JOURNEY FROM KATUNGA TO BOUSSA. 
105 
up the river as they were acquainted with it, and the same below. 
Boussa stands nearest the westernmost branch, which is called by the 
natives the river Menai ; the other two branches have no other name 
than the Quorra. The Menai's stream is slow and sluggish ; those 
of the other two strong, with eddies and whirlpools breaking over 
rocks, which in some places appear above water. Boussa island, 
as I shall call it, is about three miles in length from north to south, 
and a mile and a half in breadth at the broadest part. A ridge of 
rock, composed of gray slate, runs from one end of the island to the 
other, forming a precipice from twenty to thirty feet high on the 
eastern side, and shelving gently down on the west : below this pre- 
cipice extends a beautiful holm or meadow, nearly the whole length 
of the island, and about three hundred yards broad, to the banks of 
the river, where there are several rocky mounds, on which villages 
to the number of four are built. The wall of Boussa is about a 
quarter of a mile from the banks of the Menai, and unites with 
the two extremities of the rocky precipice, where they fall in with 
the banks of the river ; and may be about three quarters of a mile 
or a mile in length. The houses are built in clusters, or forming 
small villages, inside the wall, not occupying above one-tenth of the 
ground enclosed. Outside the walls, on the same island, are several 
villages, with plantations of corn, yams, and cotton. The language 
of the people of Boussa is the same as the other states of Borgoo, 
and appears to be a dialect of the Yourriba: but the Houssa lan- 
guage is understood by all classes, even by the Cambrie. I should 
not think that the whole of the inhabitants living between the 
wall and the river amounted to more than ten or twelve thousand ; 
but I was informed that the state of Boussa was more populous than 
all theother provinces of Borgoo; and that, next to Houssa, the sultan 
of Boussa, from that state alone, could raise more horse than any 
other prince between Houssa and the sea. The inhabitants, with 
a very few exceptions, are pagans, as is the sultan, though his name 
p 
