134 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



bird, rather like an English game-cock and afterwards to be 

 known in this history as Jaggra, the name Gosling chris- 

 tened him in memory of his illustrious donor. Jose was 

 employed in finding more polers and he succeeded in engaging 

 three Arabs, who had been soldiers of Rabeh, and a Kotoko 

 man. Several of our Bornu men were paid ofi here. They 

 were chiefly the horse-boys, for the prospect of boat travelling 

 for a long time to come made it unnecessary for us to keep 

 our horses. As I have said before, horses reahsed a poor price 

 at Fort Lamy and one for which we had paid £6 in Kukawa 

 fetched only ten dollars, or not much over £1. No doubt, 

 the near approach of the rainy season, at which time the 

 tetse-fly is very prevalent, accounted for the poor state of 

 the horse -market. I could not bring myself to sell Mandara, 

 the horse that had belonged to my brother, for so small a 

 sum and possibly to a cruel Arab master, so I sent him back 

 to Dr. Blair at Maifoni. 



Among the polers retiring from the Expedition at this 

 point was Kurra (the jackal), who has already been intro- 

 duced to the reader. He was suffering from a complaint 

 very prevalent among " boys," of which the most marked 

 symptom is a disinclination to work. After a year in the 

 white man's service a feeling of slackness seems to come over 

 the " boy," and his one desire is to return home and spend the 

 money he has earned. So Kurra came to me and said : 

 " Master, I tire too much." The offer of a rise of wages did 

 not act as a restorative and I paid him off, giving him a 

 cheque on the Lokoja bank with a letter to the manager. 

 My last words to him were prophetic : " You had much better 

 stay with me. Between here and Yola is a bad country and 



