Chap. LVIII. CLIMATE. — - EXTENT OF EMPIRE. 203 
to supplying their own want of cotton cloth — and 
no one can deny that their cotton strips are of first- 
rate quality : their dyeing, on the contrary, is very 
coarse, and they seem quite unable to give to the 
dyed cloth that lustre which so eminently distin- 
guishes the manufactures of Niipe and Kan 6 ; but 
nevertheless this cloth of Gando is in great demand 
as far as Libtako. 
The kingdom or empire of Gando, according to its 
titles, comprises a number of wealthy provinces, all 
lying along that great West- African river which opens 
such an easy access into this continent, or on its 
branches ; although nobody who stays in the capital 
for any length of time would suppose that it holds such 
a preeminent rank. I shall give some further details 
respecting these provinces in the Appendix * ; here 
I will only enumerate them by name. They are, the 
western half of Kebbi, Maiiri or A'rewa, Zaberma, Den- 
dina (comprising Kenga-koy and Zagha), a great 
part of Gurma (comprising the provinces of Galaijo, 
Torode, Yagha, and Libtako), with a small portion of 
Borgu or Barba, a large portion of Yoruba with the 
capital Alori or Ilorin, and, on the east side of the 
river, the provinces of Yauri and Niipe or Nyffi. But 
at that time most of these provinces were plunged 
into an abyss of anarchy, which could not fail to im- 
part to the capital a more sombre aspect than it may 
possess in general. 
* See Appendix VI. 
