On The Neck, Even The Horses' Armour Was Notched Or Vandyked, To
Look Like A Mane; On His Forehead And Over His Nose, Was A Brass Or Tin
Plate, As Also A Semi-Circular Piece On Each Side.
The rider was armed
with a large spear and he had to be assisted to mount his horse, as
His
quilted cloak was too heavy; it required two men to lift him on, and
there were six of them belonging to each governor, and six to the Sultan.
I at first thought the foot would take advantage of going under cover of
these unwieldy machines; but no, they went alone as fast as the poor
horses could bear them, which was but a slow pace. They had one musket in
Coonia, and it did wonderful execution, for it brought down the foremost
of the quilted men, who fell from his horse like a sack of corn thrown
from a horse's back at a miller's door, but both horse and man were
brought off by two or three footmen. He had got two balls through his
breast: one went through his body and both sides of the robe, the other
went through and lodged in the quilted armour opposite the shoulders."
Clapperton was desired by the sultan to repair to Sockatoo, where he
found the same house in which he had formerly lodged prepared for his
reception. He resided there six months, harassed by disappointment, and
worn down by severe illness. No farther was this gallant and intrepid
traveller to be permitted to advance; in the midst of his discoveries he
was to be cut down, his dying couch tended by none but his faithful and
kind companion and servant, the depth and fidelity of whose attachment is
attested by the affectionate manner in which he speaks of his master.
The feelings of the natives and of the king seemed to have undergone a
most unfavourable change towards the travellers. The Africans entertained
some vague suspicion, that the King of England, in sending the white men
to their country, had some sinister object in view. A letter had reached
the sultan from Bornou, intimating, that in sending missions to Africa,
the English were acting in the same manner as they had done, in order to
subdue the Indian princes, and even advising that Clapperton should be
put to death. Bello evidently put some faith in this ridiculous
assertion. He seized Clapperton's baggage, under the pretence that he was
conveying arms and warlike stores to the sultan of Bornou, and ordered
Lord Bathurst's letter to that prince to be given up to him. Clapperton's
remonstrances against this unfair treatment were vain; grief preyed upon
his ardent spirit, and though the sultan, some time afterwards began to
treat him more favourably, this returning kindness came too late. He was
attacked with dysentery, brought on by a cold, caught by lying down under
a tree on soft and wet ground, when fatigued and heated with walking.
"Twenty days," says Lander, "my poor master continued in a low and
distressed state.
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