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TRAVELS m AFRICA. Chap. LVIL 
and having successfully overrun the eastern provinces 
of the Fulfulde or Fellata empire, threatened Kano. 
Hence this political position, together with the instiga- 
tions of the Arabs, who feared for their commerce with 
Negroland if the road from the south should be opened, 
will account in some measure for his treatment of the 
English traveller, who perhaps urged his going to the 
sheikh of Bornu with too much energy. However, 
there is no doubt that Bello's successor and brother, 
'Atiku, who ruled from the year 1832 till 1837, would 
have weakened the interest of the European public 
in the example which Bello gave of an energetic and 
generous ruler in those distant and out-of-the-way 
regions, if his career had become known to them ; 
for he seems to have fully belied the expectation, of." a 
mean prince," * which he raised when still living in his 
retirement, as a jealous king's brother, without power 
and influence. But his reign was too short for con- 
solidating sufficiently the loosely-connected empire, 
although, as long as he lived, full security is said to 
have reigned. The spirit of independence broke out 
more strongly under his successor f Aliyu, a son of 
Bello by a female slave, who, save a well-meaning 
and cheerful disposition, does not appear to have in- 
herited many of the noble qualities of his father, and 
least of all his warlike spirit ; and hence the lament- 
able condition in which I found this extensive king- 
dom, while there is scarcely any hope that affairs 
* This is the term which Clapperton uses with regard to him. 
