02 
REPORTS FROM THE NIGER EXPEDITION. [Jan. 11, 1858. 
cuous and isolated conical mountain of Sobi, is an independent 
town, and the stronghold of Mohammedanism in the Yoruba 
country. At 10 p.m. I was admitted to a private interview with 
the Balogon, — my attendant interpreter, Aslmo Zaki’s messenger, 
he, and myself alone being present, and the piazza kept quite dark, 
excepting a dull light thrown only on the mat on which I sat. I 
fully explained my objects, wishes, and intentions, as instructed by 
Dr. Baikie. My reception was everything I could have wished, and 
I was to be presented to the king on the next day. The following 
day was one of vexatious delay to me ; the king was too busy to 
see me ; and, until a stranger has seen him, he is a prisoner, not 
being permitted to go beyond the premises allotted to him. 
On the 6th I was received by the king, chiefs, and head men, 
with much formality. The king himself I never saw : a moving 
mass of silk and satin on similar cushions, at a hole in the wall, 
nearer to which than several yards I was not allowed to approach, 
was nevertheless him. As it had been hinted to me that the pre- 
sents were paltry, I took this opportunity of explaining the circum- 
stances of our inability to offer more suitable ones. About five 
months previous to my visit a party of three American missionaries 
had visited florin, only one of whom saw the king, and no permis- 
sion could be obtained to proceed beyond into Null. The king told 
me of this visit, and, on asking me if they were friends of mine, I 
took the opportunity of more fully introducing myself as a mes- 
senger from the British Government, sent to assure Africans of our 
desire to know and befriend them, to supply them with those things 
which we possess and which they so much covet, of our need of 
those things which their country so plentifully produces, pointed 
out our abhorrence of slavery, and to the utmost of my ability 
dilated upon those matters which I conceived our duty as English- 
men and Christians points out to us, and which are quite in accord- 
ance with the wishes of your Lordship and Her Majesty’s Govern- 
ment in creating this expedition. The king made me a present of 
a sheep and several thousand cowries, and, after repeated expres- 
sions of satisfaction at my visit, my objects, my explanations, &c., 
the ceremonious and public interview ended. 
I was now at liberty to move about the town, but my anxiety to 
forward arrangements for my departure prevented me entirely 
availing myself of it. The population of these large towns in 
Yoruba is by no means to be estimated from the extent of ground 
on which they stand ; they are invariably walled and ditched, and 
within, though clusters of compounds or series of dwellings are 
numerous, much the most considerable space is occupied by isolated 
ones, situated in plots about as extensive as one of the smaller 
