wuka'rl 
579 
this part of Africa for their cotton cloth, which is said to 
be of very fine texture, but also very narrow, being only 
the breadth of two fingers. They are said to have a pe- 
culiar kind of cotton called es worzi " by the Arabs, and 
mentioned already by that accurate and princely geographer 
Abu c Obed Allah el Bekri, in 1068, though without naming 
the district of Negroland where the plant grew*, and not 
without some exaggeration. There seems to be a kind of 
coffee indigenous to the country. A great deal of doya, 
or yam, is cultivated ; and ayaba {Musa paradisiaca) seems 
to be the most common tree in the southern provinces. The 
only essential defect under which this nation suffers, besides 
their division into many separate tribes, seems to be the 
despotism of the government, which evidently checks also the 
energy of the people in defending their independence against 
the restless Fulbe, who are constantly gaining ground, and, 
if Her Britannic Majesty's government do not hasten to 
interfere, will in a very short time take possession of this 
kingdom. 
All the handicrafts, as those of blacksmiths, saddlers, &c., 
are under the immediate control of the king, and can be 
exercised only by his own people. He monopolizes the 
foreign trade, none of his subjects having a right to buy. 
The name of the present king is said to be A'nju Zenki. 
His authority, nevertheless, does not now seem to extend, 
in reality, far beyond the walls of Wukari ; and the Hausa 
traders, while they give him the title of " serki-n-guM " 
(lord of the river), call the governor of Chonkoy, or 
Gonkoy, (( serki-n-gero " (lord of the corn, or rather millet), 
intimating that the country-towns are rather in the hands 
of this latter prince. The inhabitants of W ukari, as well 
as of the towns in the interior, are expressly stated to be 
armed only with spears, none but the people near the banks 
of the Benuwe using bows. Small articles are bought and 
* Notices et Extraits, torn. xii. p. 650. 
