8 FKOM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



shortly come and see me. He rode up in the afternoon, 

 escorted by about forty arrowmen. He was of shaggy 

 appearance, with a thick grizzled beard. On his head he 

 wore a large-brimmed, high conical straw hat of Hausa 

 make, which shaded his blunt features and kindly, bright 

 eyes. His body was clad in a long arrow-proof coat, and over 

 his shoulder a quiver of arrows was slung. At his girdle 

 hung the Koran in a leathern pouch, and at his side a sword, 

 while in his hand he carried a bow. Altogether a warlike 

 figure of a man. But his looks belied his reputation, which 

 was one of weakness. Indeed, all the power is in the hands of 

 the Kachella although he is not such a big man as the king. 

 However, he expressed himself as very keen to accompany 

 me, and we engaged at once in a council of war. I told him 

 I was prepared to start immediately, but he advised our 

 waiting until nightfall, as the heat was now very great, and 

 the men I had brought from Arregi would be better for a 

 rest before doing a forced march of twenty- one miles to 

 Bulturi. To this proposition I agreed. Accordingly, after 

 a short rest and a meal I started at five o'clock that evening, 

 having arranged to meet the king at a rendezvous a short 

 distance from the town, where he had gone to summon a few 

 more men. There we assembled for the march and mustered 

 our forces. Besides myself, Jose and the king, there were 

 onl}^ the six horsemen I had raised at Arregi, as the Kachella 

 had taken almost every available man from Yo with him. 

 Indeed, when I had entered Yo that day, the town wore a 

 most deserted appearance and there was hardly a man to be 

 seen ; the women and children, left thus unprotected, were 

 for the most part in their houses. The rest of our force 



