As Clapperton Travelled Towards The Camp Of The Conqueror, He Saw Nothing But Ruined Villages, And Plantations Overgrown With Weeds.

"This African camp consisted of a number of huts like beehives, arranged in streets, with men weaving, women spinning,

Markets at every green tree, holy men counting their beads, and dissolute slaves drinking; so that, but for the number of horses and armed men, and the drums beating, it might have been mistaken for a populous village." After journeying along the banks of the Mayyarrow, and passing a walled village called Gonda, they entered Coulfo, which is the most considerable market-town in Nyffe. It is enclosed by a high wall, with a deep and broad ditch beyond it, and contains about 16,000 resident inhabitants. Markets are held daily, and a great variety of articles of native and foreign manufacture are exposed for sale. Traders resort in vast numbers from Bornou and Sockatoo to the north-east, and the sea-coast to the west, with the produce of their respective countries. The inhabitants are professedly Moslems, but are by no means bigoted in their belief. The greater part of the traffic is carried on by the females, many of whom possess great wealth.

Clapperton next passed through several independent states, one of which mustered a force of 1000 cavalry.

He next came to the Fellatah district of Zeg-Zeg, one of the most beautiful and fertile parts of Central Africa. The fields bore luxuriant crops of grain; rich meadows abounded, and groves of tall trees waved upon the hills. Thence he went to Kano, which he found in a state of great commotion, a war having sprung up between the king of Bornou and the Fellatahs. Having left his baggage at this place, he proceeded to the residence of Sultan Bello, with the presents intended for that potentate. He saw bodies of troops on their way to attack Coonia; the soldiers had a peculiar appearance as they passed by the lakes formed by the river Zurmie; he thus describes the scene: - "The borders of these lakes are the resort of numbers of elephants and other wild beasts. The appearance at this season, and at the spot where I saw it, was very beautiful; all the acacia trees were in blossom, some with white flowers, others with yellow, forming a contrast with the small dusky leaves, like gold and silver tassels on a cloak of dark green velvet. I observed some fine large fish leaping in the lake. Some of the troops were bathing, others watering their horses, bullocks, camels and asses: the lake was as smooth as glass, and flowing around the roots of the trees. The sun, on its approach to the horizon, throws the shadows of the flowery acacias along its surface, like sheets of burnished gold and silver. The smoking fires on its banks, the sounding of horns, the beating of their gongs or drums, the braying of their brass and tin trumpets, the rude hut of grass and branches of trees rising as if by magic, everywhere the cries of Mohamed, Abdo, Mustafa, &c. with the neighing of horses, and the braying of asses, gave animation to the beautiful scenery of the lake, and its sloping green and woody banks."

The army, amounting to 50,000 men, under the sultan's command, surrounded the walls of Coonia.

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