The Trade At Sockatoo Is At Present Inconsiderable, Owing To The Disturbed State Of The Surrounding Country.

The necessaries of life are very cheap, butchers' meat is in great plenty and very good. The exports are

Principally civet, and blue check tobes called sharie, which are manufactured by the slaves from Nyffee, of whom the men are considered the most expert weavers in Soudan, and the women the best spinners. The common imports are goora nuts, brought from the borders of Ashantee, and coarse calico and woollen cloth in small quantities, with brass and pewter dishes, and some few spices from Nyffee.

The Arabs from Tripoli and Ghadamis bring unwrought silk, attar of roses, spices and beads; slaves are both exported and imported. A great quantity of guinea coin is taken every year by the Tuaricks, in exchange for salt. The market is extremely well supplied, and is held daily from sunrise to sunset.

After encountering several difficulties, and experiencing some very hair-breadth escapes, Clapperton arrived at Zirmee the capital of Zamfra, a kind of outlawed city, the inhabitants of which are esteemed the greatest rogues in Houssa, and where all the runaway slaves find protection. He passed also through Kashna or Cassina, the metropolis of a kingdom, which, till the rise of the Fellata power, ruled over all Africa from Bornou to the Niger. In its present subject and fallen state, the inhabited part does not cover a tenth of the wide circuit enclosed by its walls, yet a considerable trade is still carried on with the Tuaricks, or with caravans coming across the desert by the route of Ghadamis and Suat. Here Clapperton met with much kindness from Hadgi Ahmet, a powerful and wealthy Arab chief, who even took him into his seraglio, and desired him, out of fifty black damsels to make his choice, a complaisance, nothing resembling which had ever before been shown by a Mussulman. The Arab was so importunate, and appeared so determined that Clapperton should have one of his ladies, that to satisfy him, he at length selected the oldest of the groupe, who made him an excellent nurse in his illness.

Lieutenant Clapperton rejoined Major Denham at Kouka, whence they set out, and crossed the desert in the latter part of 1824. They reached Tripoli in January 1825, and soon after embarked for Leghorn, but being detained by contrary winds and quarantine regulations, did not reach London until the following June.

CHAPTER XXV.

Having now completed our preparatory analysis of the principal travels for the exploration of the interior of Africa, we proceed to enter upon those in which Richard Lander was remotely or closely connected, as the coadjutor or the principal, and to whose perseverance and undaunted courage, we are indebted for some of the most important information respecting the interior of Africa, particularly in the solution of the great geographical problem of the termination of the Niger. At the time when Lander was ransomed by Captain Laing, of the Maria of London, belonging to Messrs.

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