186 
FROM KANO TO SOCCATOO. 
imagined; horse and foot intermingling in the greatest confusion, 
all rushing to get forward ; sometimes the followers of one chief 
tumbling amongst those of another, when swords were half un- 
sheathed, but all ended in making a face, or putting on a threaten- 
ing aspect. We soon arrived before Coonia, the capital of the 
rebels of Goobur, which was not above half a mile in diameter, 
being nearly circular, and built on the bank of one of the branches of 
the river, or lakes, which 1 have mentioned. Each chief, as he came 
up, took his station, which, I suppose, had previously been assigned 
to him. The number of fighting men brought before the town 
could not, I think, be less than fifty or sixty thousand, horse and 
foot, of which the foot amounted to more than nine-tenths. For 
the depth of two hundred yards, all round the walls was a dense 
circle of men and horses. The horse kept out of bow-shot, while 
the foot went up as they felt courage or inclination, and kept up 
a straggling fire with about thirty muskets, and the shooting 
of arrows. In front of the sultan, the Zegzeg troops had one 
French fusil: the Kano forces had forty-one muskets. These 
fellows, whenever they fired their pieces, ran out of bow-shot to 
load ; all of them were slaves ; not a single F ellata had a musket. The 
enemy kept up a sure and slow fight, seldom throwing away their 
arrows until they saw an opportunity of letting fly with effect. Now 
and then a single horse would gallop up to the ditch, and brandish 
his spear, the rider taking care to cover himself with his large 
leathern shield, and return as fast as he went, generally calling out 
lustily, when he got among his own party, “ Shields to the wall ! ” 
“ You people of the Gadado, or Atego,” See., “ why don’t you 
hasten to the wall ?” To which some voices would call out, “ Oh ! 
you have a good large shield to cover you ! ” The cry of “ Shields 
to the wall” was constantly heard from the several chiefs to their 
troops ; but they disregarded the call, and neither chiefs nor vassals 
moved from the spot. At length the men in quilted armour went 
