Northern Nigeria 



see Bajibo within a few miles to the south-west, 

 and the great river running fairly straight from 

 the foot of our hill to the town. We went 

 down into the bush and rode, as we thought, 

 parallel to the river for two hours, when just 

 as we expected to find the town we came to 

 some hills; we climbed up them, and thought 

 we must have overshot the mark. It was now 

 nearly dark, so we fired some signal shots, lit a 

 big fire, and at 9 p.m. were composing ourselves 

 for the night when we heard a shot from the 

 south-west, and, to make a long story short, we 

 had made a complete circle in the bush, and 

 struck the same hill that we had been on at 

 five o'clock. After stumbling about in a bush 

 again for some time in the dark, we met a 

 picquet that was out looking for us, and got in 

 about midnight. 



As this story rather reflects on us, I may men- 

 tion, for the benefit of those who don't know what 

 an African bush can be, that my companion was 

 a very experienced " bushman," as also were two 

 Haussas who accompanied us. 



Two days after this we were off for the interior 

 of Borgu. Here we had a very difficult and un- 

 pleasant task, the chief difficulty being that we 

 were continually running up against French posts, 

 often composed entirely of Senegalese Tirail- 

 leurs. These fine soldiers naturally thought 



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