90 
JOURNEY FROM KATUNGA TO BOUSSA. 
governor to press ray departure, as the taja is rather too slack for 
me. I asked him if he would not send me to Ivoolfu to-morrow, 
as he saw now that the rains were close at hand. “ Oh,” says he, 
“ they will not set in these two months, yet it is always thus before 
the rains.” I told him that no one knew the seasons better than 
I did ; and that, if I travelled as slow as I had done of late, I 
would be caught by the rains in Houssa, and I might as well have 
a sword run into my breast. He said he would send for the taja 
to-night, and give me into his charge. I said, I mut go to Boussa, 
and make a present to the sultan ; that if I did not, he would say, 
a white man has passed through my country without paying his 
respects to me, or bringing a present : it would be going out of 
the country like a thief, not like the messenger of the king of 
England. “ Very well,” says he, “ I will despatch a messenger with 
you to request he will not detain you. You must send all your 
things up to my house ; I will give them and your servants in 
charge of the taja, and all will go well ; my messenger shall ac-- 
company them to Koolfu” — (sometimes pronounced Ivoolfie and 
Koolfa). He then began asking me if Englishmen would come 
into the country. “Yes,” says I, “if you use them as well as you 
have done me : there is now a doctor on his way to join me from 
Dahomey.” He said he would be very glad to see him, and would 
forward him on to me. I asked him if this country or Borgoo 
owed any allegiance to Yourriba : he said, none ; and laughed at 
the idea. He said he owed allegiance to Boussa, as Iviama, Niki, 
and Youri did ; that he was separated from Iviama by the brook I 
halted at the second day I left that place, and that the province of 
Wawa extended as far south as Bakali ; that Kiama owed no alle- 
giance to Yourriba, but was a province of Borgoo, subject to the 
sultan of Borgoo, who was the head of all : he added, the sultan of 
Boussa could take Yourriba whenever he chose, but, says he, the 
Fellatas will take it now. I asked him if he thought the sultan 
