rested under a large tree an hour or two, awaiting the arrival of the carriers from the city of Yaoorie, who had been sent for on the preceding day, by one of the Boossa messengers that had charge of their horses.
The entire glory of this discovery, foreseen though it was by scientific men, belongs to the Brothers Lander. The vast extent of country traversed by the Niger between Yaoorie and the sea was completely unknown before their journey.
The goffle consisted of more than four hundred men; but a company of merchants that passed through the town ten days previously, amounted to twice that number. Other merchants were also in the town, and were to leave on the morrow on their way to Yaoorie, to which place they were destined.
After three days' navigation, the Landers reached a village, where they found horses and men waiting for them, and whence they quickly made their way, through a continuously hilly country, to the town of Yaoorie, where they were welcomed by the sultan, a stout, dirty, slovenly man, who received them in a kind of farm-yard cleanly kept.
Indeed it was not till they had "jalaped" the sultan, his sister, and all the royal family, that they were permitted to take their farewell of Yaoorie. Of this letter, Mr. Salame says, that it is the worst of the African papers which he had seen, both as to its ungrammatical and unintelligible character. Indeed, his Yaourick majesty seemed to be sadly in need of words to make himself intelligible.
He expressed a strong desire to have a little, especially of the purgatives, and there being no objection on the part of the Landers, they supplied him with a good strong dose of jalap, which had the same affect as it had had upon the sultan of Yaoorie and family.
Their chief hope was, that the rains might not be so incessant at their commencement, so as to render the path to Yaoorie impassable.
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