AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 131 
to see a town of vast extent. The houses were a quarter 
of a mile from the walls, and stood here and there in 
little groups, separated by large pools of stagnant water. 
“ I might have dispensed with the care I had bestowed 
on my dress ” (he had donned his naval uniform), for the 
inhabitants, absorbed in their own affairs, let me pass 
without remark, and never so much as looked at me.” 
Kano, the capital of the province of that name, and 
one of the chief towns of the Soudan, is situated in 
N. lat. 12° O' 19", and E. long. 9° 20'. It contains 
between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, of whom 
the greater number are slaves. 
The market, bounded on the east and west by vast 
reedy swamps, is the haunt of numerous flocks of ducks, 
storks, and vultures, which act as scavengers to the town. 
K 2 
