RESIDENCE AT SOCCATOO AND MAGARIA. 
203 
Hadji Omar, who was an intelligent man, told me that forty men 
arrived at Sego with the late Mungo Park. That, out of the forty, 
thirty-five had died of sickness, and that five only embarked in the 
canoe given to him by the sultan of Sego. That they were re- 
peatedly attacked by the Tuaricks, of whom they killed a great 
number. Whether any, or how many, of those belonging to the 
canoe were killed, he could not say. The Hadji had just returned 
from Mecca, and wished to go there again, if he could get an op- 
portunity; but, as he said the sultan of Baghermi and his sub- 
jects had been driven into the mountains to the south of that 
kingdom by the Sheik el Kanemi, there was no passing through 
that country, as it was now only inhabited by wandering Arabs, 
who plunder all that fall into their hands, otherwise it was the best 
road to the east from Adamowa, by the way of Baghermi. 
Friday, 10th.— For the two last days I have found myself very 
ill, with an enlargement of the spleen. Soccatoo was built by 
Sheik Othman, usually known by the name of Banfodio, or the 
learned son of Fodio. Fie was a good linguist; and knew most of 
the languages of the interior, which he spoke fluently, and also all 
the dialects of the Arabic. He knew all the learning of the Arabs; 
and, what was of the greatest importance to him, was firmly be- 
lieved to be a prophet ; and the belief continues, getting stronger 
as the Fellatas get stronger. Fie came out of the woods of Ader, 
or Tadela, and settled, and built a town in the province ofGoobur, 
where the Fellatas began to gather around him ; he soon began to 
interfere with the affairs of the sultan of Goobur, saying this was 
proper to be done, and such a thing was improper. This not pleasing 
either the people of Goobur or the sultan, he was ordered out of the 
country, he and his people. This order he did not obey; and the 
people of Goobur rose and drove them out; when he again settled in 
Ader, not in the woods, as formerly, but built a town. F ellatas gather- 
ing round him from all the different countries, he divided them under 
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