128 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
latalis, who, like himself, had never before seen an 
Englishman. He also assured them that they would 
find all they required in his district, just as at Kouka. 
The only thing which seemed to surprise him much, 
was the fact that his visitors wanted neither slaves, 
horses, nor silver, and that the sole proof of his friend¬ 
ship they required was permission to collect flowers and 
plants, and to travel in his country. 
According to Clapperton’s observations, Katagoum 
is situated in lat. 12° 17 ' 11 " N., and about 12° E. long. 
Before the Fellatahs were conquered, it was on the 
borders of the province of Bornou. It can send into the 
field 4000 cavalry, and 2000 foot soldiers, armed with 
bows and arrows, swords and lances. Wheat, and oxen, 
with slaves, are its chief articles of commerce. The 
citadel is the strongest the English had seen, except that 
of Tripoli. Entered by gates which are shut at night, it 
is defended by two parallel walls and three dry moats, 
one inside, one out, and the third between the two walls 
which are twenty feet high, and ten feet wide at the 
base. A ruined mosque is the only other object of 
interest in the town, which consists of mud houses, 
and contains some seven or eight hundred inhabitants. 
There the English for the first time saw cowries used 
as money. Hitherto native cloth had been the sole 
medium of exchange. 
South of Katagoum is the Yacoba country called 
Mouchy by the Mahommedans. According to accounts 
received by Clapperton, the people of Yacoba, which is 
shut in by limestone mountains, are cannibals. The 
Mahommedans, however, who have an intense horror of 
the “ Kaffirs,” give no other proof of this accusation 
than the statement that they have seen human heads 
and limbs hanging against the walls of the houses. 
In Yacoba rises the Yeou, a river which dries up 
completely in the summer ; but, according to the people 
who live on its banks, rises and falls regularly every 
week throughout the rainy season. 
On the 11th of January, the journey was resumed ; 
but a halt had to be made at Murmur at noon of the 
