Lander's Travels eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,054 pages of information about Lander's Travels.

Lander's Travels eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,054 pages of information about Lander's Travels.

A short time afterwards, they landed at Warree, which is the most celebrated market town in the dependency of Engarski, and consists, of several clusters of huts, encircled by a dwarf clay wall.  The market was attended by many thousands of people from different parts of the country.  Vast numbers of canoes, filled with people and goods, were passing from one side of the Niger to the other, and the countenances of both buyers and sellers betrayed a very anxious and business-like expression.  As soon as the curiosity of the Landers was fully satisfied, they crossed over to the Boossa side of the river, and landed at a small walled town called Garnicassa, which was inhabited by the Cumbrie people, and situated about five miles north of Boossa.  At no great distance from this place, and within sight of it, all the branches of the Niger meet, and form a beautiful and magnificent sheet of water, at least seven or eight miles in breadth, and it excited the surprise of the Landers, to know what became of so extraordinary a body of water, for at Boossa, the river is no more than a stone’s throw across, and its depth is in proportion to its narrowness, but about an hour’s walk from thence, it again becomes a noble river, and maintains its width, it was reported, even to Funda.  This singular fact favours the opinion, that a large portion of the waters of the Niger is conveyed by subterraneous passages from the town of Garnicassa to a few miles below Boossa.

The travellers pursued their journey along the banks of the Niger, although the path was filled with water, and broken up by the force of the rains.  After an hour’s ride they drew near to the walls of Boossa, and soon arrived at the drummer’s house, which had been their former residence.  Here they found the midiki on her knees to receive and welcome them back again to Boossa in the name of the king, but they were not permitted to enter and take possession of their old apartments, for the queen conducted them to other huts, which formed part of the cluster inhabited by the Fellatas.  In the evening they were visited by the king, who said, he had been apprehensive that they required a little repose and quietness after their journey, and therefore he did not like to intrude on them before.  They were not long domiciliated in their new dwelling, before they were informed that the drummer’s wife had excited the envy of the queen, by wearing round her neck a smart gilt button, which had been given to her, and that was the only reason why they were not allowed to occupy their former lodgings in her house.  Yet to be even with her fair rival, the queen had extracted from her little sheep-skin box, wherein they had been confined for a quarter of a century, a small number of round and flat golden ornaments, with which she adorned her sable bosom, and thereby totally eclipsed the transitory splendour of the button belonging to the drummer’s wife.

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Lander's Travels from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.