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Updated: June 3, 2025
Clapperton was for some time delayed in completing his arrangements for his departure from Sockatoo, on account of the fast of the Rhamadan, which the Fellatas keep with extreme rigour. The chief people never leave their houses, except in the evening to prayer; and the women frequently pour cold water over their backs and necks.
The term was now nearly expired, and the Fellatas began already, said the Houssa men, to tremble with apprehensions at the prospect of this tradition being realized.
Here they found the midiki on her knees to receive and welcome them back again to Boossa in the name of the king, but they were not permitted to enter and take possession of their old apartments, for the queen conducted them to other huts, which formed part of the cluster inhabited by the Fellatas.
They were not suffered to wait long, but in a few minutes received an invitation from the chief to come and see him; and having walked through a good part of the town, they at length approached his residence, and were introduced without ceremony or hindrance, into a large and lofty hut, where they discovered the chief sitting on a platform of mud, in great state, with about forty natives and Fellatas in earnest conversation on each side of him.
The new city, built by the Fellatas, to the south-east of the old, consists of a number of little villages and detached houses, scattered over an extensive area, surrounded with high clay walls. Near the centre of the wall stands the principal mosque, built of clay, with a minaret nearly fifty feet high.
This occurrence took place about forty years ago, since which, other Fellatas have joined their countrymen from Sockatoo and Rabba; and notwithstanding the wars, if mutual kidnapping deserves the name, in which they have been engaged, in the support and maintenance of their cause, Alorie is become by far the largest and most flourishing city in Yarriba, not even excepting the capital itself.
The Fellatas inhabiting Acba were all born and bred in that town, their ancestors settled in the country at so remote a period, that although some inquiries were made respecting it, all their questions were unavailing, and in fact, not even a tradition has been preserved on the subject.
To this unpardonable indifference to the public interest, and neglect of all the rules of prudence and common sense, is owing the progress, which the Fellatas made in gaining over to themselves a powerful party, consisting of individuals from various nations in the interior, who had emigrated to this country, and the great and uniform success which has attended all their ambitious projects.
Although Clapperton and Lander remained at Katunga from January 23rd to March 7th, and the mysterious Quorra was not more than thirty miles distant to the eastward, he was not able to prevail upon the king to allow him to visit it, but was always put off with some frivolous excuse, and in these excuses, the old gentleman appears to have been as cunning and as cautious as a Chinese mandarin; observing at one time that the road was not safe; at another, that the Fellatas had possession of the country, and what would the king of England say if any thing should happen to his guest.
Not being able to soften the obdurate heart of Clapperton, nor to wean him from the unsociable habit of looking at the stars at night, she always left him with a flood of tears. In this part of Borgoo, as well as in the neighbourhood of Algi, and in all the countries between them and the sea, that Lander passed through, he met with tribes of Fellatas, nearly white, who are not moslem, but pagan.
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