This Was The Last Warlike Expedition Which Major Denham Accompanied; And
While His Zeal For Discovery Is Commendable, Yet He
Seems to have acted
most injudiciously in exposing himself to danger, for the sake of
acquiring a cursory and superficial
Knowledge (all that his opportunities
enabled him to do) of certain parts of the country.
During the time that Major Denham was engaged in these excursions, we
have mentioned that Mr. Clapperton and Dr. Oudney obtained permission to
travel westward into Soudan. At Murmur Dr. Oudney expired. The territory
of the Fellatahs was under better cultivation than any part of Africa
which they had seen. In five weeks they came to Kano, the great emporium
of Houssa, and indeed of Central Africa, which contains about 30,000
stationary inhabitants, in addition to the migratory crowds, who repair
to it with merchandise from the farthest quarters of Africa. The walls
are fifteen miles in circumference, but only a fourth part of this
surface is covered with houses. The list of goods sold in the market is
varied and extensive, comprising clothing of all kinds made from the
cloth of the country, unwrought silk, Moorish and Mameluke dresses,
pieces of Egyptian linen striped with gold, sword-blades from Malta,
antimony and tin, glass and coral beads, ornaments of silver, pewter, and
brass, &c. besides cattle, vegetables, and fruits. But the chief feature
is the slave market, where the unfortunate beings are ranged, according
to their sex, in two long rows. The cowrie, so frequently mentioned in
Park's Travels, is here the chief medium of circulation.
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