1880. ] Geography and Travels, 689 
to twenty miles the most distant.” On August the 26th, messen- 
gers arrived on horse-back from the King of Demsar. [Bassama ? | 
hey were. dressed in fine scarlet cloth and brought a tusk of 
ivory. On the 27th they reached the first village of the Bulas 
“ I have not seen,” Mr. Ashcroft remarks, “any part of Africa so thickly populated 
as this inhabited by the Bula people. * For about twenty-five or thirty miles they are 
‘ . In fact, since we left Djen, the country is very thickly peopled 
with fine, strong, warlike, healthy, robust people, that seem to lack nothing but a few 
more cloths; for they possess cattle, horses, and sheep in abundance, and are every- 
where ready to repel invasion, fully armed with spear and shield, or poisoned arrow 
ready strung, and a quiver full ready for action, They put their hand over their 
mouths and put it quickly back again, making a shrill noise, ‘bla, bla, blu, blu,’ in 
quick succession; some saluted us by holding up the hand, but they never appeared 
to know what to do, we were so strange to them, coming right into the lion’s den; 
for nothing seeks to pass these hostile Bula villages, nor do I think it possible for 
S 
these canoes, each holding three or four men standing up, with big long paddles, and 
may go by what we 
fine 
they are seen to much better advantage near Yola, and are nearer the water 
ine or ten miles off. ri 
n long distance, with peaks and terraces from 2000 to 
2500 feet, with rugged perpendicular walls of red rock.” 
On the 28th, another fine range of mountains extending for a 
long distance along the right bank came in sight. 
“Some of the peaks I should think nearly 3000 feet high, the usual height 1500 
to 2000 ; this range extends many miles along, and in some places, near the right 
bank Specially so, just abreast of Yola, with plenty of rock jutting out here and 
ch wor i 
] 
mountains, An artist would have been blessed with the varied play of color, of 
rocks, trees and bushes, not to mention the rich vegetation, and 
weather-worn rocks of many shades of color, some very rugged ‘ 
stands rising ground, about three miles from the river, and is a long straggling 
place, composed of four lots of houses and compounds, ż.e., each house surrounded 
by a piece of cultivated ground, with a fence made of plaited grass, called by the 
natives, zenana,” : 
Leaving the Bula territory they passed into a country inhabited 
by the Fulahs. This river grew broad and shallow ; the banks 
Swampy to the foot of the mountains, lying in broken ranges and 
the 
and bold.” * ** Yola 
Herr F lugel thinks that about 12° 3’ E. long. on the northern bank, a large trib- 
Utary, perhaps the Gongola, has its mouth, but ł} t able to examine that portion 
