128 
JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
permitted to leave this for Kano, which he promised I should do, 
and pointed out a person whom lie said he would send with me 
as a messenger ; and that a merchant from Koolfu would come 
and agree about the price he was to have for carrying my baggge. 
J thanked him, and took my leave. He is one of the most beggarly 
rogues 1 have yet met with ; every thing he saw or heard that I was 
possessed of he begged, not like a person that wished to have them 
because they were scarce or rare, but with a mean greediness that 
was disgusting. T hough I had given him a better present than 
lie had ever got in his life before, he told me that I said “No, no,” 
to every thing he asked for. He has been the ruin of his country 
by his unnatural ambition, and by calling in the Fellatas, who will 
remove him out of the way the moment he is of no more use to 
them ; even now he dares not move without their permission. It 
is said that he has put to death his brother and two of his sons. 
Through him the greater part of the industrious population of 
Nyffe have either been killed, sold as slaves, or tied from their 
native country. To remove him now would be charity ; and the 
sooner the better for his country. 
At 8. 80 in the morning I left the Sanson, and riding on ahead 
of old Malam Fama, the Morzukie, I halted under a tree at eleven 
to let the horses feed, and the Malam to come up with the sheep. 
At noon, Mahomed having joined, I started with a plundering party 
who were going the same road. They told me they were going to 
seize some villagers who had returned to build up their ruined 
huts and sow a little millet without first praying for leave to the 
Magia. On crossing one of the small rivers and ascending the steep 
and slippery bank, the chief of this band checked his horse, and 
both horse and rider fell souse into the water. He was close be- 
hind me, but I left his companions to pick him up. On the 25th 
we once more reached Tabra. 
I have observed more people with bad teeth and the loss of 
