JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
125 
his present sickness, will try any remedy, whatever may be the 
after consequences : this was my case, and I lay until six, when 
I rose much better of my sickness, but with severe pains in the 
bones. A short while after starting, I crossed over the wall 
of a ruined town called Jinne, or Janne, through plantations of 
indigo and cotton, choked up with weeds. The morning was raw 
and cloudy. A few of the ragged inhabitants were up ; two or 
three of the most miserable starved horses I ever saw were tied to 
stakes close to the few huts that were rebuilt, their backs dread- 
fully lacerated, the skin being nearly off from the shoulder to the 
rump, and their eyes running with matter. Only for the verdure 
of the trees at this season, and a beautiful stream of clear water, 
whose banks were planted with plantain and palm-oil trees, this 
would have been one of the most miserable scenes I ever saw in 
my life. After passing the stream twice, without bridges, whose 
banks were very steep and slippery, with several deep round holes, 
as man traps, on each side the road, I ascended the plain above, 
from whence I saw the ruins of several other towns and villages 
along the banks of the ravine. At eight passed the ruins of 
another town ; and at nine I met, attended by a great rabble, 
armed with pickaxes, hoes, and hatchets, Mohamed El Magia, or 
the would-be king, mounted on horseback, and halted under a tree. 
When they told me there was the Magia waiting to receive me, I 
rode up and shook hands with him. He asked me after my health, 
and how 1 had fared on the road, and then told the eunuch who 
was with me to take me to his house ; he then rode past, as I was 
informed, to complete the ruin of the last, as I thought already 
ruined, town I had passed through. He was mounted on a good 
bay horse, whose saddle was ornamented with pieces of silver and 
brass ; the breastpiece with large silver plates hanging down from 
it, like what is represented in the prints of Roman and eastern 
emperors’ horses. He is a tall man, with a sort of stupid expres- 
