180 CLAPPERTON'S SECOND JOURNEY. 



personal concern in the transaction. One man gave as th« 

 reason of the attack on the discoverers, that the English 

 had been mistaken for the advanced guard of the Fellatas, 

 who were then ravaging Soudan. It was added, that a 

 number of natives died in consequence, as was imagined, 

 of eating the meat foimd in the boats, which was supposed 

 to be human flesh. That the English have no abode but 

 on the sea, and that they eat the flesh of the negroes whom 

 they purchase, are, it seems, two ideas most widely pre- 

 valent over Africa. Even the king of Boussa could scarcely 

 be brought to believe that they had a spot of land to dwell 

 upon. The Captain and his party were received, however, 

 wilh the same kindness and cordiality which they had ex- 

 perienced ever since they entered the country. Seven boats 

 were here waiting for them, sent by the sultan of Youri, 

 with a letter, in which he earnestly solicited a visit, and 

 promised, on that condition, and on that only, to deliver up 

 the books and papers of Park. It is deeply to be regretted 

 that our traveller could not reconcile it with his plans to go 

 to Youri at this time, proposing to visit it on his return, 

 which, it is well known, never took place. 



On crossing the Niger, Captain Clapperton entered 

 Nyffe, a country which had been always reported to him as 

 the finest, most indu?trious, and most flourishing in Africa , 

 but he found it, as indeed he had been forewarned by the 

 king of Yarriba, a prey to the most desolating civil war. 

 The succession being disputed between two princes, one of 

 them called in the Fellatas, and, by giving up his country 

 to their ravages, obtained the privilege of reigning over its 

 ruins. Our traveller, in his journey to the sansan or camp, 

 saw only wasted towns, plantations choked with weeds, and 

 a few remnants of a miserable population. This African 

 camp consisted of a number of huts like bee-hives, arranged 

 in streets, with men weaving, women spinning, markets at 

 every green tree, holy men counting their beads, and disso- 

 lute slaves drinking ; so that, but for the number of horses 

 and armed men, and the drums beating, it might have been 

 mistaken for a populous village. 



Amid this desolation, two towns, Koolfu and Kufu, being 

 walled and situated on the high road of the Houssa cara- 

 vans, had protected themselves in some measure from th« 

 common calamity, and were still flourislyng seats of tradt-* 



