JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
Ill 
surprise, that my baggage would not be allowed to come until the 
widow Zuma went back to Wawa. “ What have I to do with the 
widow?” I asked him. “ Yes, you have,” says he, “ and you must 
come back with me and fetch her.” “ Not I,” I answered ; “ what 
have I to do with her ? If I were governor of Wawa I would bring 
her back if I wanted her, but I am a stranger.” “ Then,” says he, 
“ I will go if you will send a token and a message, to say I come 
from you.” I gave him my umbrella, but no message, declaring I 
would not send any. The governor’s son went to the widow, and 
I went to Wawa, where I arrived at noon. My trusty servant 
Richard arrived at the same instant from Boussa, where he had 
been to seek me, and acquaint me of the detention of my property : 
his only guide, a boy whose language he did not understand, or any 
other but his own native English. He had seen the sultan and 
midaki, who understood from the little boy who accompanied him 
what he had come for. They treated him with great kindness, 
making him remain all night ; and in the morning sent him with 
two armed men to protect him and to find me, and to desire the 
governor of W awa to allow my things to go instantly : a convincing 
fact that the minds of men here must be much changed for the 
better since the days of Park and Martin. He had left Wawa 
yesterday, to come and inform me of the detention of my baggage, 
and the cause why ; which was the widow Zuma’s having left Wawa 
about half an hour after I did, with drums beating before her, and 
a train after her, first calling at my house before she waited on 
the governor ; giving Pascoe a female slave for a wife, without 
the governor’s permission, which I had allowed him to accept ; 
and the widow’s declaration before she went away, that she in- 
tended following me to Kano, and come back and make war on 
the governor, as she had done once before. 
I was glad to find all my things safe ; and was more amused 
than vexed to think that I had been so oddly let into the politics 
