1830.] Ancient and Modern Systems of Slavery. 395 



cassoo; and the natives supposing they were on a mission to restore 

 peace between the King of Yariba and some slaves who had rebelled 

 and set his authority at defiance, they were every where well received. 

 Continuing to traverse a populous country, " on the road we met 

 several hundreds of men, women, and children, with heavy loads on 

 their heads, who had been travelling the whole of the night, and who 

 appeared so greatly fatigued as to be scarcely able to drag their lazy 

 limbs after them. They were carefully watched by overseers (one to 

 each fifty) who were all armed, and made the weary travellers quicken 

 their pace by threats of punishment, whenever they observed them 

 loitering behind."* Our travellers were well received at Katunga 

 by Mansola, the King of Yariba, who appointed a thievish gorman- 

 dizing old eunuch to provide for their wants. Here they were detained 

 in a friendly manner about seven weeks. Mr. Houtson returned to the 

 coast, where he died shortly afterwards. 



Leaving Katunga on the 6th, they passed through several villages 

 Avhich had been pillaged and burnt by the Fellatahs, and entered the 

 city of Khiama on the 14th, which they quitted on the 18th, and 

 joined a Houssa caravan, with which they travelled to Wow-wow, the 

 capital of a province of the same name, enjoying a considerable trade. 

 Manchester and some other English goods being plentiful. 



One of their customs would, we fear, scarcely please the Anti-slavery 

 Society : " when a husband dies, the wives who have not born him 

 children are sold."\ In crossing the Menai, a branch of the Quorra, to 

 Boussa, the spot where Mungo Park and his companions perished, was 

 pointed out, and the manner of their death circumstantially detailed. J 

 " The day after their arrival at Tabria, the Fellatahs left Coulfa for Soc- 

 cassu, with a thousand slaves, some of them prisoners taken in a civil 

 war which was raging in Nyffe. The health of our travellers had been 

 so much impaired, that they found it necessary to remain some time at 

 Coulfa to recruit. 



At Kano, one of the most considerable cities in Soudan, they first 

 heard of the war between the Bornouese and Fellatahs, which induced 

 Captain Clapperton to proceed to Soccatoo, the capital, leaving Lander 

 with the presents for the Sheikh of Bornou, at Kano. That city, one 

 of the most considerable in Soudan, is intersected from east to west by 

 a large morass, the common receptacle of all the filth of the place. 

 " The dead bodies of slaves are frequently cast into this morass, ex- 

 posed to the action of the air, or visits of birds of prey ; and it is 

 truly shocking to observe their mangled members in a state of decom- 

 position, and their fleshless bones bleaching in the sun in the very 

 heart of the city. This painful and disgusting spectacle I was often- 

 times obliged to be a witness to ; a week rarely passing without one 

 or more of these unregretted corpses being flung into the common 

 receptacle." " I saw a slave at Kano, whose fore teeth were cut and 

 pointed ; the man's appearance was most ferocious ; and so sullen and 

 reserved was he, that he refused to answer any interrogations that were 

 put to him; I was inclined to think that he had perpetrated some 

 flagrant crime, as he was so far on his way to Bagadry, whither he 

 would not have been sent if his character were not of the very worst 

 description." 



The Sultan, Bello, having determined to possess himself of the 



* Records, &c. p. 101. - f Ib. p. 13H. $ Ib. p. 117. Ib. p. 218. 



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