FROM ZEGZEG TO BADAGRY. 
319 
send me a messenger, and I will order a sufficient escort to conduct 
you into the city, in a manner deserving your rank and respecta- 
bility.” I was in the act of obeying this odd mandate, when he 
bawled after me : “ I forgive you this time, Christian, but never be 
so remiss again.” The chief is an eccentric but friendly kind of 
man, and regretted very much my father’s death, which had been 
told him some days before by a merchant. lie had heard the 
Fellatas had behaved very roughly to us, and had robbed us ; but 
asked what business we had at Soccatoo ? I told him we were at 
Kano, on our road to Bornou, when Sultan Bello sent for us, and 
we were obliged in consequence to visit him. He offered to send 
me safely to Bornou, and said he was tributary to the sheik. I 
replied, that Bello had taken the presents intended for him, and 
that I had none left worthy so great a prince, therefore could not 
accept his kind offer. My present to the chief consisted of a 
silk sword-sash, three yards of scarlet and blue damask, the same 
quantity of blue silk, a red cap, two pairs of scissors, and a hundred 
needles. I likewise gave him my old tent, which was full of holes, 
and quite useless. 
Kemained at Khiama five days, during which time the queen’s 
treatment was kind and generous, supplying us every day with ex- 
cellent provisions in great abundance. The day before my departure 
the king gave me a strong pony; and observed that, “ if my king 
wished, at any future period, to send any one to Bornou, he would 
conduct him there by a safe route, without the necessity of going 
through the Fellata country. The king of Khiama is, without 
exception, the finest and handsomest man we had seen in Africa 
(far superior to Bello) ; and, with the exception of the king of 
Yariba, was most respectably dressed. 
14th. — At six in the morning left Khiama, and halted in Subia 
at one at noon. The country traversed is full of bogs, which caused 
the horses to fall repeatedly with their riders. The chief of this 
