THE SURVEY CONTINUED 105 



the Hausa-Pagan difficulty. The old chief of the little village 

 of Zungar Sofo (" Zungar of the old men "), which lay at 

 the foot of the mountain, came up and complained to me of 

 a body of Hausas who had come down on his people and 

 looted everything they could find. This was another example 

 of the fact that the Pagans were not always the attacking 

 party. For the last three or four centuries at any rate, 

 and probably from time immemorial, the more civilised 

 tribes and races have raided their less advanced neighbours, 

 mostly for slaves. 



On July 23 Alexander returned, suffering from an attack 

 of fever. Meanwhile, I had succeeded in taking all neces- 

 sary observations and descended to join him. He had 

 brought with him a tremendous amount of food. I cannot 

 imagine how he succeeded in getting it, as it is certain that 

 the chiefs from whom he obtained it, had refused to sell to 

 the people of Bauchi, though the latter were in such straits 

 for food, that they would have given everything they had 

 in exchange for it. If it had not been for the wonderful 

 tact he showed in deahng with those who had food to sell, 

 and his ingenuity in persuading them to part with it, it 

 would not have been possible for me to have stayed on 

 Mount Zungaru long enough to get observations, though 

 these were absolutely necessary for the work. Nor could we 

 have stayed at Bauchi the three days under which we could 

 not have fixed its position and made the connection with 

 Mount Buh. On his j ourney Alexander saw many people lying 

 dead of starvation by the wayside. He was not well enough 

 to go on again at once, but caught me up the next day at 

 Babarri, near which town I came across some Cow-Fulani. 



