Chap. LXIV. SANYA'rE. — THE NIGER. 
389 
on the right, beyond a swampy low ground. This 
is probably the same town so repeatedly mentioned 
in the interesting records of Baba A'hmed, especially 
as the residence of the Pullo chief, Sambo Lamido, 
who at the period of the ruin of the Songhay empire 
was the chief instrument in achieving that destruc- 
tion. We then crossed from here to the other side, 
and passed the town of Sanyare on a projecting head- 
land, which at times appears to be changed into an 
island, and containing, besides a good number of reed 
huts, even a few clay dwellings. Here our people 
indulged in the hope of procuring some tobacco, but 
were sadly disappointed, the natives being too much 
afraid of their fanatical master, the Shekho A'hmedu 
ben A'hmedu. 
Having left this village behind us, we entered a 
fine northerly reach belonging to the branch which 
was finally to carry us into the great river itself, 
and left the town of Sanyare beyond the shallow 
sandbank, conspicuous on account of a group of ma- 
jestic tamarind trees. Here the inhabitants wanted 
to barter some sour milk for negro corn, which to 
them, with their ordinary diet of rice, seemed to be 
a luxury. Having lost some time, we at length had 
the broad sheet of the Niger before us ; and here, 
at the point of junction, there started forth from 
the easterly shore a group of solitary trees, which 
appeared to form the usual nocturnal place of resort 
for all the water-fowl in the neighbourhood, the 
trunk as well as the branches of the trees being 
