Chap. XXIV. SALUBRIOUS SITE OF KA'TSENA. 
83 
tensive than it is at present, but it has been curtailed, 
in order not to leave its governor too much induce- 
ment to make himself independent. Besides, many 
parts of it, being much exposed to the continual in- 
cursions of the independent Hausawa, have greatly 
suffered, so that probably the population of the whole 
province does not now exceed three hundred thousand 
souls *, of whom only about one half seem to pay tri- 
bute. Every head of a family has to pay here two 
thousand five hundred kurdi-n-kassa, or ground-rent, 
and the whole of the kurdi-n-kassa of the province is 
estimated by those best acquainted with the affairs of 
the country at from twenty to thirty millions ; a tax of 
five hundred kurdi is levied also on every slave. The 
military force of the province consists of two thousand 
horsemen, and about eight thousand men on foot, 
most of them archers. f Altogether the province of 
Katsena is one of the finest parts of Negroland, and 
being situated just at the water-parting between the 
basin of the Tsad and that of the Kwara, at a 
general elevation of from 1200 to 1500 feet, it 
enjoys the advantage of being at once well watered 
and well drained, the chains of hills which diversify 
its surface sending down numerous rapid streams, so 
that it is less insalubrious than other regions of this 
* Among the places of which a list is subjoined, certainly not 
less than fifty have about 4000 inhabitants, while about 100,000 
people are distributed amongst the rest and those smaller hamlets 
which have not been named. 
■f For the names of the chief places in the province, see Appen- 
dix II. 
G 2 
